Table of contents
What is Rspec?
RSpec is a Behaviour-Driven Development tool for Ruby programmers. BDD
is an approach to software development that combines Test-Driven Development, Domain Driven Design, and Acceptance Test-Driven Planning.
How to install Rspec on your RoR applications?
You have to add rspec-rails
to both the :development
and :test
groups in the Gemfile.
group :develop, :test do
gem 'rspec-rails'
end
You can download and install it by running the line below.
$ bundle install
To initialize spec/
directory(where specs will reside), You can do so by running the command below.
$ rails g rspec:install
This will add the following files which are used for configuration.
.rspec
spec/spec_helper.rb
-
spec/rails_helper.rb
You can run your specs (execute spec files) by running rspec
command.
$ bundle exec rspec
By default, the command above will run all _spec.rb
files in the spec directory.
You can run only a subset of these specs by specifying the file path like the example below.
# Run only model specs
$ bundle exec rspec spec/models
# Run only specs for PostController
$ bundle exec rspec spec/controllers/posts_controller_spec.rb
#Run only spec on line 8 of PostController
$ bundle exec rspec spec/controllers/posts_controller_spec.rb:8
If you want to use classes that are defined in your application, don't forget to add require 'rails_helper'
to each file.
require 'rails_helper'
describe 'Post' do
it 'tests type matchers' do
ins = Post.create(title: 'title', content: 'content')
end
end
Basic Structure
To show the basic structure of Rspec with real examples, I created a simple CRUD RoR application with scaffold
command. You can create the same application by running the code below.
$ rails g scaffold Post title:string content:text
Describe
The word describe
is used to define an example group
which is the Rspec way of saying a collection of tests. describe
takes a class name and/or string argument. You can define an example group
like the code below.
describe Post do
#tests
end
It
The word it
is another RSpec keyword which is used to define an example
. An example is basically a test or a test case. You can define an example
like the code below.
describe Post do
it 'test case' do
#test content
end
end
Expect & to/not_to
The expect
keyword is used to define an expectation
in Rspec. The to
keyword is also used as part of expect
statements. You can also use not_to
keyword when you want the expectation to be false.
describe 'Post' do
it 'test case' do
value = 1
expect(value).to eq(1)
end
end
The eq
keyword is one of Rspec matchers . Each matcher can be used with expect(..).to
or expect(..).not_to
to define positive and negative expectations respectively on an object.
Context
The context
keyword is just an alias method of describe
that means there is no functional difference between these two methods. However, there is a contextual difference that makes your tests more understandable by using both of them.
Generally speaking, describe
is used to separate sets of tests based on methods or behavior that is being tested, whereas context
is used to separate specs based on conditions.
describe 'Post' do
context 'name == Jim' do
#tests
end
context 'name == John' do
#tests
end
end
Matchers
We used a matcher eq
in the above example. Here, I will introduce other types of matchers.
Equality matchers
Rspec has several different methods for handling equality.
require 'rails_helper'
describe 'Post' do
it 'tests equality matchers' do
a = 'value'
b = 'value'
expect(a).not_to equal(b) # object identity - a and b refer to the same object
expect(a).to eql(b) # object equivalence - a and b have the same value
expect(a).to be == b # object equivalence - a and b have the same value with type conversions
end
end
Comparison matchers
RSpec provides a number of matchers that are based on Ruby's built-in operators. These can be used for generalized comparison of values. I'll introduce some of many matchers that I frequently use. For further information regarding this topic, check Relish.
require 'rails_helper'
describe 'Post' do
it 'tests comparison matchers' do
a = 1
b = 2
expect(a).to be > 0
expect(a).to be < b
expect(a).to be >= 0
expect(a).to be <= b
expect(a).to be == 1
end
end
Predicate matchers
Ruby objects commonly provide predicate methods like zero?
, empty?
and has_key?
. You can use those methods in Rspec by Simply prefixing the method with be_
and remove the question mark.
require 'rails_helper'
describe 'Post' do
it 'tests predicate matchers' do
a = 1
arry = []
hash = { key: 'value' }
expect(a).not_to be_zero
expect(arry).to be_empty
expect(hash).to have_key(:key)
end
end
Type matchers
You can test the type or class of objects in Rspec by using be_kind_of()
, be_instance_of()
.
require 'rails_helper'
describe 'Post' do
it 'tests type matchers' do
str = 'string'
ins = Post.create(title: 'title', content: 'content')
expect(str).to be_kind_of(String) # same as expect(obj).to be_kind_of(type)
expect(str).to be_a_kind_of(String) # same as expect(obj).to be_kind_of(type)
expect(str).to be_a(String) # same as expect(obj).to be_kind_of(type)
expect(str).to be_an(String) # same as expect(obj).to be_kind_of(type)
expect(ins).to be_instance_of(Post)
expect(ins).to be_an_instance_of(Post) # same as expect(obj).to be_instance_of(type)
end
end
Be matchers
There are several related be matchers
.
require 'rails_helper'
describe 'Post' do
it 'tests be matchers' do
obj1 = true
obj2 = false
obj3 = nil
expect(obj1).to be_truthy
expect(obj1).to be #It is the same as be_truthy
expect(obj2).to be_falsey
expect(obj3).to be_nil
end
end
Include matchers
You can use the include matcher
to specify that a collection includes one or more expected objects.
require 'rails_helper'
describe 'Post' do
it 'tests include matchers' do
str = 'String'
arr = [0,1,2]
expect(str).to include('S')
expect(str).to include('St', 'r')
expect(str).not_to include('A')
expect(arr).to include(0)
expect(arr).to include(0, 1)
expect(arr).not_to include(9)
expect(arr).to include(be_odd.and be < 10)
expect(arr).to include(a_kind_of(Integer))
end
end
Expect error
Use the raise_error
matcher to specify that a block of code raises an error.
describe 'Post' do
it 'tests errors' do
expect { raise "boom" }.to raise_error
expect { raise "boom" }.to raise_error(RuntimeError)
expect { raise "boom" }.to raise_error("boom")
expect { raise "boom" }.to raise_error(/boom/)
expect { raise "boom" }.to raise_error(RuntimeError, "boom")
end
end
Respond_to matchers
Use the respond_to
matcher to specify details of an object's interface.
describe 'Post' do
it 'tests respond_to matchers' do
str = 'String'
expect(str).to respond_to(:split)
expect(str).to respond_to(:to_i, :to_sym)
end
end
More matchers are listed on Relish.
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