Rails Spec setup checklist, helper and support files

a_rails_rspec_checklist\README.md

Rails RSpec Checklist

• Ensure turbolinks is disabled for good measure

  • comment out gem
  • remove from javascript asset pipeline
  • remove from application layout

• Add the following gems to Gemfile in a development, test group

  • hirb
  • rspec-rails
  • guard
  • guard-rspec
  • factory_bot_rails
  • database_cleaner
  • capybara (Included with Rails 6)
  • launchy
  • selenium-webdriver (Included with Rails 6)

• Run the necessary initializers with bundle, guard, and rspec

  • $ bundle exec guard init
  • $ rails g rspec:install

• In the Guardfile comment out the following lines

  • watch(rspec.spec_helper) { rspec.spec_dir }
    • Ignore when spec_helper is saved
  • watch(rspec.spec_support) { rspec.spec_dir }
    • Ignore when a support file is saved

• Prepare test database with $ rake db:test:prepare

• Ensure you have a spec/ folder in root directory

• Ensure you have a spec_helper.rb and rails_helper.rb in the spec/ folder

• Create a spec/factories/ folder

  • Add any model factories in model_factory.rb files
  • Be sure to use sequences for factories that will have multiple instances
  • Be sure to include associations

• Create a spec/support/ folder

  • Add database_cleaner.rb to support for database_cleaner

• Create a spec/support/macros folder

• See rails_helper.rb for relevant changes to rails_helper.rb

  • Under the line that says
    • # Add additional requires below this line. Rails is not loaded until this point!
    • Require capybara
    • Require the spec/support folder recursively in rails_helper.rb
  • Inside the config block
    • Include FactoryGirl methods into RSpec
    • Disable fixtures

• Any helpers for Capybara should go in a appropriately named spec/support/marcos file and be name spaced under a module called Macros

  • See the example here in global.rb

• A spec/support/controller_helper.rb and spec/support/view_helper.rb can be used for shared controller and view helper methods

  • See controller_helper.rb and view_helper.rb here

• Capybara macros and other helper modules from spec/support should be included like

• FactoryGirl in the rails_helper when they are to be available globally

• For the view_helper.rb module it should be used as shown in the index_spec.rb https://gist.github.com/BideoWego/973df3cf566b99513da8 where the view object extends the module

  • This includes the module methods on the view object in the current spec and allows it to access the methods as expected in normal rails application flow

• Create the following folders

  • spec/controllers/
  • spec/features/
  • spec/models/
  • spec/views/

• Any spec that requires javascript should use the format shown in secret_spec.rb

  • This will use the selenium-webdriver with capybara to launch FireFox and perform the spec live
  • NOTE the use of page.driver.browser.switch_to.alert.accept to accept the alert box

• As a final note, be aware than if you ever run ALL tests with the rspec command, FactoryGirl will increment sequences from the first test all the way to the last test.

  • This means it is possible for the number value to effect tests differently based on where they fall into the overall test suite
  • For example: if there is a validation on length of a string and the test is run after many many tests, the incremented value might be 1000 instead of 10
  • This could cause unexpected validation errors because the extra few chars pushed the otherwise valid string over the maximum
  • JUST BE AWARE OF THIS!!!!

• While testing use $ tail -f log/test.log to view the server output from tests

Done!

Happy testing!

controller_helper.rb

# spec/support/controller_helper.rb

module ControllerHelper
  def login(user)
    session[:user_id] = user.id
  end

  def logout
    session.delete(:user_id)
  end

  def current_user
    User.find(session[:user_id]) if User.exists?(session[:user_id]) && session[:user_id]
  end

  def signed_in_user?
    !!current_user
  end
end

database_cleaner.rb

# spec/support/database_cleaner.rb

# From blog post
# http://devblog.avdi.org/2012/08/31/configuring-database_cleaner-with-rails-rspec-capybara-and-selenium/

RSpec.configure do |config|

  config.before(:suite) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
  end

  config.before(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
  end

  config.before(:each, :js => true) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
  end

  config.before(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.start
  end

  config.after(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end

end

global.rb

# spec/support/macros/global.rb

module Macros
  module Global
    def submit_form
      find('input[name="commit"]').click
    end
  end
end

index_spec.rb

# spec/views/index_spec.rb

require 'rails_helper'

describe 'secrets/index.html.erb' do
  let(:user){create(:user)}
  let(:users){[user, create(:user)]}
  let(:secrets){[create(:secret, :author => user), create(:secret)]}

  before do
    view.extend(ViewHelper)
    assign(:users, users)
    assign(:secrets, secrets)
  end

  context 'the user is logged in' do
    it 'shows the author of all secrets' do
      login(user)
      render
      expect(rendered).to_not have_content(hidden_text)
    end
  end

  context 'the user is logged out' do
    it 'does not show any author of any secrets' do
      render
      expect(rendered).to have_content(hidden_text)
    end
  end
end

rails_helper.rb

# This file is copied to spec/ when you run 'rails generate rspec:install'
ENV['RAILS_ENV'] ||= 'test'
require File.expand_path('../../config/environment', __FILE__)
# Prevent database truncation if the environment is production
abort("The Rails environment is running in production mode!") if Rails.env.production?
require 'spec_helper'
require 'rspec/rails'
# Add additional requires below this line. Rails is not loaded until this point!

# ------------------------------------
# My Requires
# ------------------------------------
require 'capybara/rails'
require 'factory_girl_rails'
require 'database_cleaner'

# Requires supporting ruby files with custom matchers and macros, etc, in
# spec/support/ and its subdirectories. Files matching `spec/**/*_spec.rb` are
# run as spec files by default. This means that files in spec/support that end
# in _spec.rb will both be required and run as specs, causing the specs to be
# run twice. It is recommended that you do not name files matching this glob to
# end with _spec.rb. You can configure this pattern with the --pattern
# option on the command line or in ~/.rspec, .rspec or `.rspec-local`.
#
# The following line is provided for convenience purposes. It has the downside
# of increasing the boot-up time by auto-requiring all files in the support
# directory. Alternatively, in the individual `*_spec.rb` files, manually
# require only the support files necessary.
#
Dir[Rails.root.join('spec/support/**/*.rb')].each { |f| require f }

# Checks for pending migration and applies them before tests are run.
# If you are not using ActiveRecord, you can remove this line.
ActiveRecord::Migration.maintain_test_schema!

RSpec.configure do |config|

  # ------------------------------------
  # My Config
  # ------------------------------------
  config.include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods

  config.include Macros::Post
  config.include Macros::Session
  config.include Macros::Search
  config.include Macros::User
  
  config.include ControllerHelper

  config.after(:all) do
    if Rails.env.test?
      FileUtils.rm_rf(Dir["#{Rails.root}/public/system/test"])
    end
  end


  # Remove this line if you're not using ActiveRecord or ActiveRecord fixtures
  # config.fixture_path = "#{::Rails.root}/spec/fixtures"

  # If you're not using ActiveRecord, or you'd prefer not to run each of your
  # examples within a transaction, remove the following line or assign false
  # instead of true.
  config.use_transactional_fixtures = false

  # RSpec Rails can automatically mix in different behaviours to your tests
  # based on their file location, for example enabling you to call `get` and
  # `post` in specs under `spec/controllers`.
  #
  # You can disable this behaviour by removing the line below, and instead
  # explicitly tag your specs with their type, e.g.:
  #
  #     RSpec.describe UsersController, :type => :controller do
  #       # ...
  #     end
  #
  # The different available types are documented in the features, such as in
  # https://relishapp.com/rspec/rspec-rails/docs
  config.infer_spec_type_from_file_location!

  # Filter lines from Rails gems in backtraces.
  config.filter_rails_from_backtrace!
  # arbitrary gems may also be filtered via:
  # config.filter_gems_from_backtrace("gem name")
end

secrets_spec.rb

# spec/features/secret_spec.rb

require 'rails_helper'

feature 'Secrets' do
  let!(:user){create(:user)}
  let!(:secrets){create_list(:secret, 5, :author => user)}
  let!(:user_one){create(:user, :name => 'User One', :email => 'user@one.com')}
  let!(:user_two){create(:user, :name => 'User Two', :email => 'user@two.com')}
  let!(:secrets_user_one){create_list(:secret, 5, :author => user_one)}
  let!(:secrets_user_two){create_list(:secret, 5, :author => user_two)}

  # ----------------------------------------
  # Delete Secret
  # ----------------------------------------
  feature 'deletion' do
    context 'when the user is logged in' do
      before do
        visit new_session_path
        sign_in(user)
        visit secrets_path
      end

      after do
        visit logout_path
      end

      scenario 'is enabled on current user secrets', :js => true do
        link = find('a', :text => 'Destroy', :match => :first)
        link.click
        page.driver.browser.switch_to.alert.accept
        expect(page).to have_content(success_text_for('Secret', 'destroy'))
      end

      scenario 'redirects to secrets listing upon deletion', :js => true do
        link = find('a', :text => 'Destroy', :match => :first)
        link.click
        page.driver.browser.switch_to.alert.accept
        expect(page).to have_content('Listing secrets')
      end
    end

  end
end

view_helper.rb

# spec/support/view_helper.rb

module ViewHelper
  include ControllerHelper
end