Example of how Machinist handles model associations

gistfile1.rb

# Let's say we have some really simple models for a blog. (I'm using
# DataMapper here, but Machinist works exactly the same way with ActiveRecord.)

  class Person
    include DataMapper::Resource
    property :id,   Serial
    property :name, String
  end

  class Post
    include DataMapper::Resource
    property :id,        Serial
    property :author_id, Integer
    property :body,      String

    belongs_to :author, :class_name => "Person", :child_key => [:author_id]
    has n, :comments
  end

  class Comment
    include DataMapper::Resource
    property :id,      Serial
    property :post_id, Integer
    property :body,    String

    belongs_to :post
  end

# I can define Machinist blueprints for these like this:

  Person.blueprint do
    name "Fred"   # In real life I'd use Sham to generate the attribute values.
                  # See the Machinist README for details!
  end

  Post.blueprint do
    author        # This tells Machinist to make an author for the post.
    body "A post"
  end

  Comment.blueprint do
    post          # This tells Machinist to make a post for the comment.
    body "A comment"
  end

# Then in my tests I can call:

  comment = Comment.make

# Machinist will introspect on the associations and create a Comment, a Post,
# and a Person, and set up all the relationships properly.
#
# Let's see Factory Girl do that! ;)
#
# Machinist lives at: http://github.com/notahat/machinist