Is there a difference between a feature spec and system spec? Both seem to use Capybara to test the full application yet they have different docs on RSpec.
System specs are built on top of Rails own system tests while feature specs were implemented by RSpec before Rails had system tests. If you're starting a new project write system specs, but if you have existing feature specs there's really nothing to be gained currently by changing them to system specs since functionality wise they're basically identical.
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I have a concept problem, I am working on a rails project & as per my knowledge both the test & spec are used for tests. Where test refers to unit testing & spec refers to integration testing. But I want to have to have full idea about those two folders & if they both refers to test then what is the major difference between them?
Rails default testing framework gives you test folder for you rails default testing framework, if you want to use RSpec testing framework, which gives you folder called 'spec' RSPEC, it is your wish to select which option, RSPEC specs are more readable, people use both ways.
I want to write acceptance testing through cucumber and capybara. i have experience with rspec. I want to write integration/features test cases . I want outcome to be seen on a web browser which shows the test case running. what are the gems required for writing test cases .
If you are already familiar with RSpec, I recommend you to use RSpec with Capybara for acceptance testing. RSpec is testing framework, and Capybara is a library that helps you to test web applications by simulating how a real user would interact with your app.
Acceptance tests in RSpec with Capybara are called "feature specs" and live in /spec/features directory in Rails. Capybara comes with a built in DSL for writing descriptive acceptance tests with RSpec (feature/scenario), but you may also use traditional RSpec DSL (describe/it).
Capybara supports several drivers, and its default driver RackTest doesn't support JavaScript. So, probably, you'll want to use one of the alternative drivers (I prefer Poltergeist, but it is headless, so if you want to see result in the browser, you may use Selenium driver). In this case, you'll need to set up database_cleaner to clear your database between tests. Capybara's README contains a lot of information about its configuration and usage with RSpec, configuring driver and using database_cleaner.
You can start with this and this screencasts. But remember, that they are a little bit outdated and use traditional RSpec DSL (instead of new Capybara DSL), and use old convention, when "feature" specs were called "request" specs. Currently, by convention, "request" specs, are integration tests without capybara. So you'll need to create your capybara specs in spec/features directory, not spec/requests. And if you want to use Capybara DSL, this is easy to fix too. Just replace describe with feature, it with scenario, let with given etc. It is well documented in Capybara's README.
Hope this helps.
In my Rails 4 app, I'm using Rspec for testing. My directory structure is
spec
-- controllers
-- factories
-- features
-- spec_helper.rb
-- support
When I run rspec spec, it runs my tests in controllers, but not in features. I can specify rspec spec/features and they'll run, but I want to be able to run all tests under spec at once. My guess is it's not looking in features because of a configuration setting, but I don't know where this is.
I've tried different incantations of starting rspec but haven't had any luck.
Based on your feedback to the comments above, the issue is one of file naming. I've definitely been burned by that before too. By default Rspec will go through the files looking for ones ending with _spec.rb, this default behaviour is overridden if you specify the folder manually.
I have a good understanding of the differences between unit and intergration tests in RoR in theory. I'm using rspec and capybara to do a lot of testing on my site. What I don't understand is how do you run different tests? If I do
bundle exec rspec
it will run all of my specs in all of my spec folders (model, controller, views, integration, etc). If I want to run an integration test, is it as simple as ?
bundle exec rspec spec/integration
I know there are some differences between these types of test behind the scenes. Specifically this problem (which I also have) has me thinking about unit vs. integration: How to test for a redirect with Rspec and Capybara
What does Rails do differently when running integration tests? The solution posted in the above problem is
Checking for redirect is not supported in rspec-rails request specs,
but is supported in Rails integration tests.
So how do I make one of my tests an integration test? Is it just a matter of putting it in the right spec folder?
As I understand it rspec is designed specifically for unit testing purposes, thus you'll need to use something else for integration testing. The message seems it imply that Rails can do integration tests as well. I don't have any experience or knowledge of testing in rails alone, but I do know of the cucumber gem that is built very well for integration tests.
It has it's own domain specific language and other quirks you'll need to get used to but it should have the capability you're looking for.
In this video from GoGaRuCo 2011, Corey Haines shows some techniques for making Rails test suites much faster. I would summarize it as follows:
Put as much of your code as possible outside the Rails app, into other modules and classes
Test those separately, without the overhead of loading up Rails
Use them from within your Rails app
There were a couple of things I didn't understand, though.
He alternates between running tests with rspec and spn or spna (for example, at about 3:50). Is spn a commonly-known tool?
In his tests for non-Rails classes and modules, he includes the module or class being tested, but I don't see him including anything like spec_helper. How does he have Rspec available?
Sorry about the confusion. spn and spna are aliases I have that add my non-rails code to rspec's load path. There isn't anything special about them, other than adding a -I path_to_code on the command-line.
These days, I add something like this to my .rspec file:
-I app/mercury_app
Then I can do simple require 'object_name' at the top of my specs.
As for not including spec_helper: that is true, I don't. When you execute your spec file with rspec <path_to_spec_file>, it gets interpreted, so you don't need to require rspec explicitly.
For my db specs these days, I also have built an active_record_spec_helper which requires active_record, establishes a connection to the test database, and sets up database_cleaner; this allows me to simply require my model at the top of my spec file. This way, I can test the AR code against the db without having to load up my whole app.
A client I am working at where we are using these techniques is interested in supporting some blog posts about this, so hopefully they will start coming out towards the middle of June.