Rspec and database_cleaner only remove the data added by the tests - ruby-on-rails

I want to be able to always have access to my seed data on my test database.
I understand database_cleaner will remove everything if it's set up that way.
I try to remove everything and then reloading the seed, but when I try to use js: true on a test, the seed never gets loaded so i get errors saying data does not exist.
My spec_helper.rb
RSpec.configure do |config|
# before the entire test suite runs, clear the test database out completely
config.before(:suite) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
end
# sets the default database cleaning strategy to be transactions (very fast)
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
end
# For these types of tests, transactions won’t work. We must use truncation
config.before(:each, js: true) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
end
# hook up database_cleaner around the beginning and end of each test, telling it to execute whatever cleanup strategy we selected beforehand.
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.start
end
config.after(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
# reload the seed so we have data to play with
end
config.before :all do
Rails.application.load_seed
end
end
When in my view_spec I have something like this
require 'spec_helper'
describe 'my/path', type: :view do
before do
#user = create(:user)
#user.permissions << Permission.first
login_as(#user)
visit my_path
end
it 'should have a valid user, just for kicks' do
#user.should be_valid
end
it 'should be in the path i said' do
expect(current_path).to eq(my_path)
end
describe 'click submit button', js: true do
it 'should take me to a different path' do
click_link('button_1')
expect(current_path).to eq(my_new_path)
end
end
end
The first two test will run and be ok with creating that user, but as soon as it hits that last test with js: true, it no longer has Permission in the database.
Is there a way to tell database_cleaner to only delete the data added by rspec? and not the seed?
Or maybe even tell it to not delete certain tables?
Any help would be appreciated.

Try to use :truncation for all tests with:
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
RSpec.configure do |config|
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
Rails.application.load_seed
end
end
There also may be an issue with your seeds and not with DatabaseCleaner. You should debug your database state right in the failing test using puts statements or debugger (e.g. pry-byebug).

Related

Rails: How do I ensure that the db reverts to its original state after tests?

I'm trying to write a test that involves creating a new user. However, the test fails all but the first time because the user remains permanently in the db after the initial run.
require 'test_helper'
require 'minitest/autorun'
describe UserMailer < ActionMailer::TestCase do
it 'will send an email when a new user is created' do
original_mail_count = ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.count
User.create(email: "new_user#test.com", password: "password").save
ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.count.must_equal original_mail_count + 1
end
end
How do I ensure that the db returns to its pre-test state after the test is run?
Use database_cleaner gem
Example usage:
# spec_helper.rb
RSpec.configure do |config|
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
DatabaseCleaner.start
end
config.after(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
end

Flaky tests with DatabaseCleaner and transactions. How to debug?

I have a feature/integration spec that runs through an entire user flow. By the end of that user flow, a page in the app will display a few records from my Postgres database. When I run the test by itself, it passes. I can see it saving correctly through the various steps since the selenium driver opens up firefox: Capybara.current_driver = :selenium. However, this spec fails regularly, almost predictably, when it is run after a bunch of controller specs. In those controller specs the only interesting thing that I am doing is running this login function:
module DeviseMacros
def login_user
before(:each) do
#request.env['devise.mapping'] = Devise.mappings[:user]
user = create(:user_with_active_account)
sign_in user
end
end
end
So I call it like this:
describe AwesomeController do
login_user
it 'responds with 200' do
get :new
expect(response.status).to eq 200
end
end
When run after a controller spec I can immediately see that the test will fail since certain UI elements should appear depending on what's in the DB and clearly they are not present.
My DatabaseCleaner strategy is as follows:
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
Through trial and error I changed
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
end
to
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
end
And walla, it passes. Of course now the test suite takes over 2x as long.
I have tagged all my :selenium tests with js: true in order to ensure :truncation is used for them but that really doesn't matter since :selenium is already driving those. However, most importantly, this feature spec still fails after those controller specs.
Where else should I be looking? How do I proceed with debugging?
The only other unique thing I have in here that may be related is:
# In spec/support/shared_db_connection.rb
# https://gist.github.com/josevalim/470808
class ActiveRecord::Base
mattr_accessor :shared_connection
##shared_connection = nil
def self.connection
##shared_connection || retrieve_connection
end
end
# Forces all threads to share the same connection. This works on
# Capybara because it starts the web server in a thread.
ActiveRecord::Base.shared_connection = ActiveRecord::Base.connection
Any advice or ideas on how to proceed with debugging would be greatly appreciated.
If you have any additional questions please ask. Thank you
Update: June 1, 2016
The exact line of code that causes the failure is:
module DeviseMacros
def login_user
before(:each) do
#request.env['devise.mapping'] = Devise.mappings[:user]
user = create(:user_with_active_account)
sign_in user # <----- THIS GUY RIGHT HERE! When removed, the ControllerSpec fails but the integration test passes.
end
end
end
So for some reason it appears that hitting the DB with this controller spec (which uses :transaction strategy) effects the feature spec (which uses :truncation strategy).
I'm debating just not hitting the DB at all in the controller specs when trying to authenticate a devise user, which is cool with me, but I feel like it shouldn't have to be that way. Any ideas on how to proceed if I do indeed want to be able to use the sign_in method?
Thank you
Remove the shared connection hack, since it causes more issues than it's worth, and update your Database Cleaner config to the recommended one from the database cleaner README - https://github.com/DatabaseCleaner/database_cleaner#rspec-with-capybara-example

Capybara can't find database records during feature specs

I have a JS feature spec I'm trying to run with Capybara Webkit. It doesn't seem to be able to find my database records however.
The spec in question looks like this
it "should allow pledging to a Hardback level", js: true do
book = FactoryGirl.create :book
visit book_path(book)
click_link "pledge-btn"
end
Unfortunately, the request to book_path(book) 404s because the book cannot be found.
If I take the :js flag off, the test passes.
I have DatabaseCleaner set up to use :truncation for JS specs as is the recommended method.
# spec/support/database_cleaner.rb
RSpec.configure do |config|
config.use_transactional_fixtures = false
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
DatabaseMetadata.create!(:sanitized_at => DateTime.now)
end
config.after(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
end
I can puts the book in the test and it will be found.
it "should allow pledging to a Hardback level", js: true do
book = FactoryGirl.create :book
visit book_path(book)
p Book.first
# => .. the book instance
click_link "pledge-btn"
end
I've also tried this shared connection method which doesn't seem to fix the problem either.
What else could be wrong?
You may have config.use_transactional_fixtures = true set in your spec_helper.rb. This would override what you have above.
You want to either remove this line from your spec_helper.rb or change it there to be false.
I ran into this same issue and had a very similar config. After looking through the DatabaseCleaner README, I found this small note:
It's also recommended to use append_after to ensure DatabaseCleaner.clean runs after the after-test cleanup capybara/rspec installs.
Source
That means changing your
config.after(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
to
config.append_after(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
Note the append_after instead of after. This fixed my problem.
Working on legacy project I have had such issue, it was caused by switching DatabaseCleaner strategy to :truncation like the following:
config.before(:suite) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
DatabaseCleaner.clean
Test::Seeder.seed!
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
end
so, removing DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction helped in my case
If you create records in a before(:all) block then they will be available.
before :all do
#book = FactoryGirl.create :book
end
it "should allow pledging to a Hardback level", js: true do
visit book_path(#book)
click_link "pledge-btn"
end
Capybara runs the rails server in a separate process from the tests, so they each get their own connection to the database. Therefore, the server does not access to the records created in the transaction for the test.
Because they are not inside a transaction, make sure that you clean them up with DatabaseCleaner in your spec_helper.rb:
config.after(:all, :type => :feature) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
For anyone that lands here in 2019 and beyond, I was caught out by the following code which I copied verbatim from the DatabaseCleaner readme:
config.before(:each, type: :feature) do
# :rack_test driver's Rack app under test shares database connection
# with the specs, so continue to use transaction strategy for speed.
driver_shares_db_connection_with_specs = Capybara.current_driver == :rack_test
unless driver_shares_db_connection_with_specs
# Driver is probably for an external browser with an app
# under test that does *not* share a database connection with the
# specs, so use truncation strategy.
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
end
end
This is all well and good, but I am using Rails system specs, not RSpec features and therefore this code block was never being run.
Change config.before(:each, type: :feature) to config.before(:each, type: :system) if you're using system specs!
I think your main issue is that your rails_helper.rb has the following line commented out:
Dir[Rails.root.join("spec/support/**/*.rb")].each { |f| require f }
This means your database_cleaner.rb is never getting loaded.

How to run setup once for several "scenarios" in Rails Capybara test

Related to question: how to run capybara commands once, then run some tests
How do I set up a Capybara test to run part of the background just once and have the database records there for the scenarios in the test.
Note, I'm using database_cleaner between tests. Yes, I have some seed_tables, but I'd like to have a scope that is not global but just one file of integration tests.
feature "some feature" do
background do
# set up some records that don't change between scenarios
# set up some records that do change between scenarios
end
scenario "scenario 1" do
# run tests
end
scenario "scenario 2" do
# run tests
end
end
Here's my setup for database_cleaner.rb:
RSpec.configure do |config|
config.add_setting(:seed_tables)
config.seed_tables = %w(global_options shoot_types)
config.before(:suite) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation, except: config.seed_tables)
end
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
end
config.before(:each, js: true) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation, {except: config.seed_tables}
end
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.start
end
config.after(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
end
As you may know background is an alias of before for feature tests (see this). So, you can use:
background(:all) do
# set up some records that don't change between scenarios
end
background(:each) do # or background
# set up some records that do change between scenarios
end

rspec DatabaseCleaner skip clean for example group metadata tag

How can I tag an example group so that the database isn't cleaned between each example, but is cleaned before and after the whole group? And untagged specs should clean the database between each example.
I would like to write:
describe 'my_dirty_group', :dont_clean do
...
end
So in my spec_helper.rb I put:
config.use_transactional_fixtures = false
config.before(:suite) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
end
config.before(:suite, dont_clean: true) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
config.after(:suite, dont_clean: true) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
config.before(:each, dont_clean: nil) do
DatabaseCleaner.start
end
config.before(:each, dont_clean: nil) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
The problem is that the dont_clean: nil (or false) blocks in spec_helper don't run when the metadata tag is not specified. Is there another way to check for presence of :dont_clean before cleaning between examples?
Summary
You can set custom metadata on the whole example block, and then access the metadata within your RSpec config with self.class.metadata for use with conditional logic.
Code
Using these gem versions:
$ bundle exec gem list | grep -E '^rails |^rspec-core |^database'
database_cleaner (1.4.0)
rails (4.2.0)
rspec-core (3.2.0)
The following works for me:
File: spec/spec_helper.rb
RSpec.configure do |config|
config.before(:suite) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
end
config.before(:all) do
# Clean before each example group if clean_as_group is set
if self.class.metadata[:clean_as_group]
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
end
config.after(:all) do
# Clean after each example group if clean_as_group is set
if self.class.metadata[:clean_as_group]
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
end
config.before(:each) do
# Clean before each example unless clean_as_group is set
unless self.class.metadata[:clean_as_group]
DatabaseCleaner.start
end
end
config.after(:each) do
# Clean before each example unless clean_as_group is set
unless self.class.metadata[:clean_as_group]
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
end
end
File: spec/models/foo_spec.rb
require 'spec_helper'
describe 'a particular resource saved to the database', clean_as_group: true do
it 'should initially be empty' do
expect(Foo.count).to eq(0)
foo = Foo.create()
end
it 'should NOT get cleaned between examples within a group' do
expect(Foo.count).to eq(1)
end
end
describe 'that same resource again' do
it 'should get cleaned between example groups' do
expect(Foo.count).to eq(0)
foo = Foo.create()
end
it 'should get cleaned between examples within a group in the absence of metadata' do
expect(Foo.count).to eq(0)
end
end
You can check on example.metadata inside the blocks, although I haven't been able to figure out how to do this for before(:suite)

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