database_cleaner not clearing some of my tests (rspec, capybara, selenium) - ruby-on-rails

Question

database_cleaner works for the most part but on some things where i am expecting something like user_id to clear after each test it doesn't. so, the user_id will increment throughout instead of clearing and the user id is predictable as 1, 2, 3 or however many that are created for the test. i can just call the id instead of hardcoding the expected result but later on i really need it to clear that stuff in more complex examples. this is the easiest for showing. any help would be greatly appreciated.
FROM SPEC_HELPER.RB:
RSpec.configure do |config|
config.mock_with :rspec
config.include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
config.include(Capybara, :type => :integration)
config.include Devise::TestHelpers, :type => :controller
config.use_transactional_fixtures = false
config.before(:each) do
I18n.default_locale = :en
I18n.locale = :en
DatabaseCleaner.start
ResqueSpec.reset!
ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.clear
end
config.after(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
config.after(:all) do
TestCleaner.clean
end
config.before(:suite) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
Role.reset_cache!
end
config.after(:suite) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
end
FROM MY TEST:
it "should return one provider" do
get :index
response.body.gsub(/\s+/, "").should == {
:experts => [{
:availability => false,
:name => "#{#provider.user.first_name}#{#provider.user.last_name}",
:expert_id => 1,
:photo => #provider.details.photo.url
}] }.to_json
end
it "should show return two providers" do
#provider2 = create(:provider)
get :index
response.body.gsub(/\s+/, "").should == {
:experts => [{
:availability => false,
:name => "#{#provider.user.first_name}#{#provider.user.last_name}",
:expert_id => 1,
:photo => #provider.details.photo.url
},
{
:availability => false,
:name => "#{#provider.user.first_name}#{#provider.user.last_name}",
:expert_id => 2,
:photo => #provider.details.photo.url
}
] }.to_json
end

Answer 1

Database cleaner is wrapping each of your specs in a transaction, and rolling back that transaction at the end of the spec to remove any database changes. Rolling back a transaction doesn't reset the autoincrement or sequence values used to auto assign the primary key though.
I'd strongly recommend not hardcoding the ids. You mention that your examples will get more complicated, in which case having random integers sprinkled through your code will be even less maintainable than in simpler examples. Assuming you're using mysql then using the truncation strategy will reset autoincrement values, but it is also a lot slower.

Answer 2

Is it the request/integration specs where the database is not cleaning properly? If so it's possibly because you're cleaning with a transaction strategy and not a truncation strategy.
Try adding this, which changes the strategy to truncation for integration specs only:
config.before type: :integration do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
end
You can't use a transaction strategy for integration specs because Capybara runs in a separate thread with a different database connection.
This article helped me a lot in setting up my DB stuff for rspec/capybara: Sane Rspec config for clean, and slightly faster, specs.

Answer 3

I ran into this a lot when starting testing. I eventually found that it was not due to the database cleaner issue (as I also suspected), but rather the structure of the code that does the tests.
The best way I can try and descibe is is to say that basically if you do things outside of your before(:each) set up blocks and the actual it and should it end up being 'outside' of the actual test and causes these issues.
Specifically I suspect that there could be a problem here:
it "should show return two providers" do
#provider2 = create(:provider)
get :index
response.body.gsub(/\s+/, "").should == {
I would look to change this to something more like:
it "should show return two providers" do
before(:each) do {
#provider2 = create(:provider)
get :index
}
response.body.gsub(/\s+/, "").should == {