Everyday Rails Testing with RSpec

A practical approach to test-driven development

Aaron Sumner
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This version was published on 2014-12-20

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2012 - 2014 Aaron Sumner

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Contents
Preface to this edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . .
Why RSpec? . . . . . . . . . .
Who should read this book . .
My testing philosophy . . . .
How the book is organized . .
Downloading the sample code
Code conventions . . . . . . .
Discussion and errata . . . . .
About the sample application .

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1
2
2
4
5
6
8
9
9

3. Model specs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Anatomy of a model spec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Creating a model spec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The new RSpec syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Testing validations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Testing instance methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Testing class methods and scopes . . . . . . . . . . .
Testing for failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
More about matchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
DRYer specs with describe, context, before and after
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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11
11
13
15
17
21
22
24
25
25
32
33
33

About Everyday Rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

34

CONTENTS

About the author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35

Colophon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

36

Preface to this edition

Here it is, the RSpec 3 edition of Everyday Rails Testing with RSpec! A lot has changed,
and I hope youll find it worth the wait.
As with previous updates, Ive rebuilt the sample application to use current versions
of Rails, RSpec, and the other gems used throughout the book. I also expanded some
sectionsmost notably, chapter 10, Testing the Rest. I also updated as needed to take
advantage of new features in RSpec 3 and Rails 4.1. While Ive gone through the text
and code multiple times to look for problems, you may come across something thats
not quite right or that youd do differently. If you find any errors or have suggestions,
please share in the GitHub issues for this release and Ill address them promptly.
Thanks to all of you for your supporthope you like this edition, and I hope to hear
from you soon on GitHub, Twitter or email.

https://github.com/everydayrails/rails-4-1-rspec-3-0/issues

1. Introduction
Ruby on Rails and automated testing go hand in hand. Rails ships with a built-in test
framework; if its not to your liking you can replace it with one of your liking. As I
write this, Ruby Toolbox lists 17 projects under the Unit Test Frameworks category
alone. So, yeah, testings pretty important in Rails. Yet, many people developing in
Rails are either not testing their projects at all, or at best only adding a few token
specs on model validations.
In my opinion, there are several reasons for this. Perhaps working with Ruby or web
frameworks is a novel enough concept, and adding an extra layer of work seems
like just thatextra work. Or maybe there is a perceived time constraintspending
time on writing tests takes time away from writing the features our clients or bosses
demand. Or maybe the habit of defining test as the practice of clicking links in the
browser is just too hard to break.
Ive been there. Historically, I havent considered myself an engineer in the traditional senseyet just like traditional engineers, I have problems to solve. And,
typically, I find solutions to these problems in building software. Ive been developing
web applications since 1995, but usually as a solo developer on shoestring, public
sector projects. Aside from some structured exposure to BASIC as a kid, a little C++
in college, and a wasted week of Java training in my second grown-up job outside of
college, Ive never had any honest-to-goodness schooling in software development.
In fact, it wasnt until 2005, when Id had enough of hacking ugly spaghetti-style
PHP code, that I sought out a better way to write web applications.
Id looked at Ruby before, but never had a serious use for it until Rails began gaining
steam. There was a lot to learna new language, an actual architecture, and a more
object-oriented approach (despite what you may think about Rails treatment of
object orientation, its far more object oriented than anything I wrote in my preframework days). Even with all those new challenges, though, I was able to create
https://www.ruby-toolbox.com/categories/testing_frameworks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_code

1. Introduction

complex applications in a fraction of the time it took me in my previous frameworkless efforts. I was hooked.
That said, early Rails books and tutorials focused more on speed (build a blog in 15
minutes!) than on good practices like testing. If testing were covered at all, it was
generally reserved for a chapter toward the end. Now, to be fair, newer educational
resources on Rails have addressed this shortcoming, and now demonstrate how to test
applications from the beginning. In addition, a number of books have been written
specifically on the topic of testing. But without a sound approach to the testing side,
many developersespecially those in a similar boat to the one I was inmay find
themselves without a consistent testing strategy.
My goal with this book is to introduce you to a consistent strategy that works for
meone that you can then, hopefully, adapt to make work consistently for you, too.

Why RSpec?
For the most part, I have nothing against the other test frameworks out there. If Im
writing a standalone Ruby library, I usually rely on MiniTest. For whatever reason,
though, RSpec is the one thats stuck with me when it comes to testing my Rails
applications.
Maybe it stems from my backgrounds in copywriting and software development,
but for me RSpecs capacity for specs that are readable, without being cumbersome,
is a winner. Ill talk more about this later in the book, but Ive found that with a
little coaching even most non-technical people can read a spec written in RSpec and
understand whats going on.

Who should read this book

If Rails is your first foray into a web application framework, and your past programming experience didnt involve any testing to speak of, this book will hopefully
help you get started. If youre really new to Rails, you may find it beneficial to
review coverage of development and basic testing in the likes of Michael Hartls
Rails Tutorial (look for the Rails 4-specific version online), Daniel Kehoes Learn
http://ruby.railstutorial.org

1. Introduction

Ruby on Rails, or Sam Rubys Agile Web Development with Rails 4, before digging
into Everyday Rails Testing with RSpecthis book assumes youve got some basic
Rails skills under your belt. In other words, this book wont teach you how to use
Rails, and it wont provide a ground-up introduction to the testing tools built into the
frameworkwere going to be installing RSpec and a few extras to make the testing
process as easy as possible to comprehend and manage.
If youve been developing in Rails for a little while, and maybe even have an
application or two in productionbut testing is still a foreign conceptthis book is for
you! I was in your shoes for a long time, and the techniques Ill share here helped me
improve my test coverage and think more like a test-driven developer. I hope theyll
do the same for you.
Specifically, you should probably have a grasp of

Model-View-Controller application architecture, as used in Rails

Bundler for gem dependency management
How to run Rake tasks
Basic command line tools
Enough Git to switch between branches of a repository

On the more advanced end, if youre familiar with using Test::Unit, MiniTest, or
even RSpec itself, and already have a workflow in place that (a) youre comfortable
with and (b) provides adequate coverage, you may be able to fine-tune some of your
approach to testing your applications. But to be honest, at this point youre probably
on board with automated testing and dont need this extra nudge. This is not a book
on testing theory; it also wont dig too deeply into performance issues. Other books
may be of more use to you in the long run.
Refer to More Testing Resources for Rails at the end of this book for links
to these and other books, websites, and testing tutorials.

1. Introduction

My testing philosophy
Discussing the right way to test your Rails application can invoke major shouting
matches amongst programmersnot quite as bad as, say, the Vim versus Emacs
debate, but still not something to bring up in an otherwise pleasant conversation
with fellow Rubyists. In fact, David Heinemeier-Hansens keynote at Railsconf 2014,
in which he declared TDD as dead, has sparked a fresh round of debates on the
topic.
So, yes, there is a right way to do testingbut if you ask me, there are degrees of right
when it comes to testing.
At the risk of starting additional riots among the Ruby test-driven/behavior-driven
development communities, my approach focuses on the following foundation:
Tests should be reliable.
Tests should be easy to write.
Tests should be easy to understand.
If you mind these three factors in your approach, youll go a long way toward
having a sound test suite for your applicationnot to mention becoming an honestto-goodness practitioner of Test-Driven Development. Whatever that means these
days.
Yes, there are some tradeoffsin particular:
Were not focusing on speed (though we will talk about it later).
Were not focusing on overly DRY code in our tests, but in tests, thats not
necessarily a bad thing. Well talk about this, too.
In the end, though, the most important thing is that youll have testsand reliable,
understandable tests, even if theyre not quite as optimized as they could be, are
a great way to start. Its the approach that finally got me over the hump between
writing a lot of application code, calling a round of browser-clicking testing, and
hoping for the best; versus taking advantage of a fully automated test suite and using
tests to drive development and ferret out potential bugs and edge cases.
And thats the approach well take in this book.

1. Introduction

How the book is organized

In Everyday Rails Testing with RSpec Ill walk you through taking a basic Rails 4.1
application from completely untested to respectably tested with RSpec 3.1. The book
is organized into the following activities:
Youre reading chapter 1, Introduction, now.
In chapter 2, Setting Up RSpec, well set up a new or existing Rails application
to use RSpec, along with a few extra, useful testing tools.
In chapter 3, Model Specs, well tackle testing our applications models through
reliable unit testing.
Chapter 4, Generating Test Data with Factories, covers factories, making test
data generation straightforward.
Well take an initial look at testing controllers in chapter 5, Basic Controller
Specs.
Chapter 6, Advanced Controller Specs, is about using controller specs to make
sure your authentication and authorization layers are doing their jobsthat is,
keeping your apps data safe.
Chapter 7, Controller Spec Cleanup, is our first round of spec refactoring,
reducing redundancy without removing readability.
In chapter 8, Feature Specs, well move on to integration testing with feature
specs, thus testing how the different parts of our application interact with one
another.
In chapter 9, Speeding up specs, well go over some techniques for refactoring
and running your tests with performance in mind.
Chapter 10, Testing the Rest, covers testing those parts of our code we havent
covered yetthings like email, file uploads, time-specific functionality, and
APIs.
Ill go through a step-by-step demonstration of test-driven development in
chapter 11, Toward Test-driven Development.
Finally, well wrap things up in chapter 12, Parting Advice.
Each chapter contains the step-by-step process I used to get better at testing my own
software. Many chapters conclude with a question-and-answer section, followed by

1. Introduction

a few exercises to follow when using these techniques on your own. Again, I strongly
recommend working through the exercises in your own applicationsits one thing
to follow along with a tutorial; its another thing entirely to apply what you learn to
your own situation. We wont be building an application together in this book, just
exploring code patterns and techniques. Take those techniques and make your own
projects better!

Downloading the sample code

Speaking of the sample code, you can find a completely tested application on GitHub.
Get the source!
https://github.com/everydayrails/rails-4-1-rspec-3-0

If youre familiar with Git (and, as a Rails developer, you should be), you can clone
the source to your computer. Each chapters work has its own branch. Grab that
chapters source to see the completed code, or the previous chapters source if youd
like to follow along with the book. Branches are labeled by chapter number, but Ill
also tell you which branch to check out at the start of that chapter.
If youre not familiar with Git, you may still download the sample code a given
chapter. To begin, open the project on GitHub. Then, locate the branch selector and
select that chapters branch:

1. Introduction

Finally, click the ZIP download button to save the source to your computer:

1. Introduction

Git Immersion is an excellent, hands-on way to learn the basics of Git

on the command line. So is Try Git. For a handy refresher of the basics,
check out Git Reference.

Code conventions
Im using the following setup for this application:
Rails 4.1: The latest version of Rails is the big focus of this book; however, as
far as I know the techniques Im using will apply to any version of Rails from
3.0 onward. Your mileage may vary with some of the code samples, but Ill do
my best to let you know where things might differ.
Ruby 2.1: I dont think youll see any major differences if youre using 1.9 or
2.0. At this point I dont recommend trying to progress through the book if
youre still using Ruby 1.8.
http://gitimmersion.com/
http://try.github.io
http://gitref.org

1. Introduction

RSpec 3.1: RSpec 3.0 was released in spring, 2014. RSpec 3.1 appeared a few
months later and is by and large compatible with the 3.0 release. Its relatively
close in syntax to RSpec 2.14, though there are a few differences.
If somethings particular to these versions, Ill do my best to point it out. If youre
working from an older version of any of the above, previous versions of the book
are available as free downloads through Leanpub with your paid purchase of this
edition. Theyre not feature-for-feature identical, but you should hopefully be able
to see some of the basic differences.
Again, this book is not a traditional tutorial! The code provided here isnt intended
to walk you through building an application; rather, its here to help you understand
and learn testing patterns and habits to apply to your own Rails applications. In other
words, you can copy and paste, but its probably not going to do you a lot of good.
You may be familiar with this technique from Zed Shaws Learn Code the Hard Way
seriesEveryday Rails Testing with RSpec is not in that exact style, but I do agree
with Zed that typing things yourself as opposed to copying-and-pasting from the
interwebs or an ebook is a better way to learn.

Discussion and errata

Nobodys perfect, especially not me. Ive put a lot of time and effort into making
sure Everyday Rails Testing with RSpec is as error-free as possible, but you may
find something Ive missed. If thats the case, head on over to the issues section for
the source on GitHub to share an error or ask for more details: https://github.com/
everydayrails/rails-4-1-rspec-3-0/issues

About the sample application

Our sample application is an admittedly simple, admittedly ugly little contacts
manager, perhaps part of a corporate website. The application lists names, email
addresses, and phone numbers to anyone who comes across the site, and also provides
a simple, first-letter search function. Users must log in to add new contacts or make
http://learncodethehardway.org/

1. Introduction

10

changes to existing ones. Finally, users must have an administrator ability to add
new users to the system.
Up to this point, though, Ive been intentionally lazy and only used Rails default
generators to create the entire application (see the 01_untested branch of the sample
code). This means I have a test directory full of untouched test files and fixtures. I
could run rake test at this point, and perhaps some of these tests would even pass.
But since this is a book about RSpec, a better solution will be to dump this folder,
set up Rails to use RSpec instead, and build out a more respectable test suite. Thats
what well walk through in this book.
First things first: We need to configure the application to recognize and use RSpec
and to start generating the appropriate specs (and a few other useful files) whenever
we employ a Rails generator to add code to the application.
Lets get started!

3. Model specs
Weve got all the tools we need for building a solid, reliable test suitenow its time
to put them to work. Well get started with the apps core building blocksits models.
In this chapter, well complete the following tasks:
First well create a model spec for an existing modelin our case, the actual
Contact model.
Then, well write passing tests for a models validations, class, and instance
methods, and organize our spec in the process.
Well create our first spec files for existing models by hand. If and when we add
new models to the application (OK, when we do in chapter 11), the handy RSpec
generators we configured in chapter 2 will generate placeholder files for us.
Check out the 03_models branch of the sample source to see the completed
code for this chapter. Using the command line, type
git checkout -b 03_models origin/03_models

If youd like to follow along, start with the previous chapters branch:
git checkout -b 02_setup origin/02_setup

See chapter 1 for additional details.

Anatomy of a model spec

I think its easiest to learn testing at the model level, because doing so allows you to
examine and test the core building blocks of an application. Well-tested code at this
level is keya solid foundation is the first step toward a reliable overall code base.
To get started, a model spec should include tests for the following:

3. Model specs

12

The models create method, when passed valid attributes, should be valid.
Data that fail validations should not be valid.
Class and instance methods perform as expected.
This is a good time to look at the basic structure of an RSpec model spec. I find it
helpful to think of them as individual outlines. For example, lets look at our main
Contact models requirements:
describe Contact do
it "is valid with a firstname, lastname and email"
it "is invalid without a firstname"
it "is invalid without a lastname"
it "is invalid without an email address"
it "is invalid with a duplicate email address"
it "returns a contact's full name as a string"
end

Well expand this outline in a few minutes, but this gives us quite a bit for starters.
Its a simple spec for an admittedly simple model, but points to our first four best
practices:
It describes a set of expectationsin this case, what the Contact model should
look like, and how it should behave.
Each example (a line beginning with it) only expects one thing. Notice
that Im testing the firstname, lastname, and email validations separately.
This way, if an example fails, I know its because of that specific validation,
and dont have to dig through RSpecs output for cluesat least, not as deeply.
Each example is explicit. The descriptive string after it is technically optional
in RSpec. However, omitting it makes your specs more difficult to read.
Each examples description begins with a verb, not should. Read the expectations aloud: Contact is invalid without a firstname, Contact is invalid without
a lastname, Contact returns a contacts full name as a string. Readability is
important!
With these best practices in mind, lets build a spec for the Contact model.

13

3. Model specs

Creating a model spec

First, well open up the spec directory and, if necessary, create a subdirectory named
models. Inside that subdirectory lets create a file named contact_spec.rb and add
the following:
spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1

require 'rails_helper'

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

describe Contact do
it "is valid with a firstname, lastname and email"
it "is invalid without a firstname"
it "is invalid without a lastname"
it "is invalid without an email address"
it "is invalid with a duplicate email address"
it "returns a contact's full name as a string"
end

Notice the require 'rails_helper' at the top, and get used to typing itall of
your specs will include this line moving forward. This is a new addition to RSpec
3previous version required spec_helper, but the Rails-specific details have been
extracted to make the main helper significantly lighter. Well touch on this a little
further in chapter 9.

Location, location, location

The name and location for your spec file is important! RSpecs file
structure mirrors that of the app directory, as do the files within it. In the
case of model specs, contact_spec.rb should correspond to contact.rb.
This becomes more important later when we start automating tests to
run as soon as a specs corresponding application file is updated, and vice
versa.

Well fill in the details in a moment, but if we ran the specs right now from the
command line (by typing bin/rspec or just rspec on the command line) the output
would be similar to the following:

3. Model specs
Contact
is valid with a firstname, lastname and email
(PENDING: Not yet implemented)
is invalid without a firstname
(PENDING: Not yet implemented)
is invalid without a lastname
(PENDING: Not yet implemented)
is invalid without an email address
(PENDING: Not yet implemented)
is invalid with a duplicate email address
(PENDING: Not yet implemented)
returns a contact's full name as a string
(PENDING: Not yet implemented)
Pending:
Contact is valid with a firstname, lastname
and email
# Not yet implemented
# ./spec/models/contact_spec.rb:4
Contact is invalid without a firstname
# Not yet implemented
# ./spec/models/contact_spec.rb:5
Contact is invalid without a lastname
# Not yet implemented
# ./spec/models/contact_spec.rb:6
Contact is invalid without an email address
# Not yet implemented
# ./spec/models/contact_spec.rb:7
Contact is invalid with a duplicate email address
# Not yet implemented
# ./spec/models/contact_spec.rb:8
Contact returns a contact's full name as a string
# Not yet implemented
# ./spec/models/contact_spec.rb:9
Finished in 0.00105 seconds (files took 2.42 seconds to load)
6 examples, 0 failures, 6 pending

14

15

3. Model specs

Great! Six pending specslets write them and make them pass, starting with the first
example.
As we add additional models to the contacts manager, assuming we use
Rails model or scaffold generator to do so, the model spec file will be
added automatically. If it doesnt go back and configure your applications
generators now, or make sure youve properly installed the rspec-rails
gem, as shown in chapter 2. Youll still need to fill in the details, though.

The new RSpec syntax

In June, 2012, the RSpec team announced a new, preferred alternative to the
traditional should, added to version 2.11. Of course, this happened just a few days
after I released the first complete version of this bookit can be tough to keep up
with this stuff sometimes!
This new approach alleviates some technical issues caused by the old should syntax.
Instead of saying something should or should_not match expected output, you
expect something to or not_to be something else.
As an example, lets look at this sample expectation. In this example, 2 + 1 should
always equal 3, right? In the old RSpec syntax, this would be written like this:
it "adds 2 and 1 to make 3" do
(2 + 1).should eq 3
end

The new syntax passes the test value into an expect() method, then chains a matcher
to it:

http://myronmars.to/n/dev-blog/2012/06/rspecs-new-expectation-syntax

3. Model specs

16

it "adds 2 and 1 to make 3" do

expect(2 + 1).to eq 3
end

If youre searching Google or Stack Overflow for help with an RSpec question, theres
still a good chance youll find information using the old should syntax. This syntax
still technically works in RSpec 3, but youll get a deprecation warning when you
try to use it. You can configure RSpec to turn off these warnings, but in all honesty,
youre better off learning to use the preferred expect() syntax.
So what does that syntax look like in a real example? Lets fill out that first
expectation from our spec for the Contact model:
spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1

require 'rails_helper'

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

describe Contact do
it "is valid with a firstname, lastname and email" do
contact = Contact.new(
firstname: 'Aaron',
lastname: 'Sumner',
email: '[email protected]')
expect(contact).to be_valid
end

11
12
13

# remaining examples to come

end

This simple example uses RSpecs be_valid matcher to verify that our model knows
what it has to look like to be valid. We set up an object (in this case, a new-butunsaved instance of Contact called contact), then pass that to expect to compare
to the matcher.
Now, if we run RSpec from the command line again (via bin/rspec or bundle exec
rspec, depending on whether you installed the rspec binstub in the previous chapter)
we see one passing example! Were on our way. Now lets get into testing more of
our code.

3. Model specs

17

Testing validations
Validations are a good way to break into automated testing. These tests can usually
be written in just a line or two of code, especially when we leverage the convenience
of factories (next chapter). Lets look at some detail to our firstname validation spec:
spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1
2
3
4
5

it "is invalid without a firstname" do

contact = Contact.new(firstname: nil)
contact.valid?
expect(contact.errors[:firstname]).to include("can't be blank")
end

This time, we expect that the new contact (with a firstname explicitly set to nil)
will not be valid, thus returning the shown error message on the contacts firstname
attribute. We check for this using RSpecs include matcher, which checks to see if a
value is included in an enumerable value. And when we run RSpec again, we should
be up to two passing specs.
To prove that were not getting false positives, lets flip that expectation by changing
to to not_to:
spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1
2
3
4
5

it "is invalid without a firstname" do

contact = Contact.new(firstname: nil)
contact.valid?
expect(contact.errors[:firstname]).not_to include("can't be blank")
end

And sure enough, RSpec reports a failure:

18

3. Model specs
Failures:
1) Contact is invalid without a firstname
Failure/Error: expect(contact.errors[:firstname]).not_to
include("can't be blank")
expected ["can't be blank"] not to include "can't be blank"
# ./spec/models/contact_spec.rb:15:in `block (2 levels) in
<top (required)>'

RSpec provides not_to and to_not for these types of expectations. Theyre
interchangeable. I use not_to in the book.

This is an easy way to verify your tests are working correctly, especially as you
progress from testing simple validations to more complex logic. Just remember to
flip that not_to back to to before continuing.
If youve used an earlier version of RSpec, you may be used to using
the have matcher and errors_on helper method to check for validation
errors. These have been removed from RSpec 3s core. You can still
use the have matcher by including rspec-collection_matchers in your
Gemfiles :test group.

Now we can use the same approach to test the :lastname validation.
spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1
2
3
4
5

it "is invalid without a lastname" do

contact = Contact.new(lastname: nil)
contact.valid?
expect(contact.errors[:lastname]).to include("can't be blank")
end

You may be thinking that these tests are relatively pointlesshow hard is it to make
sure validations are included in a model? The truth is, they can be easier to omit than

3. Model specs

19

you might imagine. More importantly, though, if you think about what validations
your model should have while writing tests (ideally, and eventually, in a Test-Driven
Development style of coding), you are more likely to remember to include them.
Testing that email addresses must be unique is fairly simple as well:
spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

it "is invalid with a duplicate email address" do

Contact.create(
firstname: 'Joe', lastname: 'Tester',
email: '[email protected]'
)
contact = Contact.new(
firstname: 'Jane', lastname: 'Tester',
email: '[email protected]'
)
contact.valid?
expect(contact.errors[:email]).to include("has already been taken")
end

Notice a subtle difference here: In this case, we persisted a contact (calling create
on Contact instead of new) to test against, then instantiated a second contact as the
subject of the actual test. This, of course, requires that the first, persisted contact is
valid (with both a first and last name) and has an email address assigned to it. In
future chapters well look at utilities to streamline this process.
Now lets test a more complex validation. Say we want to make sure we dont
duplicate a phone number for a usertheir home, office, and mobile phones should
all be unique within the scope of that user. How might you test that?
Switching to the Phone model spec, we have the following example:

3. Model specs

spec/models/phone_spec.rb
1

require 'rails_helper'

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

describe Phone do
it "does not allow duplicate phone numbers per contact" do
contact = Contact.create(
firstname: 'Joe',
lastname: 'Tester',
email: '[email protected]'
)
contact.phones.create(
phone_type: 'home',
phone: '785-555-1234'
)
mobile_phone = contact.phones.build(
phone_type: 'mobile',
phone: '785-555-1234'
)

18
19
20
21

mobile_phone.valid?
expect(mobile_phone.errors[:phone]).to include('has already been taken')
end

22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36

it "allows two contacts to share a phone number" do

contact = Contact.create(
firstname: 'Joe',
lastname: 'Tester',
email: '[email protected]'
)
contact.phones.create(
phone_type: 'home',
phone: '785-555-1234'
)
other_contact = Contact.new
other_phone = other_contact.phones.build(
phone_type: 'home',
phone: '785-555-1234'

20

3. Model specs
37

21

38
39
40
41

expect(other_phone).to be_valid
end
end

This time, since the Contact and Phone models are coupled via an Active Record
relationship, we need to provide a little extra information. In the case of the first
example, weve got a contact to which both phones are assigned. In the second, the
same phone number is assigned to two unique contacts. Note that, in both examples,
we have to create the contact, or persist it in the database, in order to assign it to the
phones were testing.
And since the Phone model has the following validation:
app/models/phone.rb
validates :phone, uniqueness: { scope: :contact_id }

These specs will pass without issue.

Of course, validations can be more complicated than just requiring a specific scope.
Yours might involve a complex regular expression, or a custom validator. Get in the
habit of testing these validationsnot just the happy paths where everything is valid,
but also error conditions. For instance, in the examples weve created so far, we tested
what happens when an object is initialized with nil values.

Testing instance methods

It would be convenient to only have to refer to @contact.name to render our contacts
full names instead of concatenating the first and last names into a new string every
time, so weve got this method in the Contact class:

22

3. Model specs

app/models/contact.rb
1
2
3

def name
[firstname, lastname].join(' ')
end

We can use the same basic techniques we used for our validation examples to create
a passing example of this feature:
spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1
2
3
4
5

it "returns a contact's full name as a string" do

contact = Contact.new(firstname: 'John', lastname: 'Doe',
email: '[email protected]')
expect(contact.name).to eq 'John Doe'
end

RSpec requires eq or eql, not ==, to indicate an expectation of equality.

Create test data, then tell RSpec how you expect it to behave. Easy, right? Lets keep
going.

Testing class methods and scopes

Now lets test the Contact models ability to return a list of contacts whose names
begin with a given letter. For example, if I click S then I should get Smith, Sumner,
and so on, but not Jones. There are a number of ways I could implement thisfor
demonstration purposes Ill show one.
The model implements this functionality in the following simple method:

3. Model specs

23

app/models/contact.rb
1
2
3

def self.by_letter(letter)
where("lastname LIKE ?", "#{letter}%").order(:lastname)
end

To test this, lets add the following to our Contact spec:

spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1

require 'rails_helper'

2
3

describe Contact do

4
5

# earlier validation examples omitted ...

6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25

it "returns a sorted array of results that match" do

smith = Contact.create(
firstname: 'John',
lastname: 'Smith',
email: '[email protected]'
)
jones = Contact.create(
firstname: 'Tim',
lastname: 'Jones',
email: '[email protected]'
)
johnson = Contact.create(
firstname: 'John',
lastname: 'Johnson',
email: '[email protected]'
)
expect(Contact.by_letter("J")).to eq [johnson, jones]
end
end

Note were testing both the results of the query and the sort order; jones will be
retrieved from the database first but since were sorting by last name then johnson
should be stored first in the query results.

3. Model specs

24

Testing for failures

Weve tested the happy patha user selects a name for which we can return results
but what about occasions when a selected letter returns no results? Wed better test
that, too. The following spec should do it:
spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1

require 'rails_helper'

2
3

describe Contact do

4
5

# validation examples ...

6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25

it "omits results that do not match" do

smith = Contact.create(
firstname: 'John',
lastname: 'Smith',
email: '[email protected]'
)
jones = Contact.create(
firstname: 'Tim',
lastname: 'Jones',
email: '[email protected]'
)
johnson = Contact.create(
firstname: 'John',
lastname: 'Johnson',
email: '[email protected]'
)
expect(Contact.by_letter("J")).not_to include smith
end
end

This spec uses RSpecs include matcher to determine if the array returned by
Contact.by_letter("J")and it passes! Were testing not just for ideal resultsthe
user selects a letter with resultsbut also for letters with no results.

3. Model specs

25

More about matchers

Weve already seen three matchers in action. First we used be_valid, which is
provided by the rspec-rails gem to test a Rails models validity. eq and include
come from rspec-expectations, installed alongside rspec-rails when we set up
our app to use RSpec in the previous chapter.
A complete list of RSpecs default matchers may be found in the README for the
rspec-expectations repository on GitHub. And in chapter 7, well take a look at
creating custom matchers of our own.

DRYer specs with describe, context, before

and after
If youre following along with the sample code, youve no doubt spotted a discrepancy there with what weve covered here. In that code, Im using yet another RSpec
feature, the before hook, to help simplify the specs code and reduce typing. Indeed,
the spec samples have some redundancy: We create the same three objects in each
example. Just as in your application code, the DRY principle applies to your tests
(with some exceptions, which Ill talk about momentarily). Lets use a few RSpec
tricks to clean things up.
The first thing Im going to do is create a describe block within my describe
Contact block to focus on the filter feature. The general outline will look like this:

https://github.com/rspec/rspec-expectations

3. Model specs

26

spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1

require 'rails_helper'

2
3

describe Contact do

4
5

# validation examples ...

6
7
8
9
10

describe "filter last name by letter" do

# filtering examples ...
end
end

Lets break things down even further by including a couple of context blocksone
for matching letters, one for non-matching:
spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1

require 'rails_helper'

2
3

describe Contact do

4
5

# validation examples ...

6
7
8
9
10

describe "filter last name by letter" do

context "matching letters" do
# matching examples ...
end

11
12
13
14
15
16

context "non-matching letters" do

# non-matching examples ...
end
end
end

27

3. Model specs

While describe and context are technically interchangeable, I prefer to

use them like thisspecifically, describe outlines general functionality of
my class; context outlines a specific state. In my case, I have a state of
a letter with matching results selected, and a state with a non-matching
letter selected.

As you may be able to spot, were creating an outline of examples here to help us
sort similar examples together. This makes for a more readable spec. Now lets finish
cleaning up our reorganized spec with the help of a before hook:
spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1

require 'rails_helper'

2
3

describe Contact do

4
5

# validation examples ...

6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

describe "filter last name by letter" do

before :each do
@smith = Contact.create(
firstname: 'John',
lastname: 'Smith',
email: '[email protected]'
)
@jones = Contact.create(
firstname: 'Tim',
lastname: 'Jones',
email: '[email protected]'
)
@johnson = Contact.create(
firstname: 'John',
lastname: 'Johnson',
email: '[email protected]'
)
end

25
26

context "matching letters" do

28

3. Model specs
27
28

# matching examples ...

end

29
30
31
32
33
34

context "non-matching letters" do

# non-matching examples ...
end
end
end

RSpecs before hooks are vital to cleaning up nasty redundancy from your specs.
As you might guess, the code contained within the before block is run before
each example within the describe blockbut not outside of that block. Since weve
indicated that the hook should be run before each example within the block, RSpec
will create them for each example individually. In this example, my before hook
will only be called within the describe "filter last name by letter" blockin
other words, my original validation specs will not have access to @smith, @jones,
and @johnson.
:each is the default behavior of before, and many Rubyists use the shorter
before do to create before blocks. I prefer the explicitness of before
:each do and will use it throughout the book.

Speaking of my three test contacts, note that since they are no longer being created
within each example, we have to assign them to instance variables, so theyre
accessible outside of the before block, within our actual examples.
If a spec requires some sort of post-example teardowndisconnecting from an
external service, saywe can also use an after hook to clean up after the examples.
Since RSpec handles cleaning up the database by default, I rarely use after. before,
though, is indispensable.
Okay, lets see that full, organized spec:

3. Model specs

spec/models/contact_spec.rb
1

require 'rails_helper'

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

describe Contact do
it "is valid with a firstname, lastname and email" do
contact = Contact.new(
firstname: 'Aaron',
lastname: 'Sumner',
email: '[email protected]')
expect(contact).to be_valid
end

11
12
13
14
15
16

it "is invalid without a firstname" do

contact = Contact.new(firstname: nil)
contact.valid?
expect(contact.errors[:firstname]).to include("can't be blank")
end

17
18
19
20
21
22

it "is invalid without a lastname" do

contact = Contact.new(lastname: nil)
contact.valid?
expect(contact.errors[:lastname]).to include("can't be blank")
end

23
24
25
26
27
28

it "is invalid without an email address" do

contact = Contact.new(email: nil)
contact.valid?
expect(contact.errors[:email]).to include("can't be blank")
end

29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36

it "is invalid with a duplicate email address" do

Contact.create(
firstname: 'Joe', lastname: 'Tester',
email: '[email protected]'
)
contact = Contact.new(
firstname: 'Jane', lastname: 'Tester',

29

3. Model specs
37
38
39
40
41

email: '[email protected]'
)
contact.valid?
expect(contact.errors[:email]).to include("has already been taken")
end

42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50

it "returns a contact's full name as a string" do

contact = Contact.new(
firstname: 'John',
lastname: 'Doe',
email: '[email protected]'
)
expect(contact.name).to eq 'John Doe'
end

51
52
53
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55
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57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69

describe "filter last name by letter" do

before :each do
@smith = Contact.create(
firstname: 'John',
lastname: 'Smith',
email: '[email protected]'
)
@jones = Contact.create(
firstname: 'Tim',
lastname: 'Jones',
email: '[email protected]'
)
@johnson = Contact.create(
firstname: 'John',
lastname: 'Johnson',
email: '[email protected]'
)
end

70
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72
73
74

context "with matching letters" do

it "returns a sorted array of results that match" do
expect(Contact.by_letter("J")).to eq [@johnson, @jones]
end

30

31

3. Model specs
75

end

76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83

context "with non-matching letters" do

it "omits results that do not match" do
expect(Contact.by_letter("J")).not_to include @smith
end
end
end
end

When we run the specs well see a nice outline (since we told RSpec to use the
documentation format, in chapter 2) like this:
Contact
is valid with a firstname, lastname and email
is invalid without a firstname
is invalid without a lastname
is invalid without an email address
is invalid with a duplicate email address
returns a contact's full name as a string
filter last name by letter
with matching letters
returns a sorted array of results that match
with non-matching letters
omits results that do not match
Phone
does not allow duplicate phone numbers per contact
allows two contacts to share a phone number
Finished in 0.51654 seconds (files took 2.24 seconds to load)
10 examples, 0 failures

Some developers prefer to use method names for the descriptions of nested
describe blocks. For example, I could have labeled filter last name
by letter as #by_letter. I dont like doing this personally, as I believe
the label should define the behavior of the code and not the name of the
method. That said, I dont have a strong opinion about it.

3. Model specs

32

How DRY is too DRY?

Weve spent a lot of time in this chapter organizing specs into easy-to-follow blocks.
Like I said, before blocks are key to making this happenbut theyre also easy to
abuse.
When setting up test conditions for your example, I think its okay to bend the DRY
principle in the interest of readability. If you find yourself scrolling up and down
a large spec file in order to see what it is youre testing (or, later, loading too many
external support files for your tests), consider duplicating your test data setup within
smaller describe blocksor even within examples themselves.
That said, well-named variables and methods can go a long wayfor example, in the
spec above we used @jones and @johnson as test contacts. These are much easier to
follow than @user1 and @user2 would have been, as part of these test objects value
to the tests was to make sure our first-letter search functionality was working as
intended. Even better might be variables like @admin_user and @guest_user, when
we get into testing users with specific roles in chapter 6. Be expressive with your
variable names!

Summary
This chapter focused on how I test models, but weve covered a lot of other important
techniques youll want to use in other types of specs moving forward:
Use active, explicit expectations: Use verbs to explain what an examples
results should be. Only check for one result per example.
Test for what you expect to happen, and for what you expect to not
happen: Think about both paths when writing examples, and test accordingly.
Test for edge cases: If you have a validation that requires a password be
between four and ten characters in length, dont just test an eight-character
password and call it good. A good set of tests would test at four and ten, as
well as at three and eleven. (Of course, you might also take the opportunity to
ask yourself why youd allow such short passwords, or not allow longer ones.
Testing is also a good opportunity to reflect on an applications requirements
and code.)

3. Model specs

33

Organize your specs for good readability: Use describe and context to
sort similar examples into an outline format, and before and after blocks
to remove duplication. However, in the case of tests readability trumps DRY
if you find yourself having to scroll up and down your spec too much, its okay
to repeat yourself a bit.
With a solid collection of model specs incorporated into your app, youre well on
your way to more trustworthy code. In the next chapter well apply and expand
upon the techniques covered here to application controllers.

Question
When should I use describe versus context? From RSpecs perspective, you can
use describe all the time, if youd like. Like many other aspects of RSpec, context
exists to make your specs more readable. You could take advantage of this to match
a condition, as Ive done in this chapter, or some other state in your application.

Exercises
So far weve assumed our specs arent returning false positivestheyve all gone from
pending to passing without failing somewhere in the middle. Verify specs by doing
the following:
Comment out the application code youre testing. For example, in our
example that validates the presence of a contacts first name, we could
comment out validates :firstname, presence: true, run the specs, and
watch it "is invalid without a firstname" fail. Uncomment it to see the
spec pass again.
Edit the parameters passed to the create method within the expectation.
This time, edit it "is invalid without a firstname" and give :firstname
a non-nil value. The spec should fail; replace it with nil to see it pass again.
http://lmws.net/describe-vs-context-in-rspec

About Everyday Rails

Everyday Rails is a blog about using the Ruby on Rails web application framework
to get stuff done as a web developer. Its about finding the best gems and techniques
to get the most from Rails and help you get your apps to production. Everyday Rails
can be found at http://everydayrails.com/

About the author

Aaron Sumner is a Ruby developer in the heart of Django country. Hes developed
web applications since the mid-1990s. In that time hes gone from developing CGI
with AppleScript (seriously) to Perl to PHP to Ruby and Rails. When off the clock
and away from the text editor, Aaron enjoys photography, baseball (go Cards), college
basketball (Rock Chalk Jayhawk), outdoor cooking, woodworking, and bowling. He
lives with his wife, Elise, along with five cats and a dog in rural Kansas.
Aarons personal blog is at http://www.aaronsumner.com/. Everyday Rails Testing
with RSpec is his first book.

Colophon
The cover image of a practical, reliable, red pickup truck is by iStockphoto
contributor Habman_18. I spent a lot of time reviewing photos for the covertoo
much time, probablybut picked this one because it represents my approach to Rails
testingnot flashy, and maybe not always the fastest way to get there, but solid and
dependable. And its red, like Ruby. Maybe it should have been green, like a passing
spec? Hmm.

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-16071171-old-truck-in-early-morning-light.php?st=1e7555f
http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=4151137