Rails 3.1 with Rspec, Factory Girl, Haml, Database Cleaner, Spork, and Guard

Install Rails 3.1

gem install rails

generate new app, skipping Test::Unit file generation

rails new my_app -T

Set up Gemfile

Add this to your Gemfile

gem 'haml-rails'
gem 'simple_form'

group :test, :development do
  gem "rspec-rails"
  gem 'rspec-instafail'
  gem 'rb-fsevent'
  gem 'growl'
  gem 'pry'
  gem 'factory_girl_rails'
  gem 'database_cleaner'
  gem "factory_girl_rails"
  gem "capybara"
  gem 'guard-spork'
  gem "guard-bundler"
  gem "guard-rspec"
  gem "guard-migrate"
end

Configure generators to use the gems we want, and skip view spec generation

# in config/application.rb

config.generators do |g|
  g.test_framework :rspec, :fixture => true
  g.fixture_replacement :factory_girl, :dir => 'spec/factories'
  g.template_engine :haml
end

turn on autoloading of lib directory and all its subdirectories

In Rails 3+, the lib directory is no longer autoloaded.

# in config/application.rb
config.autoload_paths += %W(#{config.root}/lib)
config.autoload_paths += Dir["#{config.root}/lib/**/"]

run install tasks for our gems

rails g rspec:install

Setup spork.

spork --bootstrap

Then edit spec/spec_helper.rb and move everything into the prefork section.

Setup database cleaner

Edit spec/spec_helper.rb.

Put this in the prefork section:

require 'database_cleaner'
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation

Put this in the each_run section:

DatabaseCleaner.clean

Factory Girl

Comment out the config.fixture_path line in spec/spec_helper.rb...the comment above implies it shouldn't be used if we're not using ActiveRecord fixtures.

RSpec Instafail

echo '--colour
--drb
--require rspec/instafail
--format RSpec::Instafail' > .rspec

The --drb is needed for spork and --colour is for color, because it's pretty.

Pry

In your config/environments/development.rb, near the end before the YourAppName::Application.configure block, put this:

silence_warnings do
  begin
    require 'pry'
    IRB = Pry
  rescue LoadError
  end
end

Now rails c will startup using pry. You can also add bindings.pry anyplace and your app will stop there with a pry prompt until you exit it.

Guard

Run these commands:

guard init
guard init bundler
guard init spork
guard init migrate
guard init rspec

You may have to monkey withy our Guardfile some but the order should be right.

docwhat/rails31init.md