01 example_spec.rb

require 'rspec'

describe "Behaviour" do
  it "should pass" do
    true.should eq true
  end

  it "should fail" do
    true.should eq false
  end

  it "should pending"
end

02 rspec_runner.rb

require 'rspec'
require 'rspec/core/formatters/json_formatter'

config = RSpec.configuration
json_formatter = RSpec::Core::Formatters::JsonFormatter.new(config.out)

# create reporter with json formatter
reporter =  RSpec::Core::Reporter.new(json_formatter)
# set reporter for rspec configuration
config.instance_variable_set(:@reporter, reporter)

# execute rspec runner
# 'example_spec.rb' is the location of the spec file
RSpec::Core::Runner.run(['example_spec.rb'])

# output test result as json
# see example output in `rspec_json_formatter_result.rb`
puts json_formatter.output_hash

03 rspec_json_formatter_result.rb

{
    :examples => [{:description => "should pass",
        :full_description => "Behaviour should pass",
        :status => "passed",
        :file_path => "./my_spec.rb",
        :line_number => 4
    }, {:description => "should fail",
        :full_description => "Behaviour should fail",
        :status => "failed",
        :file_path => "./my_spec.rb",
        :line_number => 8,
        :exception => {:class => "RSpec::Expectations::ExpectationNotMetError",
            :message => "\nexpected:false\n     got:true\n\n(compared using ==)\n",
            :backtrace => ["/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-expectations-2.12.1/lib/rspec/expectations/fail_with.rb:33:in `fail_with'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-expectations-2.12.1/lib/rspec/expectations/handler.rb:31:in `handle_matcher'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-expectations-2.12.1/lib/rspec/expectations/syntax.rb:53:in `should'", "/Users/jing/Documents/other/test/my_spec.rb:9:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:114:in `instance_eval'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:114:in `block in run'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:254:in `with_around_each_hooks'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:111:in `run'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:388:in `block in run_examples'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:384:in `map'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:384:in `run_examples'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:369:in `run'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/command_line.rb:28:in `block (2 levels) in run'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/command_line.rb:28:in `map'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/command_line.rb:28:in `block in run'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/reporter.rb:34:in `report'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/command_line.rb:25:in `run'", "/Users/jing/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rspec-core-2.12.2/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:80:in `run'", "runner.rb:19:in `<main>'"]
        }
    }, {:description => "should pending",
        :full_description => "Behaviour should pending",
        :status => "pending",
        :file_path => "./my_spec.rb",
        :line_number => 12
    }],
    :summary => {:duration => 0.001543,
        :example_count => 3,
        :failure_count => 1,
        :pending_count => 1
    },
    :summary_line => "3 examples, 1 failure, 1 pending"
}

having a hard time getting this to work.

using config.out to initialize the JsonFormatter object results in this:

rspec_runner.rb:6:in `<main>': undefined method `out' for #<RSpec::Core::Configuration:0x007ff753856ea0> (NoMethodError)

replacing that with $stdout or any StringIO object works, but then I run into this:

/Users/jrobinson/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p448/gems/rspec-core-3.0.3/lib/rspec/core/reporter.rb:63:in `start': undefined method `start_time' for #<RSpec::Core::Formatters::JsonFormatter:0x007fab5b920618> (NoMethodError)
    from /Users/jrobinson/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p448/gems/rspec-core-3.0.3/lib/rspec/core/reporter.rb:52:in `report'
    from /Users/jrobinson/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p448/gems/rspec-core-3.0.3/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:108:in `run_specs'
    from /Users/jrobinson/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p448/gems/rspec-core-3.0.3/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:86:in `run'
    from /Users/jrobinson/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p448/gems/rspec-core-3.0.3/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:70:in `run'
    from rspec_runner.rb:14:in `<main>'

the code:

require 'rspec'
require 'rspec/core/formatters/json_formatter'

config = RSpec.configuration
config.color = false

output = StringIO.new

json_formatter = RSpec::Core::Formatters::JsonFormatter.new(output)
reporter =  RSpec::Core::Reporter.new(json_formatter)
config.instance_variable_set(:@reporter, reporter)

RSpec::Core::Runner.run(['./test_spec.rb'])

This should work:

require 'rspec'
require 'rspec/core/formatters/json_formatter'

config = RSpec.configuration

formatter = RSpec::Core::Formatters::JsonFormatter.new(config.output_stream)

# create reporter with json formatter
reporter =  RSpec::Core::Reporter.new(config)
config.instance_variable_set(:@reporter, reporter)

# internal hack
# api may not be stable, make sure lock down Rspec version
loader = config.send(:formatter_loader)
notifications = loader.send(:notifications_for, RSpec::Core::Formatters::JsonFormatter)


reporter.register_listener(formatter, *notifications)

RSpec::Core::Runner.run(['spec.rb'])

p formatter.output_hash

This looks cool! How about If I would want to test programatically multiple sites using identical specs but just changing some variables. Something like this =>

  describe "frontpage" do
      before(:each) do
        visit "http://#{hostname}/"
      end

      it "should contain title: #{title}" do
        expect(page).to have_title "#{title}"
      end
    end

Is this a bad idea? How would you make it happen?

FYI, I'm working on the same thing.

if anyone can comment back on how to pass variables to rspec tests I would appreciate it!