Rails Engine Setup with RSpec, Capybara, FactoryGirl, and DatabaseCleaner

rails_engine_setup.md

This sets up an easily testable mountable rails engine project

1. rails plugin new <project_name> -T -d postgresql --dummy-path=spec/dummy --skip-turbolinks --skip-spring --mountable

• -T skips the creation of the test directory and the use of Test::Unit
• --dummy-path=spec/dummy sets up your dummy app in a spec directory
• --skip-turbolinks & --skip-spring creates a project that does not use turbolinks or spring
• --mountable creates a "mountable" and namespace-isolated engine.

2. In project_name.gemspec file:

• s.add_development_dependency 'rspec-rails' - user rspec in place of minitest (docs)
• s.add_development_dependency 'capybara' - act as a user navigating your site in tests (docs)
• s.add_development_dependency 'factory_girl_rails' - easily generate database objects without repetitive code in tests (docs)
• s.add_development_dependency 'database_cleaner' - clean your database between tests (docs)

3. Bundle and install (bundle exec or rails g) where required, create additional required files

• bundle
• rails g rspec:install
• mkdir spec/support
• touch spec/support/factory_girl.rb
• touch spec/support/factories.rb
• touch spec/support/database_cleaner.rb

4. Add config data

• In spec/rails_helper.rb require 'capybara/rails'

  • Uncomment Dir[Rails.root.join('spec/support/**/*.rb')].each { |f| require f }
  • Change config.use_transactional_fixtures = true to ... = false

• In spec/support/factory_girl.rb

  RSpec.configure do |config|
    config.include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
  end
  
  

• In spec/support/factories.rb

  FactoryGirl.define do
    <factories for each model go here>
  end
  
  

• In spec/support/database_cleaner.rb

  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
    
    # Optional for formatting output of test suite runs (see comments)
    config.formatter = :documentation
  
  end