gistfile1.txt

Note, the "don't stub external APIs" is a rule, but like all design/testing rules it *should* be broken with good judgement. Furthermore, like all design/testing rules, the best way to learn when to break it is to follow it rigorously until it leads you to a bad place.

Problems
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- Stubbing external APIs gives you no design feedback: you cannot change the third party API (unless you monkey patch, but seriously, Fuck That Shit. Since stubbing/mocking are primarily a design tool (for me), having to stub/mock something I cannot/will not change seems pointless.
- Stubbing a third party API relies on you having intimate understanding of the docs, including error conditions, timeouts etc. I'm not confident in my ability to successfully stub a third party API on each conditions.

The Solution
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- Wrap every third party API you use in a wrapper that lets your domain code express itself cleanly.
- Write integrated tests around your third party wrappers. The wrappers should be extremely thin.
- VCR is *really* quite good, and lets you have fast (enough) tests that use external HTTP apis, *without* you doing any stubbing/mocking.