Shoulda - Making tests easy on the fingers and eyes¶ ↑

Shoulda makes it easy to write elegant, understandable, and maintainable tests. Shoulda consists of test macros, assertions, and helpers added on to the Test::Unit framework. It’s fully compatible with your existing tests, and requires no retooling to use.

Helpers

#context and #should give you RSpec like test blocks. In addition, you get nested contexts and a much more readable syntax.

Macros

Generate hundreds of lines of Controller and ActiveRecord tests with these powerful macros. They get you started quickly, and can help you ensure that your application is conforming to best practices.

Assertions

Many common rails testing idioms have been distilled into a set of useful assertions.

Matchers

Rspec-compatible matchers providing the same tests as Shoulda macros.

Usage¶ ↑

Context Helpers (Shoulda::Context)¶ ↑

Stop killing your fingers with all of those underscores… Name your tests with plain sentences!

class UserTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
  context "A User instance" do
    setup do
      @user = User.find(:first)
    end

    should "return its full name" do
      assert_equal 'John Doe', @user.full_name
    end

    context "with a profile" do
      setup do
        @user.profile = Profile.find(:first)
      end

      should "return true when sent #has_profile?" do
        assert @user.has_profile?
      end
    end
  end
end

Produces the following test methods:

"test: A User instance should return its full name."
"test: A User instance with a profile should return true when sent #has_profile?."

So readable!

ActiveRecord Tests (Shoulda::ActiveRecord::Macros)¶ ↑

Quick macro tests for your ActiveRecord associations and validations:

class PostTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
  fixtures :all

  should belong_to(:user)
  should have_many(:tags).through(:taggings)

  should validate_uniqueness_of(:title)
  should validate_presence_of(:body).with_message(/wtf/)
  should validate_presence_of(:title)
  should validate_numericality_of(:user_id)
end

class UserTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
  should have_many(:posts)

  should_not allow_value("blah").for(:email)
  should_not allow_value("b lah").for(:email)
  should allow_value("[email protected]").for(:email)
  should allow_value("[email protected]").for(:email)
  should ensure_inclusion_of(:email).in_range(1..100)
  should ensure_inclusion_of(:age).in_range(1..100)
  should_not allow_mass_assignment_of(:password)
end

Makes TDD so much easier.

Controller Tests (Shoulda::Controller::Macros)¶ ↑

Macros to test the most common controller patterns…

class PostsControllerTest < ActionController::TestCase
  context "on GET to :show for first record" do
    setup do
      get :show, :id => 1
    end

    should assign_to(:user)
    should respond_with(:success)
    should render_template(:show)
    should_not set_the_flash

    should "do something else really cool" do
      assert_equal 1, assigns(:user).id
    end
  end
end

Helpful Assertions (Shoulda::Assertions)¶ ↑

More to come here, but have fun with what’s there.

assert_same_elements([:a, :b, :c], [:c, :a, :b])
assert_contains(['a', '1'], /\d/)
assert_contains(['a', '1'], 'a')

Rails Installation (Test::Unit)¶ ↑

Specify the gem dependency in your config/environment.rb file:

Rails::Initializer.run do |config|
  config.gem "shoulda", :lib => "shoulda"
end

Then:

$ rake gems:install
$ rake gems:unpack

Rails Installation (RSpec)¶ ↑

If you’re using Shoulda with RSpec, we recommend that you add config.gem lines for RSpec and Shoulda in your config/environment/test.rb file, but do not ask Rails to load the RSpec and Shoulda libraries:

config.gem 'rspec',       :lib => false
config.gem 'rspec-rails', :lib => false
config.gem 'shoulda',     :lib => false

Then require shoulda from your spec/spec_helper.rb file, before Spec::Runner is configured:

# requires for RSpec
require 'shoulda'
Spec::Runner.configure do |config|
# ...

You should not need to require anything besides the top-level shoulda library.

Credits¶ ↑

Shoulda is maintained and funded by thougthbot

License¶ ↑

Shoulda is Copyright © 2006-2010 Tammer Saleh, Thoughtbot. It is free software, and may be redistributed under the terms specified in the MIT-LICENSE file.