An up-to-date testing environment setup for Rails 4, including RSpec, Capybara, and FactoryGirl.

Gems

Gems gonna used are:

• rspec/rspec-rails: BDD Testing Framework for Rails.
• jnicklas/capybara: Acceptance Testing Framework.
• thoughtbot/factory_girl_rails: Fixtures.
• bmabey/database_cleaner: Database Cleaning.

Gems not covered:

• jfirebaugh/konacha: JavaScript Testing for Rails (Mocha + Chai).
• jonleighton/poltergeist: PhantomJS driver for Capybara (JavaScript).
• thoughtbot/capybara-webkit: Webkit driver for Capybara (Alternative to PhantomJS)
• thoughtbot/shoulda-matchers: Collection of testing matchers

Gemfile

Include the following:

group :development do
  gem 'spring'
  gem 'spring-commands-rspec'
end

group :development, :test do
  gem 'rspec-rails', '~> 3.0.0'
  gem 'factory_girl_rails'
end

group :test do
  gem 'database_cleaner'
  gem 'capybara'
  gem 'shoulda-matchers', require: false
end

Setup

• Initialize RSpec with rails generate rspec:install.
• Create following directories mkdir spec/factories spec/features spec/support.
• Create Database Cleaner configuration spec/support/database_cleaner.rb.

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.before(:suite) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:deletion)
  end

  config.before(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
  end

  config.before(:each, :js => true) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :deletion
  end

  config.before(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.start
  end

  config.after(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end
end

• Create Factory Girl configuration spec/support/factory_girl.rb.

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

• Require Capybara in spec/rails_helper.rb, after require 'rspec/rails'.

require 'capybara/rails'
require 'shoulda/matchers'

• Uncomment code in spec/spec_helper.rb.
• Run bundle binstubs rspec-core to create a binstub for the rspec command so it can be run via bin/rspec.

Commands

RSpec

• rspec: run all specs.
• rspec spec/models: run all model specs.
• rspec spec/models/todo_spec.rb: run specs in a file.

RSpec provides generator rails generate rspec:model widget, which will create a new spec file in spec/models/widget_spec.rb.

Available generators: scaffold, model, controller, helper, view, mailer, observer, integration.

RSpec _spec file example:

require "rails_helper"

RSpec.describe User, :type => :model do
  it "orders by last name" do
    lindeman = User.create!(first_name: "Andy", last_name: "Lindeman")
    chelimsky = User.create!(first_name: "David", last_name: "Chelimsky")

    expect(User.ordered_by_last_name).to eq([chelimsky, lindeman])
  end
end

Additions

Include Routes URL helpers

To use root_path in specs, create spec/support/url_helpers.rb.

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers
end

Include I18n Shorthand

To use t instead of I18n.t in specs, create spec/support/i18n.rb.

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers
end

Include Helpers

Additional helpers can put in spec/support subdirectories.