Learning Rails

Testing Rails Code

Ruby on Rails incorporates tools that facilitate best practices when it comes to testing your code. Whether you leverage the built-in Test::Unit framework or add one of many more advanced testing tools, you can begin to build a "quality safety net" through a collection of unit, functional, and integration tests. We'll walk through how to get started writing and using tests, touch on some testing methodologies such as TDD and BDD, and get you familiar with the tools that will help maintain the quality of your application.

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Testing Rails Code

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Lesson 7
Testing Rails Code

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The heart of the lesson is the audio; these notes are supplementary. So please listen to the audio, or read the transcript, before making use of these notes.

Code Examples

Here’s an example of using asserts. Suppose you have a test that searches for a non-existent podcast episode; you’d want to assert that the result was nil. The test case code would read:

def test_podcast_does_not_exist
  podcast = Podcast.find_by_title('Intro')
  assert_nil podcast
end

Another example checking to see if the test database contains three podcasts loaded from fixtures might read:

def test_three_podcasts_exist
  assert_equal, Podcast.find(:all), 3
end

Here’s an example of a fixture, illustrating how fixtures can use model associations. An entry in the podcast.yml file might read:

episodeone:
  name: Introductory Podcast
  listeners: anne, bob, charlie

and entries in the listeners.yml file would read:

anne:
  name: Anne
  podcast: episodeone

bob:
  name: Bob 
  podcast: episodeone

charlie:
  name: Charlie
  podcast: episodeone

Links to More Resources

See the following sections of the site for links to resources on testing:

Reader Comments

12 comments

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From: Rohit middha, 04/26/10 10:12 PM

Hello, www.buildingwebapps.com,Myself Rohit middha from india. i have persuaing my b.tech in IT field. Please check your website under this page http://www.buildingwebapps.com/podcasts/79332-testing-rails-code/24793-show-notes and the click on links,, the links are not redirected to a specified result.. pls check this and solve the problems.. Thank you.

Pls Update ur Web Site