rspec users - Jan 2008 - Story runner "macros"

I''ve gotten quite a bit out of Pat Maddox''s screencast
http://evang.eli.st/blog/2007/10/8/story-runner-top-to-bottom-screencast

One thing I''m not sure of is the feature where he writes things like:

   When "I POST to", "/articles", :post => {:title =>
"Title", :body
=> "Body") do | path, params|
        post_via_redirect path, params
   end

This bothers me because it seems an abrupt level jump.  Most of the
stories are written at a level where the goal donor can understand
them, For example, I''m pretty sure that the above when clause started
life as somethign more like

     When "I add an article"

I actually changed Pat''s example a bit to use article instead of post
to keep the domain and implementation nouns different.  I''d say that
the "add an article" form is easily understood by a client, but the
"POST to ", ... form is not.

When I try the parameterized form, I notice that the story runner only
reports the story as

   When I post to

So the output is even less useful for talking to the client.

Now I really like the idea of the parameterized stories, but the step
away from client-speak makes me shy away from them.  Is there a way to
get the power without loosing the intelligibility?

-- 
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/

On Jan 20, 2008 9:09 PM, Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Now I really like the idea of the parameterized stories, but the step
> away from client-speak makes me shy away from them.  Is there a way to
> get the power without loosing the intelligibility?
If I were to redo that, it would be something more like

When "I create an article titled ''The Title'' with a body
of ''this is the body''"

I totally agree that you should be speaking entirely in domain terms.
I''m still learning too :)

Also since this is related, for any Bay Area RSpec''ers, I''m
giving a
presentation on Story Runner at Tuesday''s meetup.  Check out
http://ruby.meetup.com/6/calendar/6665552/ for time and location info.

Pat

Pat Maddox wrote:
> On Jan 20, 2008 9:09 PM, Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale at gmail.com>
wrote:
>   
>> Now I really like the idea of the parameterized stories, but the step
>> away from client-speak makes me shy away from them.  Is there a way to
>> get the power without loosing the intelligibility?
>>     
>
> If I were to redo that, it would be something more like
>
> When "I create an article titled ''The Title'' with a
body of ''this is the body''"
>
> I totally agree that you should be speaking entirely in domain terms.
> I''m still learning too :)
>
> Also since this is related, for any Bay Area RSpec''ers,
I''m giving a
> presentation on Story Runner at Tuesday''s meetup.  Check out
> http://ruby.meetup.com/6/calendar/6665552/ for time and location info.
>
> Pat
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
>   

Rick,
If you haven''t already you should also check out webrat.  It allows you
to easily write steps that allow your stories to speak in terms of 
forms.. which is what my customers relate to the best.

Along the lines of what Pat was saying.. I still use steps like the one 
he suggested but I usually only use them in Give clauses... so stuff like:

Given "$resource exists in the system with $params" do |resource,
params|
    resource.gsub!(" ","_")
    
instance_variable_set("@#{resource}",resource.classify.constantize.create!(params.to_hash_from_story))
  end


class String
  # Coverts a string found in the steps into a hash.  Example:
  # ISBN: ''0967539854'' and comment: ''I love this
book'' and rating: ''4''
  #   => {"rating"=>"4",
"isbn"=>"0967539854", "comment"=>"I
love this
book"}
  def to_hash_from_story
    self.split(" and ").inject({}){ |hash_so_far, key_value|
                                              key, value = 
key_value.split(":").map{ |v| v.strip}
                                              
hash_so_far.merge(key.downcase =>
value.gsub("''",""))
                                            }
  end
end


-Ben

It sounds like what you really want is the plain text stories. David  
has a few good articles, and there have been some good ones on this  
list.

JD
On Jan 20, 2008, at 9:09 PM, Rick DeNatale wrote:
> I''ve gotten quite a bit out of Pat Maddox''s screencast
> http://evang.eli.st/blog/2007/10/8/story-runner-top-to-bottom-screencast
>
> One thing I''m not sure of is the feature where he writes things
like:
>
>   When "I POST to", "/articles", :post => {:title
=> "Title", :body
> => "Body") do | path, params|
>        post_via_redirect path, params
>   end
>
> This bothers me because it seems an abrupt level jump.  Most of the
> stories are written at a level where the goal donor can understand
> them, For example, I''m pretty sure that the above when clause
started
> life as somethign more like
>
>     When "I add an article"
>
> I actually changed Pat''s example a bit to use article instead of
post
> to keep the domain and implementation nouns different.  I''d say
that
> the "add an article" form is easily understood by a client, but
the
> "POST to ", ... form is not.
>
> When I try the parameterized form, I notice that the story runner only
> reports the story as
>
>   When I post to
>
> So the output is even less useful for talking to the client.
>
> Now I really like the idea of the parameterized stories, but the step
> away from client-speak makes me shy away from them.  Is there a way to
> get the power without loosing the intelligibility?
>
> -- 
> Rick DeNatale
>
> My blog on Ruby
> http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users