rspec users - Mar 2010 - how to pass objects from spec to formatter from before :all block?

Hello.

I need to pass something from before :all to formatter. I know that i
could use options hash from spec and then get the value back in
formatter, but it doesn''t work when i''m doing it from before
:all.

So, this work:

# in spec
before :each do
  options[:something] = 1
end

# in formatter
def example_failed(example, counter, failure)
  puts example.options[:something] # outputs 1
  super
end

But if i try to do the same thing from before :all, then it doesn''t
work.

So i looked into the source of RSpec and in example/example_methods.rb
in method set_instance_variables_from_hash there is a line which
ignores some instance variables among with others @_proxy, which has
this option hash initialized in before :all and that''s why
it''s not
getting into the formatter - in other words it is just dropped.

Is this a bug or expected behaviour? If it''s expected then
what''s the
reason and how could i get the desired results of passing something to
formatter from before :all?

Can''t we just pass this options hash along?

Jarmo

On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 11:09 AM, Jarmo Pertman <jarmo.p at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hello.
>
> I need to pass something from before :all to formatter. I know that i
> could use options hash from spec and then get the value back in
> formatter, but it doesn''t work when i''m doing it from
before :all.
>
> So, this work:
>
> # in spec
> before :each do
> ?options[:something] = 1
> end
>
> # in formatter
> def example_failed(example, counter, failure)
> ?puts example.options[:something] # outputs 1
> ?super
> end
>
> But if i try to do the same thing from before :all, then it
doesn''t
> work.
>
> So i looked into the source of RSpec and in example/example_methods.rb
> in method set_instance_variables_from_hash there is a line which
> ignores some instance variables among with others @_proxy, which has
> this option hash initialized in before :all and that''s why
it''s not
> getting into the formatter - in other words it is just dropped.
>
> Is this a bug or expected behaviour? If it''s expected then
what''s the
> reason and how could i get the desired results of passing something to
> formatter from before :all?
>
> Can''t we just pass this options hash along?
It was never intended that you would set values on options from inside
an example and access them in a formatter. You''ve happened on
something that just happens to work because we''re using a standard
Ruby data structure.

The reason it won''t work for before(:all) is that before(:all) gets
run before any of the examples are run - so it doesn''t have access to
the options hash, which is created per example in rspec-1.

What sort of information are you trying to get to your formatter?
Maybe there is a different way to do it.

Since i''m using Watir then i usually open up the browser in
before :all block like this:
before :all do
  @browser = Watir::Browser.new
end

and then in the formatter I''m saving html of the browser - thus
needing to access the browser object.

I could solve it currently by using before :each block as shown in my
first post or a global variable (not nice at all), but i thought that
it would be more logical to set it into options in before :all once.

Also, if using before :each solution and something fails in
before :all, then formatter doesn''t know currently anything about the
browser object and cannot save the html or anything. It''s little bit
bad, since let''s say if i do also some "setup actions" in
before :all
before the actual tests and what if something fails there?

But what would happen if example_group options would be merged with
example options?

Any other solutions?

Jarmo

On Mar 6, 7:28?pm, David Chelimsky <dchelim... at gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 11:09 AM, Jarmo Pertman <jarm... at gmail.com>
wrote:
> > Hello.
>
> > I need to pass something from before :all to formatter. I know that i
> > could use options hash from spec and then get the value back in
> > formatter, but it doesn''t work when i''m doing it
from before :all.
>
> > So, this work:
>
> > # in spec
> > before :each do
> > ?options[:something] = 1
> > end
>
> > # in formatter
> > def example_failed(example, counter, failure)
> > ?puts example.options[:something] # outputs 1
> > ?super
> > end
>
> > But if i try to do the same thing from before :all, then it
doesn''t
> > work.
>
> > So i looked into the source of RSpec and in example/example_methods.rb
> > in method set_instance_variables_from_hash there is a line which
> > ignores some instance variables among with others @_proxy, which has
> > this option hash initialized in before :all and that''s why
it''s not
> > getting into the formatter - in other words it is just dropped.
>
> > Is this a bug or expected behaviour? If it''s expected then
what''s the
> > reason and how could i get the desired results of passing something to
> > formatter from before :all?
>
> > Can''t we just pass this options hash along?
>
> It was never intended that you would set values on options from inside
> an example and access them in a formatter. You''ve happened on
> something that just happens to work because we''re using a standard
> Ruby data structure.
>
> The reason it won''t work for before(:all) is that before(:all)
gets
> run before any of the examples are run - so it doesn''t have access
to
> the options hash, which is created per example in rspec-1.
>
> What sort of information are you trying to get to your formatter?
> Maybe there is a different way to do it.
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-us... at
rubyforge.orghttp://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users

On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 12:33 PM, Jarmo Pertman <jarmo.p at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Since i''m using Watir
> then i usually open up the browser in
> before :all block like this:
> before :all do
> ?@browser = Watir::Browser.new
> end
>
> and then in the formatter I''m saving html of the browser - thus
> needing to access the browser object.
You should have access to it from within each example. This would be a
bit noisier, but you could do this:

before(:all) do
  @browser = Watir::Browser.new
end
before(:each) do
  options[:browser] = @browser
end

Even though that''s noisier, you could easily encapsulate that in a
method:

def with_new_browser
  before(:all) do
    @browser = Watir::Browser.new
  end
  before(:each) do
    options[:browser] = @browser
  end
  yield
end

describe "the home page" do
  with_new_browser do
    it "looks awesome" do
      # ....
    end
    it "takes you where you want to go" do
      # ...
    end
  end
end
> I could solve it currently by using before :each block as shown in my
> first post or a global variable (not nice at all), but i thought that
> it would be more logical to set it into options in before :all once.
>
> Also, if using before :each solution and something fails in
> before :all, then formatter doesn''t know currently anything about
the
> browser object and cannot save the html or anything. It''s little
bit
> bad, since let''s say if i do also some "setup actions"
in before :all
> before the actual tests and what if something fails there?
after(:each) and after(:all) are guaranteed to run regardless of what
happens in before(:each), before(:all), and the examples
themselves. So you could deliver the browser there:

def with_new_browser
  before(:all) do
    @browser = Watir::Browser.new
  end
  yield
  after(:each) do
    options[:browser] = @browser
  end
end
> But what would happen if example_group options would be merged with
> example options?
In rspec-1 that would be problematic, but this is already supported in
rspec-2 out of the box, so you may want to give rspec-2 a try.
>
> Any other solutions?
>
> Jarmo
>
> On Mar 6, 7:28?pm, David Chelimsky <dchelim... at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 11:09 AM, Jarmo Pertman <jarm... at
gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Hello.
>>
>> > I need to pass something from before :all to formatter. I know
that i
>> > could use options hash from spec and then get the value back in
>> > formatter, but it doesn''t work when i''m doing it
from before :all.
>>
>> > So, this work:
>>
>> > # in spec
>> > before :each do
>> > ?options[:something] = 1
>> > end
>>
>> > # in formatter
>> > def example_failed(example, counter, failure)
>> > ?puts example.options[:something] # outputs 1
>> > ?super
>> > end
>>
>> > But if i try to do the same thing from before :all, then it
doesn''t
>> > work.
>>
>> > So i looked into the source of RSpec and in
example/example_methods.rb
>> > in method set_instance_variables_from_hash there is a line which
>> > ignores some instance variables among with others @_proxy, which
has
>> > this option hash initialized in before :all and that''s
why it''s not
>> > getting into the formatter - in other words it is just dropped.
>>
>> > Is this a bug or expected behaviour? If it''s expected
then what''s the
>> > reason and how could i get the desired results of passing
something to
>> > formatter from before :all?
>>
>> > Can''t we just pass this options hash along?
>>
>> It was never intended that you would set values on options from inside
>> an example and access them in a formatter. You''ve happened on
>> something that just happens to work because we''re using a
standard
>> Ruby data structure.
>>
>> The reason it won''t work for before(:all) is that before(:all)
gets
>> run before any of the examples are run - so it doesn''t have
access to
>> the options hash, which is created per example in rspec-1.
>>
>> What sort of information are you trying to get to your formatter?
>> Maybe there is a different way to do it.
>> _______________________________________________
>> rspec-users mailing list
>> rspec-us... at
rubyforge.orghttp://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
>

Thank you for your thoughts. Unfortunately it seems that after :each
is not run if before :all fails...

And after :all is ran after example_failed in formatter. Consider spec
like this:

describe "something" do
  before :all do
    p "before"
    raise
  end

  it "does" do
    p "it"
  end

  after :each do
    p "each"
  end

  after :all do
    p "all"
  end
end

Output of it will be:
"before"
F"all"

In other words, I''d have to put @browser into options in before :all
AND in after :each. After :each is actually a good place, because then
if @browser object is changed within the it block, then formatter gets
correct browser object nevertheless. It will be messier of course, but
I thought that I''d use Spec::Runner.configure in spec_helper or
somewhere:
Spec::Runner.configure do |config|
  config.before(:all) {@browser = options[:browser] Watir::Browser.new}
  config.after(:each) {options[:browser] = @browser}
end

Does it make sense? In that way i wouldn''t have to write my specs by
using any custom way (like you demonstrated with your method
with_new_browser.

It would be great of course if i wouldn''t have to fill options two
times.

Jarmo

On Mar 7, 3:12?pm, David Chelimsky <dchelim... at gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 12:33 PM, Jarmo Pertman <jarm... at gmail.com>
wrote:
> > Since i''m using Watir
> > then i usually open up the browser in
> > before :all block like this:
> > before :all do
> > ?@browser = Watir::Browser.new
> > end
>
> > and then in the formatter I''m saving html of the browser -
thus
> > needing to access the browser object.
>
> You should have access to it from within each example. This would be a
> bit noisier, but you could do this:
>
> before(:all) do
> ? @browser = Watir::Browser.new
> end
> before(:each) do
> ? options[:browser] = @browser
> end
>
> Even though that''s noisier, you could easily encapsulate that in a
method:
>
> def with_new_browser
> ? before(:all) do
> ? ? @browser = Watir::Browser.new
> ? end
> ? before(:each) do
> ? ? options[:browser] = @browser
> ? end
> ? yield
> end
>
> describe "the home page" do
> ? with_new_browser do
> ? ? it "looks awesome" do
> ? ? ? # ....
> ? ? end
> ? ? it "takes you where you want to go" do
> ? ? ? # ...
> ? ? end
> ? end
> end
>
> > I could solve it currently by using before :each block as shown in my
> > first post or a global variable (not nice at all), but i thought that
> > it would be more logical to set it into options in before :all once.
>
> > Also, if using before :each solution and something fails in
> > before :all, then formatter doesn''t know currently anything
about the
> > browser object and cannot save the html or anything. It''s
little bit
> > bad, since let''s say if i do also some "setup
actions" in before :all
> > before the actual tests and what if something fails there?
>
> after(:each) and after(:all) are guaranteed to run regardless of what
> happens in before(:each), before(:all), and the examples
> themselves. So you could deliver the browser there:
>
> def with_new_browser
> ? before(:all) do
> ? ? @browser = Watir::Browser.new
> ? end
> ? yield
> ? after(:each) do
> ? ? options[:browser] = @browser
> ? end
> end
>
> > But what would happen if example_group options would be merged with
> > example options?
>
> In rspec-1 that would be problematic, but this is already supported in
> rspec-2 out of the box, so you may want to give rspec-2 a try.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Any other solutions?
>
> > Jarmo
>
> > On Mar 6, 7:28?pm, David Chelimsky <dchelim... at gmail.com>
wrote:
> >> On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 11:09 AM, Jarmo Pertman <jarm... at
gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > Hello.
>
> >> > I need to pass something from before :all to formatter. I
know that i
> >> > could use options hash from spec and then get the value back
in
> >> > formatter, but it doesn''t work when i''m
doing it from before :all.
>
> >> > So, this work:
>
> >> > # in spec
> >> > before :each do
> >> > ?options[:something] = 1
> >> > end
>
> >> > # in formatter
> >> > def example_failed(example, counter, failure)
> >> > ?puts example.options[:something] # outputs 1
> >> > ?super
> >> > end
>
> >> > But if i try to do the same thing from before :all, then it
doesn''t
> >> > work.
>
> >> > So i looked into the source of RSpec and in
example/example_methods.rb
> >> > in method set_instance_variables_from_hash there is a line
which
> >> > ignores some instance variables among with others @_proxy,
which has
> >> > this option hash initialized in before :all and
that''s why it''s not
> >> > getting into the formatter - in other words it is just
dropped.
>
> >> > Is this a bug or expected behaviour? If it''s
expected then what''s the
> >> > reason and how could i get the desired results of passing
something to
> >> > formatter from before :all?
>
> >> > Can''t we just pass this options hash along?
>
> >> It was never intended that you would set values on options from
inside
> >> an example and access them in a formatter. You''ve
happened on
> >> something that just happens to work because we''re using a
standard
> >> Ruby data structure.
>
> >> The reason it won''t work for before(:all) is that
before(:all) gets
> >> run before any of the examples are run - so it doesn''t
have access to
> >> the options hash, which is created per example in rspec-1.
>
> >> What sort of information are you trying to get to your formatter?
> >> Maybe there is a different way to do it.
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> rspec-users mailing list
> >> rspec-us... at
rubyforge.orghttp://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
> > _______________________________________________
> > rspec-users mailing list
> > rspec-us... at rubyforge.org
> >http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
>
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-us... at
rubyforge.orghttp://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users

On Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 7:47 AM, Jarmo Pertman <jarmo.p at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Thank you for your thoughts. Unfortunately it seems that after :each
> is not run if before :all fails...
>
> And after :all is ran after example_failed in formatter. Consider spec
> like this:
>
> describe "something" do
> ?before :all do
> ? ?p "before"
> ? ?raise
> ?end
>
> ?it "does" do
> ? ?p "it"
> ?end
>
> ?after :each do
> ? ?p "each"
> ?end
>
> ?after :all do
> ? ?p "all"
> ?end
> end
>
> Output of it will be:
> "before"
> F"all"
>
> In other words, I''d have to put @browser into options in before
:all
> AND in after :each. After :each is actually a good place, because then
> if @browser object is changed within the it block, then formatter gets
> correct browser object nevertheless. It will be messier of course, but
> I thought that I''d use Spec::Runner.configure in spec_helper or
> somewhere:
> Spec::Runner.configure do |config|
> ?config.before(:all) {@browser = options[:browser] > Watir::Browser.new}
> ?config.after(:each) {options[:browser] = @browser}
> end
>
> Does it make sense? In that way i wouldn''t have to write my specs
by
> using any custom way (like you demonstrated with your method
> with_new_browser.
>
> It would be great of course if i wouldn''t have to fill options two
> times.
Again, there was never an intent to be able to modify the options hash
at all from within an example. The fact that you can in
before/after(:each) is an unintended by-product of the implementation,
and making it available in before(:all) would require some
re-architecting that is simply not going to happen in the context of
rspec-1 now that we''re actively working on rspec-2.

Rspec-2 does give you access to a metadata hash, which you can access
through a formal API from an example, before(:each) or after(:each):

describe "something" do
  it "does something" do
    running_example.metadata[:description].should eq("does something")
  end
end

At the moment you can''t access it in before(:all) because there is no
running_example yet, but we should be able to provide access to it
through a new API. I''ll look into that in rspec-2. I''ve added
an issue
for it: http://github.com/rspec/rspec-core/issues/issue/6

In the mean time, for better or worse, I''d stick with a global because
it works right now. That''s how I always did this sort of thing when I
was using rspec to drive WATIR or Selenium.

HTH,
David

>
> Jarmo
>
> On Mar 7, 3:12?pm, David Chelimsky <dchelim... at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 12:33 PM, Jarmo Pertman <jarm... at
gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Since i''m using Watir
>> > then i usually open up the browser in
>> > before :all block like this:
>> > before :all do
>> > ?@browser = Watir::Browser.new
>> > end
>>
>> > and then in the formatter I''m saving html of the browser
- thus
>> > needing to access the browser object.
>>
>> You should have access to it from within each example. This would be a
>> bit noisier, but you could do this:
>>
>> before(:all) do
>> ? @browser = Watir::Browser.new
>> end
>> before(:each) do
>> ? options[:browser] = @browser
>> end
>>
>> Even though that''s noisier, you could easily encapsulate that
in a method:
>>
>> def with_new_browser
>> ? before(:all) do
>> ? ? @browser = Watir::Browser.new
>> ? end
>> ? before(:each) do
>> ? ? options[:browser] = @browser
>> ? end
>> ? yield
>> end
>>
>> describe "the home page" do
>> ? with_new_browser do
>> ? ? it "looks awesome" do
>> ? ? ? # ....
>> ? ? end
>> ? ? it "takes you where you want to go" do
>> ? ? ? # ...
>> ? ? end
>> ? end
>> end
>>
>> > I could solve it currently by using before :each block as shown in
my
>> > first post or a global variable (not nice at all), but i thought
that
>> > it would be more logical to set it into options in before :all
once.
>>
>> > Also, if using before :each solution and something fails in
>> > before :all, then formatter doesn''t know currently
anything about the
>> > browser object and cannot save the html or anything. It''s
little bit
>> > bad, since let''s say if i do also some "setup
actions" in before :all
>> > before the actual tests and what if something fails there?
>>
>> after(:each) and after(:all) are guaranteed to run regardless of what
>> happens in before(:each), before(:all), and the examples
>> themselves. So you could deliver the browser there:
>>
>> def with_new_browser
>> ? before(:all) do
>> ? ? @browser = Watir::Browser.new
>> ? end
>> ? yield
>> ? after(:each) do
>> ? ? options[:browser] = @browser
>> ? end
>> end
>>
>> > But what would happen if example_group options would be merged
with
>> > example options?
>>
>> In rspec-1 that would be problematic, but this is already supported in
>> rspec-2 out of the box, so you may want to give rspec-2 a try.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > Any other solutions?
>>
>> > Jarmo
>>
>> > On Mar 6, 7:28?pm, David Chelimsky <dchelim... at gmail.com>
wrote:
>> >> On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 11:09 AM, Jarmo Pertman <jarm... at
gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> > Hello.
>>
>> >> > I need to pass something from before :all to formatter. I
know that i
>> >> > could use options hash from spec and then get the value
back in
>> >> > formatter, but it doesn''t work when i''m
doing it from before :all.
>>
>> >> > So, this work:
>>
>> >> > # in spec
>> >> > before :each do
>> >> > ?options[:something] = 1
>> >> > end
>>
>> >> > # in formatter
>> >> > def example_failed(example, counter, failure)
>> >> > ?puts example.options[:something] # outputs 1
>> >> > ?super
>> >> > end
>>
>> >> > But if i try to do the same thing from before :all, then
it doesn''t
>> >> > work.
>>
>> >> > So i looked into the source of RSpec and in
example/example_methods.rb
>> >> > in method set_instance_variables_from_hash there is a
line which
>> >> > ignores some instance variables among with others
@_proxy, which has
>> >> > this option hash initialized in before :all and
that''s why it''s not
>> >> > getting into the formatter - in other words it is just
dropped.
>>
>> >> > Is this a bug or expected behaviour? If it''s
expected then what''s the
>> >> > reason and how could i get the desired results of passing
something to
>> >> > formatter from before :all?
>>
>> >> > Can''t we just pass this options hash along?
>>
>> >> It was never intended that you would set values on options
from inside
>> >> an example and access them in a formatter. You''ve
happened on
>> >> something that just happens to work because we''re
using a standard
>> >> Ruby data structure.
>>
>> >> The reason it won''t work for before(:all) is that
before(:all) gets
>> >> run before any of the examples are run - so it
doesn''t have access to
>> >> the options hash, which is created per example in rspec-1.
>>
>> >> What sort of information are you trying to get to your
formatter?
>> >> Maybe there is a different way to do it.
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> rspec-users mailing list
>> >> rspec-us... at
rubyforge.orghttp://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > rspec-users mailing list
>> > rspec-us... at rubyforge.org
>> >http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> rspec-users mailing list
>> rspec-us... at
rubyforge.orghttp://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
>