rspec users - Jan 2007 - A spec where interaction-based testing breaks down... (at least for now)

Here are the specs:
context "Finding all the stylesheets available to a company" do
  setup do
    @mock_company = mock("company")
    @mock_company.stub!(:to_param).and_return "1"
    Stylesheet.stub!(:find)
  end

  def do_find
    Stylesheet.find_available_to @mock_company
  end

  specify "should convert the company into a parameter" do
    @mock_company.should_receive(:to_param).and_return "1"
    do_find
  end

  specify "should find stylesheets belonging to only the company or to
nobody" do
    Stylesheet.should_receive(:find).with(:all, :conditions =>
["company_id IS NULL OR company_id=?", "1"])
    do_find
  end
end

And here''s the code:
class Stylesheet < ActiveRecord::Base
  def self.find_available_to(company)
    find :all, :conditions => ["company_id IS NULL OR
company_id=?",
company.to_param]
  end
end

You can see that the implementation is duplicated.  In fact, I wrote
the implementation in the spec and then basically just copied it over.

That bugs me.

The obvious way to fix it would be to create a couple stylesheet
entries in the database, run the query, and see if it matches the
expected results.

The only benefit of the current approach (that I can see) is that the
behavior is explicit.  If you''ve just got the results, you have to
mentally link them to the query.

Anyway I''m just sort of stuck on this one.  I think there''s a
much
better way that is evading me.

Pat

On 1/24/07, Pat Maddox <pergesu at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Here are the specs:
> context "Finding all the stylesheets available to a company" do
>   setup do
>     @mock_company = mock("company")
>     @mock_company.stub!(:to_param).and_return "1"
>     Stylesheet.stub!(:find)
>   end
>
>   def do_find
>     Stylesheet.find_available_to @mock_company
>   end
>
>   specify "should convert the company into a parameter" do
>     @mock_company.should_receive(:to_param).and_return "1"
>     do_find
>   end
>
>   specify "should find stylesheets belonging to only the company or to
> nobody" do
>     Stylesheet.should_receive(:find).with(:all, :conditions =>
> ["company_id IS NULL OR company_id=?", "1"])
>     do_find
>   end
> end
>
> And here''s the code:
> class Stylesheet < ActiveRecord::Base
>   def self.find_available_to(company)
>     find :all, :conditions => ["company_id IS NULL OR
company_id=?",
> company.to_param]
>   end
> end
>
> You can see that the implementation is duplicated.  In fact, I wrote
> the implementation in the spec and then basically just copied it over.
>
> That bugs me.
>
> The obvious way to fix it would be to create a couple stylesheet
> entries in the database, run the query, and see if it matches the
> expected results.
>
> The only benefit of the current approach (that I can see) is that the
> behavior is explicit.  If you''ve just got the results, you have to
> mentally link them to the query.
>
> Anyway I''m just sort of stuck on this one.  I think
there''s a much
> better way that is evading me.
>
I wouldn''t use mocks for model specs. I''d test it against the
real database.

Aslak
> Pat
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
>

On 1/24/07, aslak hellesoy <aslak.hellesoy at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> On 1/24/07, Pat Maddox <pergesu at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Here are the specs:
> > context "Finding all the stylesheets available to a company"
do
> >   setup do
> >     @mock_company = mock("company")
> >     @mock_company.stub!(:to_param).and_return "1"
> >     Stylesheet.stub!(:find)
> >   end
> >
> >   def do_find
> >     Stylesheet.find_available_to @mock_company
> >   end
> >
> >   specify "should convert the company into a parameter" do
> >     @mock_company.should_receive(:to_param).and_return "1"
> >     do_find
> >   end
> >
> >   specify "should find stylesheets belonging to only the company
or to
> > nobody" do
> >     Stylesheet.should_receive(:find).with(:all, :conditions =>
> > ["company_id IS NULL OR company_id=?", "1"])
> >     do_find
> >   end
> > end
> >
> > And here''s the code:
> > class Stylesheet < ActiveRecord::Base
> >   def self.find_available_to(company)
> >     find :all, :conditions => ["company_id IS NULL OR
company_id=?",
> > company.to_param]
> >   end
> > end
> >
> > You can see that the implementation is duplicated.  In fact, I wrote
> > the implementation in the spec and then basically just copied it over.
> >
> > That bugs me.
> >
> > The obvious way to fix it would be to create a couple stylesheet
> > entries in the database, run the query, and see if it matches the
> > expected results.
> >
> > The only benefit of the current approach (that I can see) is that the
> > behavior is explicit.  If you''ve just got the results, you
have to
> > mentally link them to the query.
> >
> > Anyway I''m just sort of stuck on this one.  I think
there''s a much
> > better way that is evading me.
> >
>
> I wouldn''t use mocks for model specs. I''d test it against
the real
> database.
>
> Aslak

In addition to actually finding real records from the database for the
Stylesheet model (don''t stub find), I would also suggest that to_param
is
not the right method to use in this case. You''re stating that
company_id
should equal the url formatted string for a company (which it is typical to
overload to handle things like 10-name_of_company). Clearly your database
naming says company.id so it''s safer to just use company.id.

-Martin
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