rspec users - Aug 2007 - DRY specs for RESTful controllers

Hi,

I''m developing a RESTful Rails application whose code and specs are  
becoming increasingly repetitive: every controller does pretty much  
the same set of things (give or take the occasional twiddle), for  
example, and so every controller spec is almost identical modulo some  
names, constants and strings.

The make_resourceful plugin, which autogenerates the boilerplate REST  
actions, has gone a long way towards DRYing out the controller side  
of things, but I haven''t seen any examples of nice patterns for doing  
something similar on the spec side.

I''m starting small here: I don''t even know what the authorised
idiom
is for sharing behaviours between specs, since I''ve only used shared  
behaviours within a single spec. (Stick something -- a behaviour?  
some kind of helper? -- in a module? What to call the module file?;  
where to put it?) Furthermore it''s obvious that I don''t want
just to
"inherit" a single static spec across multiple controllers, but  
rather to instantiate a parameterised spec so that it talks about the  
right classes, the right routes, the right instance variable.  
*Furthermore* furthermore, controllers occasionally deviate from the  
standard RESTful template in a variety of ways, so it''d be nice to be  
able to "override" the appropriate bits after declaring that  
it_should_behave_like "ARestfulController" (or whatever).

I fear the solution to my requirements is ultimately on par with  
implementing some kind of make_resourceful-for-specs plugin, which is  
way beyond what I''ve got time to do at the moment, but I still feel  
there''s plenty of room for gentle incremental improvement on my  
current position without going crazy with speculative generality. Any  
advice much appreciated!

Cheers,
-Tom

On 8/29/07, Tom Stuart <tom at experthuman.com>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I''m developing a RESTful Rails application whose code and specs
are
> becoming increasingly repetitive: every controller does pretty much
> the same set of things (give or take the occasional twiddle), for
> example, and so every controller spec is almost identical modulo some
> names, constants and strings.
>
> The make_resourceful plugin, which autogenerates the boilerplate REST
> actions, has gone a long way towards DRYing out the controller side
> of things, but I haven''t seen any examples of nice patterns for
doing
> something similar on the spec side.
>
> I''m starting small here: I don''t even know what the
authorised idiom
> is for sharing behaviours between specs, since I''ve only used
shared
> behaviours within a single spec. (Stick something -- a behaviour?
> some kind of helper? -- in a module? What to call the module file?;
> where to put it?) Furthermore it''s obvious that I don''t
want just to
> "inherit" a single static spec across multiple controllers, but
> rather to instantiate a parameterised spec so that it talks about the
> right classes, the right routes, the right instance variable.
There has been discussion of parameterized shared behaviours, but the
current implementation doesn''t do that. I just added a feature request
for this outlining my thoughts on how it should work:
http://rubyforge.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=13487&group_id=797&atid=3152.
Please feel free to add comments to that item in the tracker. You can
add them here, but they''ll likely get lost if you do. Adding them to
the tracker ensures that when we go to implement something your
comments are considered.

Cheers,
David
> *Furthermore* furthermore, controllers occasionally deviate from the
> standard RESTful template in a variety of ways, so it''d be nice to
be
> able to "override" the appropriate bits after declaring that
> it_should_behave_like "ARestfulController" (or whatever).
>
> I fear the solution to my requirements is ultimately on par with
> implementing some kind of make_resourceful-for-specs plugin, which is
> way beyond what I''ve got time to do at the moment, but I still
feel
> there''s plenty of room for gentle incremental improvement on my
> current position without going crazy with speculative generality. Any
> advice much appreciated!
>
> Cheers,
> -Tom
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
>

On 29 Aug 2007, at 14:44, David Chelimsky wrote:
> I just added a feature request for this outlining my thoughts on  
> how it should work:
> Please feel free to add comments to that item in the tracker.
Thanks a lot, David, I''ll read and respond to that.

In the meantime, assuming one is restricted to using shared  
behaviours as they stand, what''s the tidiest way to share a shared  
behaviour (IYSWIM) among several specs?

Cheers,
-Tom