rspec users - May 2011 - Newb struggling to get/keep RSpec stable

Long post but prolly simple if you understand Rails, RSpec &
differences between webrat & capybara.

I''m hoping someone can take a few moments to help me get a better
understanding of my environment. I have a somewhat intermediate
understanding of Ruby/Rails but a beginner''s understanding of RSpec. I
have purchased The RSpec Book and, though helpful, leaves me with more
questions...probably from the very beginning I missed some basic
points...as just understanding HOW the environment is set up, WHERE/
WHY it looks for files to test and WHAT matchers, etc. are available
in tests is confusing me.

Anyway, in trying to wrap my head around RSpec I created a simple
Rails3 project. Altered the Gemfile to:

group :development, :test do
  gem ''rspec-rails''
  gem ''webrat''
  gem ''haml-rails''
  gem ''sass''
  gem ''spork'', ''~> 0.9.0.rc''
end

group :test do
  gem ''rspec''
end

Generated some scaffolding and starting making and editing some
specs... I was happy!

Now, after some stability and growing confidence I decided I''d try to
swap out webrat and replace it with capybara (which I''ve heard good
things about especially when dealing with javascript tests). So I
commented out "# gem ''webrat''" and
- added:

  gem ''capybara'', :git =>
''git://github.com/jnicklas/capybara.git''
  gem ''launchy''
  gem ''database_cleaner''

- added/modified what seems like alot of requires to spec_helper.rb
(spork, rubygems, rspec/rails, capybara/rspec, capybara/rails,
database_cleaner).

- changed some of my matchers from, what I think came from, webrat to,
what I think works with, Capybara...but I''m getting failures in my
controller & view specs. I''d really love to understand WHY and HOW/
WHERE to look so in the future I can diagnose these errors myself.

VIEW SPEC:

# spec/view/pages/about.html.haml_spec.rb
require ''spec_helper''

describe "pages/about.html.haml" do
 it "should have the right heading" do
   # render                                    # <- worked with webrat
   # rendered.should have_selector("h2", :content => "About
Us")
   visit pages_about_path
   page.should have_selector(''h2'')
 end
end

Failures:

pages/about.html.haml should have the right heading
    Failure/Error: visit pages_about_path
    NoMethodError:
      undefined method `visit'' for
#<RSpec::Core::ExampleGroup::Nested_7:0x0000010320a568>

CONTROLLER SPEC:

# spec/controllers/pages_controller_spec.rb
require ''spec_helper''

describe PagesController do

  describe "GET ''about''" do
    it "should be successful" do
      # get ''about''                      # <- worked with
webrat
      # response.should be_success   #  <- webrat ok
      visit pages_about_path
      # visit ''/pages/about.html''  #  <- also fails
w/capybara
      page.should have_content(''About Us'')
      # page.html.should match(/About/i)  # no help
      # page.should match(/About/i)   # no help
    end
end


Failures:

  1) PagesController GET ''about'' should be successful
     Failure/Error: visit pages_about_path
     LoadError:
       no such file to load -- action_controller/integration
     # ./spec/controllers/pages_controller_spec.rb:10:in `block (3
levels) in <top (required)>''

On May 25, 2011, at 5:56 PM, Meltemi wrote:
> group :development, :test do
>  gem ''rspec-rails''
>  gem ''webrat''
>  gem ''haml-rails''
>  gem ''sass''
I''d move haml and sass out of these groups - you need them in
production.
>  gem ''spork'', ''~> 0.9.0.rc''
> end
> 
> group :test do
>  gem ''rspec''
> end
Don''t need ^^ this because rspec-rails already depends on rspec (so
it''s already installed).
> 
> Generated some scaffolding and starting making and editing some
> specs... I was happy!
> 
> Now, after some stability and growing confidence I decided I''d try
to
> swap out webrat and replace it with capybara (which I''ve heard
good
> things about especially when dealing with javascript tests). So I
> commented out "# gem ''webrat''" and
> - added:
> 
>  gem ''capybara'', :git =>
''git://github.com/jnicklas/capybara.git''
Strongly recommend sticking to releases while you''re getting your feet
wet.

gem ''capybara'', ''1.0.0.beta1''

Otherwise everytime you update the bundle you''ll get a different
revision.
>  gem ''launchy''
>  gem ''database_cleaner''
> 
> - added/modified what seems like alot of requires to spec_helper.rb
> (spork, rubygems, rspec/rails, capybara/rspec, capybara/rails,
> database_cleaner).
> 
> - changed some of my matchers from, what I think came from, webrat to,
> what I think works with, Capybara...but I''m getting failures in my
> controller & view specs. I''d really love to understand WHY and
HOW/
> WHERE to look so in the future I can diagnose these errors myself.
> 
> VIEW SPEC:
> 
> # spec/view/pages/about.html.haml_spec.rb
> require ''spec_helper''
> 
> describe "pages/about.html.haml" do
> it "should have the right heading" do
>   # render                                    # <- worked with webrat
>   # rendered.should have_selector("h2", :content =>
"About Us")
>   visit pages_about_path
>   page.should have_selector(''h2'')
visit and page are not available in view specs. Stick with render and rendered.
If you''re using Capybara-1.0.0.beta1 you can use the have_selector
method in the view spec.
> end
> end
> 
> Failures:
> 
> pages/about.html.haml should have the right heading
>    Failure/Error: visit pages_about_path
>    NoMethodError:
>      undefined method `visit'' for
> #<RSpec::Core::ExampleGroup::Nested_7:0x0000010320a568>
> 
> CONTROLLER SPEC:
> 
> # spec/controllers/pages_controller_spec.rb
> require ''spec_helper''
> 
> describe PagesController do
> 
>  describe "GET ''about''" do
>    it "should be successful" do
>      # get ''about''                      # <- worked
with webrat
>      # response.should be_success   #  <- webrat ok
>      visit pages_about_path
>      # visit ''/pages/about.html''  #  <- also fails
w/capybara
>      page.should have_content(''About Us'')
>      # page.html.should match(/About/i)  # no help
>      # page.should match(/About/i)   # no help
>    end
> end
> 
> 
> Failures:
> 
>  1) PagesController GET ''about'' should be successful
>     Failure/Error: visit pages_about_path
>     LoadError:
>       no such file to load -- action_controller/integration
>     # ./spec/controllers/pages_controller_spec.rb:10:in `block (3
> levels) in <top (required)>''

Not sure about this part. Looks like it thinks its an integration test (which it
is not - it''s an ActionController::TestCase).

HTH,
David