On Jul 17, 2010, at 1:18 PM, Costa Shapiro wrote: > Hello, > > I've been thinking of how to express my idea in code, but since I've never > been involved in RSpec development, I'd better have some feedback here first. > The feature suggestion below applies to any controller-like code under spec, > i.e. a stateless module producing output or just altering its data store (it > doesn't necessarily have to be a C of the MVC, but I suppose merb/rails > developers will particularly appreciate it). > > Here is a skimmed sample to illustrate the pain: > > describe BookController do > > context "registering a book" do > > specify "from a new author on a new subject" do > auth = mock(:name => 'John Doe') > Author.should_receive(:find_ > by_name).and_return(nil) > Author.should_receive(:new).and_return(auth) > auth.should_receive(:save).and_return(true) > > subj = mock(:short => 'Mockery') > Subject.should_receive(:find_by_short).and_return(nil) > Subject.should_receive(:new).and_return(subj) > subj.should_receive(:save).and_return(true) > > title = 'Specs on Steroids' > > book = mock > Book.should_receive(:new).and_return(book) > book.should_receive(:save).and_return(true) > > post :register :author => auth.name, :title => title, :subject => > subj.short > response.should be_success > end > > specify "from a known author on a new subject" do > auth = mock(:name => 'Joe Dohn') > Author.should_receive(:find_by_name).and_return(auth) > > subj = mock(:short => 'Mockery') > Subject.should_receive(:find_by_short).and_return(nil) > Subject.should_receive(:new).and_return(subj) > subj.should_receive(:save).and_return(true) > > title = 'Specs on Steroids II' > > book = mock > Book.should_receive(:new).and_return(book) > book.should_receive(:save).and_return(true) > > post :register :author => auth.name, :title => title, :subject => > subj.short > response.should be_success > end > > specify "from a known author on a known subject" do > auth = mock(:name => 'Joe Dohn') > Author.should_receive(:find_by_name).and_return(auth) > > subj = mock(:short => 'Forgery') > Subject.should_receive(:find_by_short).and_return(subj) > > #... > end > > specify "from a new author on a known subject" do > #... > end > end > end > > > And this is what I have in mind for doing exactly the same job: > > describe BookController do > > context "registering a book" do > > before :any, "from a new author", :author do > @auth = mock(:name => 'John Doe') > Author.should_receive(:find_by_name).and_return(nil) > Author.should_receive(:new).and_return(@auth) > @auth.should_receive(:save).and_return(true) > end > > before :any, "from a known author", :author do > @auth = mock(:name => 'Joe Dohn') > Author.should_receive(:find_by_name).and_return(@auth) > end > > before :any, "on a new subject", :subject do > @subj = mock(:short => 'Mockery') > Subject.should_receive(:find_by_short).and_return(nil) > Subject.should_receive(:new).and_return(@subj) > @subj.should_receive(:save).and_return(true) > end > > before :any, "on a known subject", :subject do > @subj = mock(:name => 'Joe Dohn') > Subject.should_receive(:find_by_name).and_return(@subj) > end > > it "should succeed", :with => [:author, :subject] do > title = 'Specs on Steroids X' > > post :register :author => @auth.name, :title => title, :subject => > @subj.short > response.should be_success > end > end > end > > A run of such specs will effectively multiply the tests — automatically — > choosing before and after blocks as specified. > I'm sorry, I haven't thought the DSL through, but I hope the main idea can be > seen: contexts do not have to be hierarchical. > In my opinion, adding some sort of context selection+combination capabilities > (AOP-style) will contribute greatly to the expressiveness of the spec > language.
I think the idea of mixing/matching sub-contexts is very interesting, but it definitely needs from fleshing out. It would have to be easy to read/understand in the spec file as well as the output. Also, this only works if every combination should behave the same way. I think we'd need a means of saying "given these combinations of data, expect these outcomes". Anybody else have thoughts on this? Cheers, David > Thank you for your attention, > Costa.
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