I find that testing views independently is useful just to catch HTML
errors that can sometime creep in during a re-factor. These check
important details that would be more tedious using cucumber. The
controller specs establish the post-condition for the controller
independent of the view. In the project I'm working on (which has
mobile clients as well as a website), we have end-to-end integrations
tests using cucumber that are primarily around our XML APIs (which are
from my perspective, just a different kind of view) -- these also
serve as developer docs.
My $.02
Sarah
On Jun 28, 2009, at 10:27 AM, Ben Mabey wrote:
On Jun 28, 2009, at 8:32 AM, Jesse Crockett wrote:
Hello,
I've been trying for two years to pick up BDD. I'm making progress,
have just read through the chapters in The RSpec Book on spec'ing
views
and controllers.
What is the difference between using integrate_views and doing what
seems to be a lot of extra work to test the views in isolation?
When I use integrate_views, can I write view spec in what would
otherwise be isolated controller spec?
Correct, by default RSpec's controller specs will not render the
view. This allows you to test the controller and view in complete
isolation. By turning on integrate_views you can specify what the
rendered view should contain at the same time. If you were to do
outside-in dev starting from the view you would start out by writing
an isolated view spec. That spec would say that such and such would
be displayed. This would in turn prompt you to assign something to
that view for it to be rendered. That is then your signal that the
controller needs to assign that object. So, you go up a level and
make sure that the controller action is assigning the needed object
for the view. That object will most likely have to answer to some
methods used in the view so that prompts you to start writing
examples on the model level. Isolation has it's benefits, however
an integration test (i.e. Cucumber scenario) is really needed to
make sure these parts are all working together as expected.
I read that I'm "encouraged" to do these in isolation, but IMHO the
chapter on spec'ing views is not very convincing in its own right, it
tells me that it's good, but doesn't show me as much, compared to the
examples and descriptions of circumstance that make several other
chapters very convincing.
FWIW Jesse, you are not alone on this list in thinking that view
specs are not that valuable. A lot of people share your opinion,
and I think Cucumber is generally used to specify the views the
majority of the time. This enables you to specify your controllers
in isolation since your Cucumber features are cutting through the
entire stack. I personally think view specs are a very nice tool
to have available, but I would only use them on complex views. By
complex I don't mean riddled with logic, but a view that has a lot
of stuff going on which is hard to set up all in one integration
test (or Cucumber scenario). Since the majority of views are very
simple then verifying them just in Cucumber is good enough, IMO.
-Ben
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