On Jun 7, 2011, at 10:31 AM, John Feminella wrote:
> Consider the following simple Rails app:
>
> ==== begin snippet ====
> # lib/herpable.rb
> module Herpable; ...; end
>
> # app/models/...
> class ClassOne; include Herpable; end
> class ClassTwo; include Herpable; end
> # ...
> ==== end snippet ====
>
> What's the better way to write specs for these? Would you put the
> module into its own shared_example?
>
> ==== begin snippet ====
> # spec/models/class_one_spec.rb
> describe ClassOne do
> it_should_behave_like "Herpable"
> # ...
> end
> ==== end snippet ====
>
> Or would you just test the module directly?
>
> ==== begin snippet ====
> # spec/lib/herpable_spec.rb
> describe Herpable do
> let(:herped) { Class.new { include Herpable } }
>
> it "should be derp" do
> herped.should_be derp
> end
> ==== end snippet ====
>
> I started thinking about this because I noticed there seemed to be a
> lot of specs running in our shared examples. That gave rise to a
> couple of internal questions:
>
> 1.) If you have a bunch of closely related code that always gets
> tested together, why isn't it already a class or module?
> 2.) If it is, then why don't you just spec that instead?
> 3.) If you do, then what's the best way to use shared_examples_for /
> it_should_behave_like?
There's a section on this in The RSpec Book. Briefly:
1. Host objects can override behavior (intentionally or otherwise), so spec'ing
the module outside a host is insufficient. For these cases, I recommend using
shared examples.
2. Some modules do stuff (like validate stuff in the host) when they are
included. For these cases I recommend spec'ing the module directly.
See http://relishapp.com/rspec/rspec-core/dir/example-groups/shared-examples
for different approaches. I like "it_behaves_like", or context-specific aliases.
HTH,
David
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