Is it possible/feasible/advisable to test a partial view, on its own, using the default test mechanisms in Rails 3? I've been trying to figure out how to do this and not finding many good answers out there. Maybe what I'm trying to do isn't "how it's done" in Rails, in which case please help me out. Below is a description of the problem, followed by some code to illustrate what I'm talking about.
One of the views in my project is composed of a number of smaller tables - just the sort of thing where you'd like to factor those tables out of the single view into a number of partials, especially since I'd like to potentially re-use those smaller tables in other views. Right now, my functional test for the view has one long test method with sub-sections that test each partial. For two partials it's not bad; but eventually I'm going to have 7 or 8, and possibly let the user customize the page to show some but not others. I'd really rather have 3 test methods here: one which ensures that the parent page renders both partials, and then one for each partial. And then if I use those partials in other views, I only have to make sure that the partials are rendered - and maybe add some test cases for the partials themselves. Below is the sample code, but so far the only definitive answer I've been able to find is "use Rspec". Is it really necessary to switch to a whole different testing framework just to do this? Or am I mis-using functional tests somehow? I pledge to turn the best answer into a diff on the testing RailsGuide. Example code: I've got a parent view like: -- <p>Some Preamble Stuff</p> <%= render(:partial => "teamlist", :object => @season) %> <%= render(:partial => "racerlist", :object => @season) %> <p>Some Postamble Stuff</p> -- Each of those partials is something like: -- <table id="teamlist"> <% @season.teams.each do |team| %> <tr><td><%= team.name %></td></tr> <% end %> </table> -- So how do I test that? Right now, I have a functional test that looks like: -- test "results page is correct" do get :results, :id => @season.id assert_response :success assert_select "table#teamlist" do # make sure team list is right end assert_select "table#racerlist" do # make sure racer list is right end end -- But what I really want is: -- test "results page is correct" do get :results, :id = @season.id assert_response :success # assert the partials are rendered end test "teamlist is correct" do get :teamlist #or something asserts to make sure teamlist is correct end test "racerlist is correct" do render racerlist asserts to make sure racerlist is correct end -- Anyone? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.
