Well, I'm going to break the rules and post a reply to my own message - mostly because nobody else has replied! Which makes me think that what I'm trying to do below isn't right.
I've done a little poking around in projects written in rails I was able to find on github. I'm seeing a pattern where the functional tests focus on whether the controller invokes the right view and passes the right instance variables to that view - but not whether the view renders in any particular way. Is that the more rails-oriented way to go about things? And if so, why are assert_select and its relations so well developed? -David On Saturday, April 2, 2011 3:26:37 PM UTC-7, David Paschich wrote: > > 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.
