I'm answering into the group directly - maybe someone else finds this
also useful.
Think of the helpers as a collection of methods which will be used
throughout the tests. You could do many modules. Some modules would be
specific to your current application under test and some others would
be even more global. So if you start testing some new web application
then there are already some modules which you can include and then use
those methods from there. In addition you can create a separate module
for this project which has it specific methods.
So, your idea below is almost correct, but think about it as a
hierarchy. Let's say that you have 2 software projects going on -
ProjectOne and ProjectTwo. So, i would do something like this:
global_helper.rb - this is at some globally accessible place on the
filesystem:
# put here also all global requires
require 'watir'
require 'spec' # you may require also this, since some IDE-s allow you
to run specs then with their formatter
module GlobalHelper
def global_method_one
# do something
end
def global_method_two
# do something else
end
end
project_one_helper.rb - this is located under ProjectOne:
# make sure that you've handled the $LOAD_PATH so you can do like
this:
require 'global_helper'
module ProjectOneHelper
include GlobalHelper
def project_one_method
# do something specific to project_one
end
end
project_two_helper.rb - this is located under ProjectTwo:
# make sure that you've handled the $LOAD_PATH so you can do like
this:
require 'global_helper'
module ProjectTwoHelper
include GlobalHelper
def project_two_method
# do something specific to project_two
end
end
project_one_spec.rb - so, now in some ProjectOne test you just have to
do like this:
require 'project_one_helper'
describe "something in ProjectOne" do
include ProjectOneHelper # you don't have to include GlobalHelper
anymore since it is already included
it "does something" do
global_one_method
project_one_method
end
end
And something similar goes to ProjectTwo specs. So, that's how you can
keep your code modularized and hopefully follow the practices of DRY
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_repeat_yourself).
But when coming back to your concrete example, then i'd suggest you to
read about RSpec Matchers (http://rspec.rubyforge.org/rspec/1.3.0/
classes/Spec/Matchers.html).
So, let's say that you are dealing with ProjectTwo, then i would do it
something like this - project_two_helper.rb:
require 'global_helper'
module ProjectTwoHelper
include GlobalHelper
def setup
@browser = Watir::Browser.new
@browser.goto "http://url.com";
end
def header
@browser.div(:id => 'header')
end
def has_correct_header?
header.text.should == 'this is the header'
end
end
and in project_two_spec.rb:
require 'project_two_helper'
describe "ProjectTwo" do
before :all do
setup
end
it "has header" do
should have_correct_header
end
end
There are some other nifty tricks in RSpec, but i can just recommend
you to read RSpec book (http://www.pragprog.com/titles/achbd/the-rspec-
book - i haven't read it myself though) or just wander around in it's
RDoc http://rspec.rubyforge.org/rspec/1.3.0/
Jarmo
On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 5:28 PM, Adam Reed <reed...com> wrote:
> Jarmo,
>
> Thank you very much for your insightful reply. You definitely addressed my
> weak point with Rspec right now which is the test organization and structure
> (modules vs. other constructs). I will certainly subscribe to your RSS
> feed!
>
> I was wondering if I might be able to ask you one more questions here. I've
> read about RSpec and have Google searched for a few of these topics, but was
> not able to find much help. Learning Watir was definitely a trial-and-error
> exercise a few years ago, so I'd like to get a better start with RSpec
> without having to go back and redesign everything because of early mistakes!
>
> In the specific test that I'm writing, for instance, I want to verify some
> global elements -- that the page does not show an error (as you described in
> your reply to my thread), that the footer exists and is correct, that the
> header exists and is correct, etc. All pages and all tests need to include
> these. At this point, I'm not sure how to handle those global tests -- my
> first inclination was shared_methods/helpers, but it appears that I would be
> better served by a module contained in a separate script that can be
> required and included in each other script. Would the following be correct?
>
> Thanks again for your time,
>
> Adam Reed
>
> E.g.:
>
> global.rb:
> module GlobalTests
> def footer
> ...
> end
>
> def header
> ...
> end
> end #module
>
> sample_test.rb:
> require 'global.rb
>
> (and then, the same content you posted in the reply to my original question)
>
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