[Rspec-devel] RSpec on Rails

[Lachie]

On 6/6/06, aslak hellesoy <aslak.hellesoy at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/3/06, Lachie <lachiec at gmail.com> wrote:
> > me too! (said with all the weight of being on the list for 2 whole days :)
> >
>
> OK, it's checked into trunk/vendor/rspec_on_rails.
> The plugin lives under trunk/vendor/rspec_on_rails/vendor/plugins/rspec_on_rails
>
> As far as testing goes, I think it's sufficient to follow the route of
> 'acceptance testing', i.e. write more exhaustive specs for the demo
> app, and fix the plugin accordingly if it breaks.

Sounds like the best way to me. A nice feature might be to set it up
to use a sqlite3 file or memory database, to alleviate the dependency
on an external database. Though, that wouldn't really allow for
testing transactions or the like.

> I have written up some docs under trunk/src/documentation/rails.page
> It's currently lying, since the plugin isn't yet published.
>
> What is the best way to publish it? As a separate gem? Just 'pure' svn? Both?

Well, the rails plugin system works in a fairly specific way -- an
installed gem wouldn't be automatically hooked by the system.

A crash course in rails plugins (apologies to those who already know it):
I would install my plugin using the following command:
script/plugin install
http://lachie.info/svn/projects/rails_plugins/rspec_on_rails/

This:
* downloads it using http, svn externals, svn export or svn checkout
  it goes into PLUGIN_ROOT=RAILS_ROOT/vendor/plugin/rspec_on_rails
* runs PLUGIN_ROOT/install.rb

The default way for it to download is via http... it can use svn
directly, but the user must have svn on their machine. Can rubyforge
provide a plain http listing of the files under svn?

When the rails app loads, it runs PLUGIN_ROOT/init.rb which pulls in
the rspec_on_rails libraries.
The generate script looks for generators here.
Rake pulls in any tasks defined in PLUGIN_ROOT/tasks

I think that an installed gem would just sit inert on the disc, unless
the user did a symlink to PLUGIN_ROOT

The "official" place to publish it is in the rails wiki... please feel
free to change my rpsec on rails entry in the testing section to point
at the http/svn path you've set up.

http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/Plugins

(The plugin script's discover command actually scrapes this page for
plugin sources)

You'd need to publish the path right down to the plugin:
/trunk/vendor/rspec_on_rails/vendor/plugins/rspec_on_rails

> > Though, obviously there's a lot of scope for refactoring, and a few
> > things to add, such as spec generators.
> >
>
> That would be great!
> It would also be great to override the behaviour of the general
> generators, so that tests are not created, but specs instead (when the
> user does script/generate model).

I was thinking the same thing... I'm sure its possible, but it might
start out being quite hacky.

> The fixtures should also go under spec/fixtures, and not test/fixtures.

oops...

-- 
Lachie
http://lachie.info/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lachie/