FactoryBot::Blueprint

factory_bot-blueprint is a FactoryBot extension for building structured objects using a declarative DSL.

We recommend using this gem only when it's really necessary. factory_bot-with, a lightweight gem that shares the same philosophy, is also available and worth considering.

Installation

FactoryBot::Blueprint provides three gems.

factrey - core implementation of the declarative DSL (FactoryBot independent)
factory_bot-blueprint - the main gem
factory_bot-blueprint-rspec - helper to make factory_bot-blueprint easier to use in RSpec

If you use RSpec, it is recommended (but not required) to install factory_bot-blueprint-rspec.

# at Gemfile
gem "factory_bot-blueprint-rspec"

Usage (`factory_bot-blueprint`)

This document assumes an understanding of FactoryBot. You can learn about FactoryBot in the factory_bot book.

Getting started

The entry point of this gem is FactoryBot::Blueprint.plan. You can pass a block to this method, in which you describe the plan for creating objects in DSL.

bp = FactoryBot::Blueprint.plan { user(name: "John") }

In the DSL, each method call, except for certain reserved keywords, corresponds to the creation of an object. The above example creates an object of type user. The type is automatically defined from the FactoryBot's pre-defined factory of the same name:

FactoryBot.define do
  # This factory corresponds to the `user` type
  factory :user
end

The result of FactoryBot::Blueprint.plan is called a blueprint. Blueprints represent a plan for creating a set of objects, which can be passed to FactoryBot::Blueprint.create or FactoryBot::Blueprint.build to create the actual set of objects. (these methods are corresponding to FactoryBot.build and FactoryBot.create respectively). Method call arguments (ex. name: "John") are passed to the FactoryBot's build or create method.

FactoryBot::Blueprint.build(bp) # or FactoryBot::Blueprint.create
#=>
#{:_anon_9ea309fe2cd1 => #<User name="John">,
# :_result_ => #<User name="John">}

As you can see, the creation result is a Hash, and objects are given random names start with _anon_. It is also notice that the :_result_ (Factrey::Blueprint::Node::RESULT_NAME) holds the DSL code block result.

The DSL, described in detail below, supports declaring multiple objects and naming.

# FactoryBot::Blueprint.build can also take a DSL code block directly
FactoryBot::Blueprint.build do
  let.kevin = user(name: "Kevin")
  user(name: "User 1")
  user(name: "User 2")
end
#=>
#{:kevin => #<User name="Kevin">,
# :_anon_d3461b354de6 => #<User name="Kevin">,
# :_anon_ee5f94e77718 => #<User name="User 1">,
# :_anon_2a70dd71bdac => #<User name="User 2">,
# :_result_ => #<User name="User 2">}

Optionally you can use a shortcut method by including FactoryBot::Blueprint::Methods.

# If you are using RSpec, you can configure the same way as FactoryBot::Syntax::Methods:
RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include FactoryBot::Syntax::Methods
  config.include FactoryBot::Blueprint::Methods
end

# You can use `bp` in your spec files
RSpec.describe "something" do
  before do
    bp.create do
      user(name: "Kevin")
      user(name: "User 1")
      user(name: "User 2")
    end
  end
end

The Blueprint DSL

This section will go through the primary features of the Blueprint DSL. All DSL APIs can be found in the factrey API Doc.

Objects, references, and tree structures

For example, with these factories:

FactoryBot.define do
  factory(:author)
  factory(:blog) { author }
  factory(:blog_article) { blog }
end

You can create an author, a blog, and three articles in plain FactoryBot like this:

author = FactoryBot.create(:author, name: "John")
blog = FactoryBot.create(:blog, name: "John's Blog", author:)
FactoryBot.create(:blog_article, title: "Article 1", blog:)
FactoryBot.create(:blog_article, title: "Article 2", blog:)
FactoryBot.create(:blog_article, title: "Article 3", blog:)

This can be rewritten in FactoryBot::Blueprint as follows:

objects = FactoryBot::Blueprint.create do
  let.author = author(name: "John")
  let.blog = blog(name: "John's Blog", author: ref.author)
  blog_article(title: "Article 1", blog: ref.blog)
  blog_article(title: "Article 2", blog: ref.blog)
  blog_article(title: "Article 3", blog: ref.blog)
end
objects => { author:, blog: }

It's not that interesting, but

By using the notation let.name =, you can declare a named node.
You can refer to nodes in the DSL with the notation ref.name.

From here, several simplifications can be made.

First, we can use simplify let.name = name(...) to let.name(...).

objects = FactoryBot::Blueprint.create do
  let.author(name: "John")
  let.blog(name: "John's Blog", author: ref.author)
  blog_article(title: "Article 1", blog: ref.blog)
  blog_article(title: "Article 2", blog: ref.blog)
  blog_article(title: "Article 3", blog: ref.blog)
end
objects => { author:, blog: }

Next, object declarations can take a block. Within the block, objects can be declared in the same way, but if a proper association can be made here from the object in the block to the parent object ¹, this gem will automatically add references to them:

objects = FactoryBot::Blueprint.create do
  let.author(name: "John") do
    let.blog(name: "John's Blog") do    # adds { author: ref.author }
      blog_article(title: "Article 1")  # adds { blog: ref.blog }
      blog_article(title: "Article 2")  # adds { blog: ref.blog }
      blog_article(title: "Article 3")  # adds { blog: ref.blog }
    end
  end
end
objects => { author:, blog: }

This auto-reference will work automatically for any association of any traits in the FactoryBot's factory definition. ² ³

Finally, we can omit part of the object name based on the ancestor objects.

objects = FactoryBot::Blueprint.create do
  let.author(name: "John") do
    let.blog(name: "John's Blog") do
      article(title: "Article 1")  # We have a `blog` in the ancestors, so we can omit `blog_`
      article(title: "Article 2")
      article(title: "Article 3")
    end
  end
end
objects => { author:, blog: }

Extending the existing blueprints

FactoryBot::Blueprint.plan (and .build and .create) optionally takes a blueprint as an argument. In this case, instead of creating a new blueprint, the passed blueprint is extended.

bp = FactoryBot::Blueprint.plan { user(name: "Some User") }
FactoryBot::Blueprint.plan(bp) { user(name: "More User") }
FactoryBot::Bluepirnt.build(bp)
#=>
#{:_anon_e1f15f805023 => #<User name="Some User">,
# :_anon_b26e69c8d36b => #<User name="More User">,
# :_result_ => #<User name="Some User">}

Notice that the :_result_ is not overwritten when extending the blueprint.

It is also possible to add arguments and child objects to the existing object declaration in the blueprint, by on.name notation.

bp = FactoryBot::Blueprint.plan do
  let.user(name: "John") do
    let.blog(name: "John's Blog") do
      article(title: "Article 1")
      article(title: "Article 2")
    end
  end
end

FactoryBot::Blueprint.build(bp) do
  on.blog(category: "Daily log") do  # adds an argument (category: "Daily log")
    article(title: "New article")    # adds an article
  end
end
#=>
#{:user => #<User name="John">,
# :blog => #<Blog title="John's Blog", category="Daily log", user=...>,
# ...
# :_result_ => #<User name="John">}

External references

In the DSL, method calls are interpreted as object declarations.

def user_id = 123
def bp = FactoryBot::Blueprint.plan { user(id: user_id) } # ERROR: Unknown type: user_id

To avoid this, you can use the ext: option to refer to it as ext from the DSL. ⁴

def user_id = 123
def bp = FactoryBot::Blueprint.plan(ext: self) { user(id: ext.user_id) }

Extending the DSL itself

TODO

RSpec helper methods (provided by `factory_bot-blueprint-rspec`)

When trying to use FactoryBot::Blueprint on RSpec, the following patterns are frequent.

# 1. define a blueprint
let(:blog_blueprint) do
  FactoryBot::Blueprint.plan(ext: self) do
    blog(title: "Daily log") do
      let.article(title: "Article 1") { let.comment(text: "foo") }
      article(title: "Article 2")
      article(title: "Article 3")
    end
  end
end

# 2. build (or create) it
let(:blog_blueprint_instance) { FactoryBot::Blueprint.build(blog_blueprint) }

# 3. define the result and each named object using let
let(:blog) { blog_blueprint_instance[:_result_] }
let(:article) { blog_blueprint_instance[:article] }
let(:comment) { blog_blueprint_instance[:comment] }

factory_bot-blueprint-rspec gem provides an all-in-one helper method letbp to do this.

# Define a blog, an article, and a comment from the instance of the blueprint described in the block
letbp(:blog, %i[article comment]).build do
  blog(title: "Daily log") do
    let.article(title: "Article 1") { let.comment(text: "foo") }
    article(title: "Article 2")
    article(title: "Article 3")
  end
end

Yon can also use letbp(...).inherit to extend super() blueprint.

RSpec.describe "something" do
  letbp(:blog, %i[article]).create do
    blog(title: "Daily log") do
      let.article(title: "Article 1")
      article(title: "Article 2")
      article(title: "Article 3")
    end
  end

  context "with some comments on the article 1" do
    letbp(:blog).inherit do
      on.article do
        comment(text: "Comment 1")
        comment(text: "Comment 2")
      end
    end
  end
end

Development

git clone https://github.com/yubrot/factory_bot-blueprint
cd gems/factory_bot-blueprint
bin/setup
bundle exec rake --tasks
bundle exec rake

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/yubrot/factory_bot-blueprint. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the code of conduct.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Code of Conduct

Everyone interacting in the FactoryBot::Blueprint project's codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.

or some proper ancestor object ↩
Except inline associations. It seems that it is difficult to support this ↩
See blueprint_spec.rb (together with factories.rb) for detailed behavior ↩
Or you can use local variables alternatively ↩