context – The testing library you’ve been looking for¶ ↑

github.com/jeremymcanally/context

If you’ve ever wanted contexts in your Test::Unit tests, then context is for you. Your tests will be easier to read and write without all the magic and extra code smell!

• Add contexts to Test::Unit tests

• Small DSL for specifying tests that are pretty

• Ability to chain context lifecycle methods (coming soon)

• Add contexts using familiar syntax:

  class UserTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
    context "A new User" do
      # Before/after lifecycle blocks
      before do
        @user = User.first
      end
  
      # Specify tests using DSL
      test "should have the right full_name" do
        assert_equal "Dude Man", @user.full_name
      end
  
      test "should be able to set parts of the name" do
        @user.first_name = "Mad"
        @user.last_name = "Max"
        @user.save
        assert_equal "Mad Max", @user.full_name
      end
  
      after do
        @user.first_name = "Dude"
        @user.last_name = "Man"
        @user.save!
      end
    end
  end
  

• It also has aliases that match other library’s syntaxes (all of which can be mixed and matched):

  class UserTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
    context "A new Account" do
      test "should be new" do
        Account.new.new_record?
      end
    end
  
    # RSpec-esque
    describe "A new User" do
      it "should do things" do
        User.first.do_things!
      end
    end
  
    # Shoulda-esque
    context "Another User" do
      should "do things that are fun" do
        User.first.do_things!(:fun)
      end
    end
  end
  

• Contexts can also be nested:

  class UserTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
    context "A new User" do
      context "with clown shoes" do
        test "should squeak" do
          assert_true User.find_by_shoes("clown").squeak?
        end
      end
  
      context "without clown shoes" do
        test "should not squeak" do
          assert_false User.find_by_shoes("dressy").squeak?
        end
      end
    end
  end
  

• You can also share behavior among contexts:

  class UserTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
    shared "shared things" do
      test "things are shared" do
        # test logic here...
      end
    end
  
    context "the first thing" do
      uses "shared things"
  
      test "other things..." do
        # More testing...
      end
    end
  end
  

• Shared behaviors can also use RSpec syntax

  class UserTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
    share_examples_for "shared things" do
      it "things are shared" do
        # test logic here...
      end
    end
  
    describe "the first thing" do
      it_should_behave_like "shared things"
  
      it "other things..." do
        # More testing...
      end
    end
  end
  

• Test::Unit (you have it; trust me)

$ gem sources -a http://gems.github.com
$ sudo gem install jeremymcanally-context

Copyright © 2008 Jeremy McAnally

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the ‘Software’), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Original implementation by myself, but heavily tweaked and borrowed from Rails Core and Pratik Naik.