Snapbot

Snapbot generates little diagrams via save_and_open_diagram for you to visualise the small constellations of ActiveRecord objects that you find in feature and integration tests. These are most often made by FactoryBot or some other fixture-handling method, but this gem has no opinions on those (beyond namechecking).

Snapbot requires Graphviz, and cannot function without it. Install this first, then add the gem to your project's :test group in the gemfile:

  group :test do 
    gem 'snapbot' 
  end 

include Snapbot::Diagram in your tests.

For RSpec, you may prefer to put something like

  RSpec.config do |config|
    config.include Snapbot::Diagram, type: :feature
  end

in your spec/rails_helper to have it mixed in automatically (to features, in this case).

  blog = Blog.create(title: 'My blog')
  post = Post.create(title: 'My post', blog: blog)
  
  save_and_open_diagram

Sometimes it's useful to see the models you created as preconditions vs the ones your code has created in response to those. If you use RSpec's let construct then Snapbot will match these automatically for you and annotate the diagram. For example:

  include Snapbot::Diagram
  describe "the categorised post creator" do
    let(:blog)   { create :blog }
    let(:author) { create :author }

    it "creates posts automatically, categorised" do
      CategorisedPostCreator.new(blog, author).run
      save_and_open_diagram
      expect(Post.count).to eql(2)
    end
  end

Sometimes, you need to create a few ActiveRecord objects for your test suite. Sometimes, there will be a little cluster of objects that need to exist for an integration spec or feature spec to run reliably. And sometimes, it will be 4.30pm and your fixtures or FactoryBot factories feel like they're slipping from what you can reasonably hold in your head.

We don't all write tests like this. Or rather, not all our tests are like this. But when they are, save_and_open_diagram is a quick way to see what's what.

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake spec to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and the created tag, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

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

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

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