Forum: RSpec Best practices to managing RSpec code for very large projects?

Hello group,

I've searched through several months messages in the archive, but 
haven't
found an answer to this...

What is the 'best practice' way to structure RSpec code and 
documentation
when testing a very large project, where the RSpec code base has to be
maintained and extended over a long period?

A bit of background: I've just be brought onto a (non-Ruby) project that 
has
unit- and functional-test suites written using RSpec.  It's a large 
project,
and growing; there's currently >20,000 distinct unit-test cases in 
RSpec,
and a smaller (but still considerable) number of functional-test cases. 
The
quantity of these test cases is still growing quickly, but they've hit a
bottleneck in creating new test cases without breaking existing test 
cases.

Over the life of the project, there's been a number of people writing 
RSpec
tests without any overriding guidance on things like:
- appropriate naming of helper functions
- use of private vs. protected vs. public methods to only expose
functionality as required
- ensuring the scope of code is managed correctly (e.g. code for testing
databases should probably be held in a module named 'Database')
- documentation, in any form e.g. what a helper function does, what its 
side
effects are, coverage of modules & how to extend them, ...
- use of 'raise' and 'warn' to highlight problems
- etc., etc.

As a result, what exists now is basically a huge mess.  For example, 
we've
got multiple helper functions named identically, that serve very 
different
purposes e.g. 'it_should_be_nil', with one doing a string comparison,
another covering the number of records returned in a database cursor, 
and so
on.  The scope of these functions is such that they're accessible from 
all
the 'wrong' places, so it's quite possible that the wrong helper 
function
could accidentally be referenced at any point and quite difficult to
identify which one of several identically-named helper functions is 
going to
be executed at any given point.

Aside from some serious therapy, what I'm looking for is some sort of 
'best
practices' documentation covering how to use RSpec to create *and 
maintain*
a very large population of test cases over an extended period of time. 
If I
can get that, then I can at least start working in the right direction 
to
ensure the problem doesn't get any worse, and then start fixing what 
exists
now.  Issues that are biting me right now include:
- how to structure a hierarchy of RSpec modules to cover both unit- and
functional-test requirements.  For unit-testing, it seems to make sense 
to
create a hierarchy along infrastructure lines, so there might be a 
module
named 'Database' that includes all the generic database test functions 
(e.g.
check table names, field names, field definitions, constraints, 
triggers,
... are all defined correctly), that is subclassed into distinct modules 
for
each database instance being tested.  However, for functional-testing, 
it
seems to make more sense to create a hierarchy along business process 
lines,
so that helper functions covering a particular set of business 
functionality
are bundled together.  Given you'll probably want to use a lot of the 
same
methods in both your functional- and unit-test code, what's the best way 
to
structure this hierarchy?
- use of modules/namespaces to achieve sensible isolation of 
functionality
(e.g. the 'it_should_be_nil' problem described above), while still 
having
the code referencing functions in modules being readable
- documentation requirements when building/maintaining a large RSpec 
test
suite over an extended period of time, so that you don't wind up relying
exclusively on knowledge held in the heads of key people, and new people 
can
be brought up to date on "how it all hangs together" relatively quickly

If anyone can point me to useful reference material along these lines, 
I'd
greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance

David Mitchell

On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 00:12, David Mitchell <monch1962@gmail.com> 
wrote:

> What is the 'best practice' way to structure RSpec code and documentation
> when testing a very large project, where the RSpec code base has to be
> maintained and extended over a long period?

I don't mean to be glib, but my blink reaction is that there's nothing
different between maintaining a large suite of RSpec examples and any
other large code base. I think all the design principles for large
production code bases apply to large suites of RSpec examples.

> - etc., etc.
I truly think the Four Elements of Simple Deign would help all those.

> practices' documentation covering how to use RSpec to create *and maintain*
> each database instance being tested.  However, for functional-testing, it
> exclusively on knowledge held in the heads of key people, and new people can
> be brought up to date on "how it all hangs together" relatively quickly
> If anyone can point me to useful reference material along these lines, I'd
> greatly appreciate it.

Have you read Feathers' "Working Effectively with Legacy Code"? I
think that might help you recover from this mess.

As for some Novice Rules to organize your examples, I recommend this:

* Keep offline and online examples separate, so I can run all the
examples that require expensive external resources separately from the
one that don't. I use separate source folders for this.
* Move test data creation into a folder like Rails' relatively new
spec/support folder. Over time, introduce libraries like FactoryGirl
to reduce the amount of code you write to create test data.
* Refactor test facilities, like custom matchers, to spec/support to
make them available to everyone.

To fix the underlying problem, I recommend something bigger: invite
your teams to spend 90 minutes, once per week, putting their examples
up on a projector and play "What's not to like about this code?" Start
refactoring it there and then. Doing this every week helps teams
converge on their understanding of "good enough design" as well as
helps them share information about how they organize their examples
and the code that supports them. It simply sounds like your
programmers don't discuss these ideas with each other enough, or if
they do, they don't agree enough. Whatever changes you make to the
code base don't matter if you don't also do something like this.

Good luck.
--
J. B. (Joe) Rainsberger :: http://www.jbrains.ca ::
http://blog.thecodewhisperer.com
Diaspar Software Services :: http://www.diasparsoftware.com
Author, JUnit Recipes
2005 Gordon Pask Award for contribution to Agile practice :: Agile
2010: Learn. Practice. Explore.

On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 8:09 AM, J. B. Rainsberger
<jbrainsberger@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 00:12, David Mitchell <monch1962@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> What is the 'best practice' way to structure RSpec code and documentation
>> when testing a very large project, where the RSpec code base has to be
>> maintained and extended over a long period?
>
> I don't mean to be glib, but my blink reaction is that there's nothing
> different between maintaining a large suite of RSpec examples and any
> other large code base.

+1

I don't find this glib at all. The question is a difficult one to
answer in a sentence or two, and I think you sum it up pretty well
with this.

Cheers,
David

On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 9:40 AM, David Chelimsky <dchelimsky@gmail.com> 
wrote:
>> other large code base.
>
> +1
>
> I don't find this glib at all. The question is a difficult one to
> answer in a sentence or two, and I think you sum it up pretty well
> with this.

Yep!

It's just a small battle in the never-ending war against the increase
of entropy.

It may seem hard, but remember the more you fight it the more you
delay the heat death of the universe! <G>

--
Rick DeNatale

Blog: http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale
WWR: http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale

On 4 Feb 2010, at 14:09, J. B. Rainsberger wrote:

> different between maintaining a large suite of RSpec examples and any
>> testing
>> example, we've
>> identify which one of several identically-named helper functions is  
>> ensure the problem doesn't get any worse, and then start fixing  
>> check table names, field names, field definitions, constraints,  
>> the same
>> suite over an extended period of time, so that you don't wind up  
>> relying
>> exclusively on knowledge held in the heads of key people, and new  
>> people can
>> be brought up to date on "how it all hangs together" relatively  
>> quickly
>> If anyone can point me to useful reference material along these  
>> lines, I'd
>> greatly appreciate it.

Have you tried pair programming?

> to reduce the amount of code you write to create test data.
> programmers don't discuss these ideas with each other enough, or if
> 2010: Learn. Practice. Explore.
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users@rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users

cheers,
Matt

http://mattwynne.net
+447974 430184

On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 09:40, David Chelimsky <dchelimsky@gmail.com> 
wrote:
>> other large code base.
>
> +1
>
> I don't find this glib at all. The question is a difficult one to
> answer in a sentence or two, and I think you sum it up pretty well
> with this.

Thanks for that.
--
J. B. (Joe) Rainsberger :: http://www.jbrains.ca ::
http://blog.thecodewhisperer.com
Diaspar Software Services :: http://www.diasparsoftware.com
Author, JUnit Recipes
2005 Gordon Pask Award for contribution to Agile practice :: Agile
2010: Learn. Practice. Explore.

On Thu, 4 Feb 2010 09:51:08 -0500, you wrote:

>It's just a small battle in the never-ending war against the increase
>of entropy.
>
>It may seem hard, but remember the more you fight it the more you
>delay the heat death of the universe! <G>

Actually, it's just the opposite: Any attempt to reduce local entropy
results in a net increase in global entropy.

So if you're interested in prolonging the life of the universe, the best
thing to do is sit quietly in a corner and do nothing.

-Steve

On 4 February 2010 05:12, David Mitchell <monch1962@gmail.com> wrote:

> has unit- and functional-test suites written using RSpec.  It's a large
> functionality as required
> another covering the number of records returned in a database cursor, and so
> ensure the problem doesn't get any worse, and then start fixing what exists
> are bundled together.  Given you'll probably want to use a lot of the same
> If anyone can point me to useful reference material along these lines, I'd
>
Rails is quite good in organising RSpec tests, so looking at a big Rails
project could give you some pointers. Key ideas I would take from Rails 
are

1. Separation of unit specs from other sorts of specs
2. 1 to 1 match between a class and its spec
3. Applying convention with rigour to naming of specs

My no.1 tip for any spec is to read its output when you run it. I do 
this in
texmate but you can do it with an html report or at the command prompt.
Basically my opinion is that if a spec viewed in this manner doesn't 
make
absolute sense then its not worth having. If you can't understand what
you're specifying you certainly can't know how your application is 
behaving.
One thing this kind of viewing will do is reveal specs that are doing to
many things.

HTH

Andrew