# Inconsistent test results **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 6, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inconsistent-test-results/78520 "2006-12-06T15:07:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c0e974/32.png) [@princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/princenamor)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inconsistent-test-results/78520/1 "2006-12-06T15:07:37Z")
Hello All, I seem to be having recurring problems in that my tests work in some cases, and not in others. My OS is Ubuntu 6.10 - the Edgy Eft and I’m using: RadRails 0.7.1 Ruby 1.8.4 MySQL 5.0.24a-Debian\_9-log Rails 1.1.6 To give an example yesterday I had an issue where a particular unit test was failing when run as part of a group of unit tests. However, running this test alone passed. Furthermore, today I have a situation where my an assert\_tag in my functional tests is failing from the command line rake test:functionals However running the functional tests from RadRails is working. Is anyone else experiencing inconsistent behaviour like this? I find myself spending most of the time trying to resolve these issues rather than building functionality. This is causing me huge frustration so any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Regards, John ---
**Author:** ![princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c0e974/32.png) [@princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/princenamor)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inconsistent-test-results/78520/2 "2006-12-06T18:11:14Z")
JohnW wrote: > To give an example yesterday I had an issue where a particular unit > test was failing when run as part of a group of unit tests. However, > running this test alone passed. Most likely you have inter suite dependency problems. You need to make sure that all testcases have the needed fixtures instead of accidentally reusing garbage. If using transactional fixtures, check by looking at log/test.log that “BEGIN” “ROLLBACK” are called before the test code itself. You can also disable transactional fixtures for selected suites. Zsombor – Company - [http://primalgrasp.com](http://primalgrasp.com) Thoughts - [http://deezsombor.blogspot.com](http://deezsombor.blogspot.com) ---
**Author:** ![princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c0e974/32.png) [@princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/princenamor)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inconsistent-test-results/78520/3 "2006-12-06T22:32:30Z")
Hi Zsombor, I have transactions turned on in test\_helper. Can you tell me how to disable transactional fixtures for selected suites? I’d like to try that and see the results? Thanks, John ---
**Author:** ![princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c0e974/32.png) [@princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/princenamor)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 6:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inconsistent-test-results/78520/4 "2006-12-07T06:41:32Z")
There is a known bug in Rails when the assert\_tag is used in the integration tests Check out Mark Lunds website for more information: [http://wiki.marklunds.com/index.php?title=Test\_Driven\_Development\_with\_Ruby](http://wiki.marklunds.com/index.php?title=Test_Driven_Development_with_Ruby) To fix this replace the old html\_document method in test\_process.rb with the following: ``` def html_document HTML::Document.new(@response.body) end ``` Give it a shot and let us know if that solves your problem. ---
**Author:** ![princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c0e974/32.png) [@princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/princenamor)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 12:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inconsistent-test-results/78520/5 "2006-12-07T00:30:56Z")
John W. wrote: > Can you tell me how to disable transactional fixtures for selected > suites? I’d like to try that and see the results? Basically you just set the use\_transactional\_fixtures class level variable to false. For example to disable for one particular suite: > class SlowGroupsControllerTest \< Test::Unit::TestCase > fixtures :groups, :users > > # turn transactions off since we have atleast one transaction > > # dependent testcase. With mysql transactions cannot be nested. > > self.use\_transactional\_fixtures = false > #… > > # your tests here > > #… > end ## Best, Zsombor Company - [http://primalgrasp.com](http://primalgrasp.com) Thoughts - [http://deezsombor.blogspot.com](http://deezsombor.blogspot.com) ---
**Author:** ![princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c0e974/32.png) [@princenamor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/princenamor)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 3:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inconsistent-test-results/78520/6 "2006-12-07T15:02:54Z")
Hi All, Thanks for your replies. My issues were because of a combination of problems, and really only identified by isolating the issues by taking the following actions. 1. Turn off transactional fixtures 2. Running tests individually using ruby test/…/my\_test.rb --name test\_my\_method When the test failed I was able to integrate the database and see its state, which helped me establish the core problem. Another issue I had was with caching in my functional tests. For instance def test\_something bill = users(:bill) #suppose User has a has\_one :email #do some functional testing to remove email … #check bill assert\_nil bill.email end In the above the bill.email has failing, though the related record had been deleted. The following reloads the association and works assert\_nil bill.email(true) Regards, John