I’m writing a web app which is used a SaS. Each customer has their own
db and app directory. I have a rake task which creates all necessary
minimum data to run their website: default rights and roles, a
superadmin user, a “us_states” table already populated, some local
depots and terminals (it’s a logistics app).
I don’t have any cucumber scenarios for it and I just started building
some. I’m a beginner with cucumber.
I first put that task in a Given line, but that is pretty much is a
given for all scenarios, and it doesn’t make much sense to non-
programmers who look at the scenarios (for humans, it such a given
that it doesn’t need to be expressed consciously) so I moved it into
hooks.rb.
My first scenario looks like this:
1 Feature: Place an order
2 In order to keep orders in the database
3 As a admin
4 I want to place orders
5
6 Scenario: Using common legs
7 Given I have 1 customers
8 And I’m on the homepage
9 And I follow “Place an Order”
10 When I select the customer
11 And I select the SSLine
12 And I click “Use Common Legs”
13 Then I should see “PICKUP AT”
14 And I should see “DELIVER TO” or “LOAD AT”
15 And I should see EMPTY RETURN
1 Before do
2 MinimumData.new(‘costi’, ‘1234’).populate
3 end
My hooks.rb looks like this:
1 Before do
2 MinimumData.new(‘costi’, ‘1234’).populate #username and
password
3 end
I have three questions:
I don’t want to run this MinimumData.populate task before each
scenario because it takes 8 seconds. Should I make it run just once,
globally?
Do I have to cleanup the database with an After.do? I really don’t
want to do that, because I will duplicate the logic in the After.do,
only with Model.delete_all statements. I noticed that after my first
run, the test db has all that data still in. I can purge it with rake
db:test:purge and the reinitialize it. Is that a good practice?
Have you got any other comments or advice by looking at the code?
I don’t want to run this MinimumData.populate task before each
scenario because it takes 8 seconds. Should I make it run just once,
globally?
Don’t use seed data for running tests. I would highly recommend using a
Factory framework instead. Factories allow you to create only the data
actually used by individual tests. In many cases factory objects can be
use in memory only and never have to touch the database. Also mocking
can be used to greatly reduce the overhead you’re seeing with your seed
data generation technique.
Do I have to cleanup the database with an After.do? I really don’t
want to do that, because I will duplicate the logic in the After.do,
only with Model.delete_all statements. I noticed that after my first
run, the test db has all that data still in. I can purge it with rake
db:test:purge and the reinitialize it. Is that a good practice?
The test database should be reset after every test. You don’t want to
have to deal with side-effects that cross test cases. This is why
fixture data, or even better, Factory frameworks exist.
Have you got any other comments or advice by looking at the code?
Part of the reason your data generation takes so long is that you’re
probably doing it all with Ruby and ActiveRecord. This it completely
fine for a one-time population of seed data. Actually Rails provides a
standard way to do that. See rake db:seed for more details on this, in
case you were unaware.
I was under the impression the cucumber tests have to test the real
app and have to go through the real database and frankly I would like
that too.
Do I have to cleanup the database with an After.do? I really don’t
want to do that, because I will duplicate the logic in the After.do,
only with Model.delete_all statements. I noticed that after my first
run, the test db has all that data still in. I can purge it with rake
db:test:purge and the reinitialize it. Is that a good practice?
The test database should be reset after every test. You don’t want to
have to deal with side-effects that cross test cases. This is why
fixture data, or even better, Factory frameworks exist.
How do I reset the data after every test? Should have been done
automatically by cucumber?
Have you got any other comments or advice by looking at the code?
Part of the reason your data generation takes so long is that you’re
probably doing it all with Ruby and ActiveRecord. This it completely
fine for a one-time population of seed data. Actually Rails provides a
standard way to do that. See rake db:seed for more details on this, in
case you were unaware.
It is a one time operation. So how should I make it run only once for
all cucumber tests and then who will do the cleanup after each
scenario?
I was under the impression the cucumber tests have to test the real
app and have to go through the real database and frankly I would like
that too.
Not sure what gave you that impression. I would never test with “real”
data. Cucumber is really designed to replace integration tests. All
testing should use either fixture data or factories.
Your wanting to use seed data for your tests goes against sound testing
principals, no matter how you feel about it. Ultimately it’s your
project, do what you want. I’m just trying to lead you toward correct
thinking.
Do I have to cleanup the database with an After.do? I really don’t
want to do that, because I will duplicate the logic in the After.do,
only with Model.delete_all statements. I noticed that after my first
run, the test db has all that data still in. I can purge it with rake
db:test:purge and the reinitialize it. Is that a good practice?
The test database should be reset after every test. You don’t want to
have to deal with side-effects that cross test cases. This is why
fixture data, or even better, Factory frameworks exist.
How do I reset the data after every test? Should have been done
automatically by cucumber?
Exactly, which is why Cucumber resets your database between tests. I
didn’t say that you would have to reset it.
Have you got any other comments or advice by looking at the code?
Part of the reason your data generation takes so long is that you’re
probably doing it all with Ruby and ActiveRecord. This it completely
fine for a one-time population of seed data. Actually Rails provides a
standard way to do that. See rake db:seed for more details on this, in
case you were unaware.
It is a one time operation. So how should I make it run only once for
all cucumber tests and then who will do the cleanup after each
scenario?
By “one time” I mean once after creating your production (or
development) database. Possibly more that once for the development
database as you migrate, reset and reload your development database.
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