Second question on using RSpec for a simple Rails 2.0 app

Rails
1

Hi,

I’ve got a Rails 2.0 app “AIMS_1” with one model, “Portfolio”. (I’m
following David C.’s 2007 tutorial at
http://blog.davidchelimsky.net/articles/2007/05/14/an-introduction-to-rspec-part-i).
Portfolio has two attributes: :symbol and :name.
With great help from this NG, I’ve got a neat set of validations
for :symbol.

I want to put together a script that will test the validations as part
of a suite of tests to confirm the app’s validity as I expand it. For
this purpose, I added a Q&A directory (actually, “__QA”) under AIMS_1
and populated it with the following portfolio_spec.rb file:

portfolio_spec.rb

K:_Projects\Ruby_Rails_Apps\AIMS_1__QA

require ‘rubygems’
require ‘spec’
require ‘spec/story’
require ‘K:/_Utilities/ruby186-26_rc2/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/
activerecord-2.0.2/lib/ActiveRecord’
require ‘…/app/models/portfolio’

describe Portfolio do
it “should report any invalid :stock entries” do
pf = Portfolio.new
end
end

When I run “spec portfolio_spec.rb” in a Command window I get the
diagnostic:

ActiveRecord::ConnectionNotEstablished in ‘Portfolio should report any
invalid :stock entries’.

I expected some error because I’m creating a Portfolio instance
outside the AIMS_1 framework generated by Rails. I have no idea how
to address this issue.

I’m running ruby 1.8.6, Rails 2.0.2 and SciTE 1.74 over WinXP/SP2.

Any ideas?

Thanks in Advance,
Richard

2

RichardOnRails wrote:

When I run spec portfolio_spec.rb in a Command window I get the
diagnostic:

ActiveRecord::ConnectionNotEstablished in ‘Portfolio should report any
invalid :stock entries’.

I expected some error because I’m creating a Portfolio instance
outside the AIMS_1 framework generated by Rails. I have no idea how
to address this issue.

I’m running ruby 1.8.6, Rails 2.0.2 and SciTE 1.74 over WinXP/SP2.

Any ideas?

Thanks in Advance,
Richard

Are you using the Rspec-Rails plugin?
Cos that should absorb a lot of this capacity for error.
(looks like you just want to require “…/…/config/environment” or
something to fix it, so you load rails, rather than just active_record)

but…

install it as a plugin
(maybe install rspec as a plugin in the same way else it seems to choke
if your rspec and rspec-rails versions are different)

then run “ruby script/generate rspec”
(don’t ask me why this isnt a rake task “spec:setup”… but it isn’t)

and you should have a basic spec_helper in place.

then try creating a new model

“ruby script/generate rspec_model Furbie name:string age:integer”

and it should get you a new spec in spec/models/furbie_spec.rb
which should work,
and then make your existing code work the same way…
see what went wrong the first time…

Regards
Matthew R.

(recommend me on WorkingWithRails
http://workingwithrails.com/person/12394-matthew-rudy-jacobs)

3

Hi Matthew,

Thank you very much for your excellent help.

First the good news: Your suggestion about requiring the configuration
was spot on! So I’m a happy camper and will indeed make the post you
requested at the end of your response.

While I plan to continue using the rspec gem for this current
project, I’m very interested in using the two plug-ins you
recommended on future projects. However, I wasn’t able to get rspec
plug-in to install. Below are the steps I took to:

  1. Get the rspec-rails plug-in installed
  2. When that failed, try a different plug-in to show plug-in
    installation is working, generally.

I hope you can decipher my current error. Your unraveling my last
error was neat!

Best wishes,
Richard

[snip]\AIMS_1>gem uninstall rspec
[OK]

[snip]\AIMS_1>ruby script/plugin discover
[OK, but showed no dchelimsky]

[snip]\AIMS_1>ruby script/plugin source dchelimsky (David Chelimsky) · GitHub
[OK]

[snip]\AIMS_1>ruby script/plugin install rspec-rails
Plugin not found: [“rspec-rails”]

[snip]\AIMS_1>ruby script/plugin sources
http://dev.rubyonrails.com/svn/rails/plugins/

http://svn.6brand.com/projects/plugins/

[snip]\ AIMS_1>ruby script/plugin install simple_pages

  • ./CHANGELOG
  • ./README
  • ./Rakefile
  • ./app/controllers/simple_pages_controller.rb
  • ./app/helpers/simple_pages_helper.rb
  • ./app/models/simple_page.rb
    [snip]

On Jun 29, 7:57 pm, Matthew R. Jacobs <rails-mailing-l…@andreas-

4

On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 10:32 AM, RichardOnRails
[email protected] wrote:

project, I’m very interested in using the two plug-ins you
recommended on future projects. However, I wasn’t able to get rspec
plug-in to install.

Check out Home · dchelimsky/rspec-rails Wiki · GitHub.

Cheers,
David

5

I have Rspec frozen in the plugins folder, so I know its the exact same
version as the Rspec-Rails I’m using.
Thought you might be able to freeze it by doing a “script/plugin
install”,
but clearly not.

But if its working for you, then don’t worry.

Enjoy some spec-ing.

Matthew R.

RichardOnRails wrote:

Hi Matthew,

Thank you very much for your excellent help.

First the good news: Your suggestion about requiring the configuration
was spot on! So I�m a happy camper and will indeed make the post you
requested at the end of your response.

6

Hi David,

Thanks for that source. I’ll try your plug-ins after the Fourth.

Best wishes,
Richard