Test fixture syntax

Rails
1

OK, I know I’m doing something bone-headed, but I can’t for the life of
me figure it out.

I’ve read the test fixtures Rdoc about eight dozen times, and it says
(to me) that if I have a YAML fixture file, dogs.yml that looks like
this:

fido:
id: 1
breed: Terrier
fifi:
id: 2
breed: Poodle

Then I can include

fixtures :dogs

in my functional test, and I’ll have access to a Hash of the model
objects in the instance variable @dogs. And further, that the fixture
records are “found” and loaded into instance variables named as the
fixture. That is, I can also access @fido, and @fido = @dogs[“fido”].

However, I am getting no @dogs at all. I do get dogs (local variable),
but no @dogs. And I get no @fido or @fifi either.

My error? Doc error? Help!

Thanks,

Steve

2

Steve Crozier wrote:

fifi:
fixture. That is, I can also access @fido, and @fido = @dogs[“fido”].

However, I am getting no @dogs at all. I do get dogs (local variable),
but no @dogs. And I get no @fido or @fifi either.

My error? Doc error? Help!
Doc error. Kind of. There’s a setting called
self.use_instanciated_fixtures in test_helper.rb that controls whether
the @dogs[:foo] syntax works. As of 1.0, it’s off by default. Instead,
you can use the syntax dogs(:foo).

3

Thanks, Alex. I had seen that setting, but had interpreted it
differently. I tried it and it works great.

Steve

Alex Y. wrote:

Steve Crozier wrote:

fifi:
fixture. That is, I can also access @fido, and @fido = @dogs[“fido”].

However, I am getting no @dogs at all. I do get dogs (local variable),
but no @dogs. And I get no @fido or @fifi either.

My error? Doc error? Help!
Doc error. Kind of. There’s a setting called
self.use_instanciated_fixtures in test_helper.rb that controls whether
the @dogs[:foo] syntax works. As of 1.0, it’s off by default. Instead,
you can use the syntax dogs(:foo).

4

Assuming you are using the latest rails you use fido = dogs(‘fido’).

What you are using below from the docs are called instantiated fixtures
and they are slow (especially when you have lots of them).

See tests/test_helper.rb to see how to turn them back on if you really
want to. Otherwise change your tests to get the fixtures as you need
them as above.

–
Owen