Where do a set the description on a should satisfy

Testing RSpec
1

Hi all,

Newbie here and I’m using rspec with jruby to test a java class, but
this is
more of a rspec question.

I have a java HashMap object and want to make sure a key exists. I
have this as
my test:

context :toHashMap do
  subject { @var_list.toHashMap }

  it { should satisfy{|a| a.contains_key?(var1) } }
  it { should satisfy{|a| a.contains_key?(var2) } }
  it { should satisfy{|a| a.contains_key?(var3) } }
end

@var_list is set to another java object that has a method toHashMap
that returns
a HashMap. var1, var2 and var3 are set using let(:var1), etc. If the
one of
these fails, I get this telling me that I need to supply a description
method:

'Java::LibraryLanguage::XmlVariableList when added duplicate variables
with
different values toHashMap should When you call a matcher in an
example without
a String, like this:

specify { object.should matcher }

or this:

it { should matcher }

RSpec expects the matcher to have a #description method. You should
either
add a String to the example this matcher is being used in, or give it
a
description method. Then you won’t have to suffer this lengthy warning
again.
’ FAILED
expected {var01=2, var02=this-is-a-string} to satisfy block
<<<<<<<

I’d like to put 'contain the key ’ in place of ‘When you call a
matcher in
an example without a String’

Where do I put that string? I thought I could just do:

it “should contain the key #{var1}” { should satisify{|a|
a.contains_key?(var1)
} }

But, the loading complains on that. Where can a put a custom
description into
this code (easily/polite way).

Thanks,

GregD

2

On Sep 24, 2010, at 1:29 PM, GregD wrote:

method:

But, the loading complains on that. Where can a put a custom
description into
this code (easily/polite way).

Congratulations - you’re apparently the first person to ever use the
satisfy matcher with an implicit subject, and have uncovered a bug!

I’d recommend not using that satisfy matcher for this case though, as
it’s really intended to be more of a last resort, and you can do much
better with a custom matcher:

RSpec::Matchers.define :contain_key do |key|
match do |subject|
subject.contains_key?(key)
end
end

Then you can say:

context :toHashMap do
subject { @var_list.toHashMap }

it { should contain_key(var1) }
it { should contain_key(var2) }
it { should contain_key(var3) }

end

More info on custom matchers:
http://github.com/rspec/rspec-expectations/blob/master/features/matchers/define_matcher.feature

HTH,
David

3

That helped a lot and I see it is a better/more polite 1-liner-way.
Do you recommend that these custom matchers probably need to go into a
spec helper for standard java classes and included since contains_key?
(key) maps to the java HashMap method containsKey(key)? Do I put
these in a ruby module to be included?

Thanks,

GregD (newbie)

4

On Sep 27, 2010, at 8:05 AM, GregD wrote:

context :toHashMap do
one of

<<<<<<<

RSpec::Matchers.define :contain_key do |key|
it { should contain_key(var1) }
it { should contain_key(var2) }
it { should contain_key(var3) }
end

More info on custom matchers:http://github.com/rspec/rspec-expectations/blob/master/features/match…

HTH,
David

That helped a lot and I see it is a better/more polite 1-liner-way.
Do you recommend that these custom matchers probably need to go into a
spec helper for standard java classes and included since contains_key?
(key) maps to the java HashMap method containsKey(key)? Do I put
these in a ruby module to be included?

[I moved your responses to the bottom. Please use bottom or inline posting rather than top posting. ]

The convention is to have a line like this in spec/spec_helper.rb:

Dir[“./spec/support/**/*.rb”].each {|f| require f}

And then keep matchers and other support files under ./spec/support/

HTH,
David

5

On Sep 27, 2010, at 8:12 AM, David C. wrote:

I have a java HashMap object and want to make sure a key exists. I
@var_list is set to another java object that has a method toHashMap
specify { object.should matcher }
again.
it “should contain the key #{var1}” { should satisify{|a|

context :toHashMap do
David

Dir["./spec/support/**/*.rb"].each {|f| require f}

And then keep matchers and other support files under ./spec/support/

re: how to include them: yes, in a module:

in spec/support/custom_matchers.rb

module CustomMatchers
…
end

in spec/spec_helper.rb

RSpec.configure do |c|
c.include CustomMatchers
end

Make sense?

6

On 9/27/10 8:23 AM, GregD wrote:

re: how to include them: yes, in a module:

jruby -S spec -r spec/spec_helper.rb spec

Or am I missing something? Or is that just not desirable? I know I
can use rake and create a rake task(s), but from the perspective of
the command line, it would be nice to not to have to supply the -r
option unless you want to include something “outside” of this
convention.

For rails and non-rails apps/libs the convention is to have each
*_spec.rb file require the ‘spec_helper’ at the top of the spec like so:

By following this convention you will only have to specify the spec on
the command line.

HTH,
Ben

7

On Sep 27, 12:38 pm, Ben M. [email protected] wrote:

For rails and non-rails apps/libs the convention is to have each
*_spec.rb file require the ‘spec_helper’ at the top of the spec like so:

http://github.com/rspec/rspec-core/blob/master/spec/rspec/core_spec.r…

By following this convention you will only have to specify the spec on
the command line.

Duh! Thanks. Brain fart on my part. I went and looked back at my
rails apps and yes I missed that for these specs.

Works like a charm. Sorry for being stupid.

GregD

8

On Sep 27, 9:14 am, David C. [email protected] wrote:

in spec/support/custom_matchers.rb

module CustomMatchers
…
end

in spec/spec_helper.rb

RSpec.configure do |c|
c.include CustomMatchers
end

Okay, 1 more question and maybe this is more of a convention request.
I know in my rails apps that my environment is loaded when running my
specs from a rake task or from the spec command. But for a non-rails
app, it would be nice to default spec program to load spec_helper if
it exists in the spec dir. Like:

jruby -S spec spec

instead of having to do this to include the spec_helper every time:

jruby -S spec -r spec/spec_helper.rb spec

Or am I missing something? Or is that just not desirable? I know I
can use rake and create a rake task(s), but from the perspective of
the command line, it would be nice to not to have to supply the -r
option unless you want to include something “outside” of this
convention.

Regards,

GregD