Test Driven Development (TDD)

When testing Rails applications the favoured test suite is Rspec.

For Ruby versions 1.8.7 and under, the below instructions should get you going.

$ [sudo] gem install rspec -v 1.3.0
$ [sudo] gem install rspec-rails -v 1.3.2


The test folder is now named spec. You no longer need your test folder.

To setup rspec tests for a controller named Pages:
$ script/generate rspec_controller Pages home contact

Your test file pages_controller_spec.rb will contain a test looking like the following:

describe "GET 'home'" do
it "should be successful" do
get 'home'
response.should be_success
end
end

The first line is a description. The second line is also and neither have any effect on the test. The third line performs a GET request to the page. The fourth line describes the desired result. should_be_success looks for status code 200.

To run your tests:
$ spec spec/

Red, Green, Refactor

This is the process you work through when following Test Driven Development. First get the test to fail, then to pass, then refactor your code.