Shoulda makes it easy to write elegant, understandable, and maintainable tests. Shoulda consists of test macros, assertions, and helpers added on to the Test::Unit framework. It’s fully compatible with your existing tests, and requires no retooling to use.

Helpers

#context and #should give you rSpec like test blocks.

In addition, you get nested contexts and a much more readable syntax.

Macros

Generate hundreds of lines of Controller and ActiveRecord tests with these powerful macros.

They get you started quickly, and can help you ensure that your application is conforming to best practices.

Assertions

Many common rails testing idioms have been distilled into a set of useful assertions.

Stop killing your fingers with all of those underscores… Name your tests with plain sentences!

class UserTest << Test::Unit::TestCase 
  context "A User instance" do
    setup do
      @user = User.find(:first)
    end

    should "return its full name" do
      assert_equal 'John Doe', @user.full_name
    end

    context "with a profile" do
      setup do
        @user.profile = Profile.find(:first)
      end

      should "return true when sent #has_profile?" do
        assert @user.has_profile?
      end
    end
  end
end

Produces the following test methods:

"test: A User instance should return its full name."
"test: A User instance with a profile should return true when sent #has_profile?."

So readable!

Quick macro tests for your ActiveRecord associations and validations:

class PostTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
  load_all_fixtures

  should_belong_to :user
  should_have_many :tags, :through => :taggings

  should_require_unique_attributes :title
  should_require_attributes :body, :message => /wtf/
  should_require_attributes :title
  should_only_allow_numeric_values_for :user_id
end

class UserTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
  load_all_fixtures

  should_have_many :posts

  should_not_allow_values_for :email, "blah", "b lah"
  should_allow_values_for :email, "[email protected]", "[email protected]"
  should_ensure_length_in_range :email, 1..100
  should_ensure_value_in_range :age, 1..100
  should_protect_attributes :password
end

Makes TDD so much easier.

Macros to test the most common controller patterns…

context "on GET to :show for first record" do
  setup do
    get :show, :id => 1
  end

  should_assign_to :user
  should_respond_with :success
  should_render_template :show
  should_not_set_the_flash

  should "do something else really cool" do
    assert_equal 1, assigns(:user).id
  end
end

Test entire controllers in a few lines…

class PostsControllerTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
  should_be_restful do |resource|
    resource.parent = :user

    resource.create.params = { :title => "first post", :body => 'blah blah blah'}
    resource.update.params = { :title => "changed" }
  end
end

should_be_restful generates 40 tests on the fly, for both html and xml requests.

More to come here, but have fun with what’s there.

load_all_fixtures
assert_same_elements([:a, :b, :c], [:c, :a, :b])
assert_contains(['a', '1'], /\d/)
assert_contains(['a', '1'], 'a')

Shoulda is maintained by Tammer Saleh, and is funded by Thoughtbot, inc.

Shoulda is Copyright © 2006-2007 Tammer Saleh, Thoughtbot. It is free software, and may be redistributed under the terms specified in the MIT-LICENSE file.