Episode 15: Rails Testing Tools and Best Practices with Jason Swett

The Ruby Blend

Hello and welcome to The Ruby Blend! Today's episode is all about testing! We have special guest, Jason Swett, who is the host of, "Rails with Jason Podcast" and author of, "Rails Testing For Beginners." If you've had very little or no testing experience, don't be afraid to listen to this episode, because Jason will start with a gentle testing intro so you won't get lost. We will talk about the basic tooling of Rails testing and what each of these tools do. Also, we discuss what kinds of tests you should write, tests you don't have to write, and TDD. Download this episode now!

Sponsored by:

• Linode

Panelists:

• Andrew Mason
• Ron Cooke

Guests:

• Jason Swett

Show Notes:

[00:03:09] Jason gives an overview of everything about testing he wants to talk about today.

[00:04:27] We start with the basic tooling of Rails tests. We discuss when you spin up a new Rails app and you're getting ready to start writing some tests, what do you start reaching for, what kind of gems, and what are the purposes of those gems?

[00:06:50] Jason talks about why testing is important and then he goesback into talking about tooling.

[00:16:04] A big challenge in learning testing is knowing the terminology. We will discuss System Spec versus System test and Capybara, fixtures, and factories.

[00:27:34] Andrew brings up a gem he's used called the Fabrication Gem. Also, Jason talks about another tool called Faker.

[00:35:10] Jason talks about Martin Fowler and his "Test Pyramid."

[00:39:05] What kinds of tests to write and what kinds we can skip is discussed here. Jason talks about one of his favorite rants he wrote in a blog post about "Examples of pointless types of RSpec tests."

[00:45:59] Andrew wonders about testing validations and asks Jason if this is a necessary test. Andrew gets his "validation."

[00:48:55] Jason discusses RSpec tests you can write. He will let us know what he writes and what he doesn't write.

[00:53:26] Jason talks about TDD (Test Driven Development).

Links Mentioned:

• Jason Swett Twitter
• CodeWithJason.com
• Jason Swett YouTube
• "Rails Testing For Beginners" - Jason Swett
• RSpec
• minitest
• Capybara
• Fixtures
• Factory Method Pattern
• Factory Bot
• Fabrication Gem
• Faker
• VCR
• Martin Fowler Test Pyramid
• "Examples of pointless types of RSpec tests" - Jason Swett
• Shoulda matchers
• TDD (Test Driven Development)

Credits:

• Produced by Justin Dorfman at CodeFund
• Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound
• Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound
• Ad Sales by Eric Berry at CodeFund

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• Our Website
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Special Guest: Jason Swett.

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