In praise of Shoulda macros

Shoulda contexts let you to share setup code between different tests. This is for me one of Shoulda’s most attractive features.

When you combine this with the technique of defining your own macros to encapsulate assertions or setups that come up often, you end up with seriously DRY and readable tests.

I see a few different kinds of Shoulda macros:

Assertion macros

Assertions macros often begin with should_. They encapsulate one or a few assertions.

Do not let conventions prevent correct behaviour.

Often within an ActiveRecord::Base model, statements of a certain ilk are grouped together. For example the single line validations are often in the same place. It is tempting to place additional statements such that the model file is consistent. One might put all the before_destroy callback macros near the before_save or after_save statements.

Without loss of generality the following example models illustrate a behavioural anomaly that was encountered.

After meeting tpope and pair programming with reinh I got to see the power of vim. I have never used vim before so this is all new to me. I've been using TextMate exclusively since starting Rails a few years ago. I came to work and started in on a pursuit of how I can do in vim what I do in Textmate. While on this quest, I will document along the way some useful tips that may help you too.