Unit testing a module that is included in ActiveRecord models

Question

I have a module like this (but more complicated):

module Aliasable def self.included(base) base.has_many :aliases, :as => :aliasable end end

which I include in several models. Currently for testing I make another module as below, which I just include in the test case

module AliasableTest def self.included(base) base.class_exec do should have_many(:aliases) end end end

The question is how do I go about testing this module in isolation? Or is the above way good enough. Seems like there is probably a better way to do it.

John Feminella · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-12 00:32:13Z

First off, self.included is not a good way to describe your modules, and class_exec is needlessly complicating things. Instead, you should extend ActiveSupport::Concern, as in:

module Phoneable extend ActiveSupport::Concern included do has_one :phone_number validates_uniqueness_of :phone_number end end

You didn't mention what test framework you're using, but RSpec covers exactly this case. Try this:

shared_examples_for "a Phoneable" do it "should have a phone number" do subject.should respond_to :phone_number end end

Assuming your models look like:

class Person class Business include Phoneable include Phoneable end end

Then, in your tests, you can do:

describe Person do it_behaves_like "a Phoneable" # reuse Phoneable tests it "should have a full name" do subject.full_name.should == "Bob Smith" end end describe Business do it_behaves_like "a Phoneable" # reuse Phoneable tests it "should have a ten-digit tax ID" do subject.tax_id.should == "123-456-7890" end end

Thanks, that is super helpful. Do you know of the correct way to do it with Test::Unit (and shoulda)?
As far as I know, Test::Unit doesn't have a similar facility. Of course, you could always just make a module like PhoneableTests in this example and then reuse it by including that.
I will mark this as a correct answer and I might ask a different question about shoulda then, or maybe I should just jump on the RSpec band wagon.

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