Using Minitest in Rails

minitestruby-on-rails-3

Recently, I've read quite a few articles about Minitest. I really like the idea of a super lightweight test framework. I decided to replace rspec with it in a recent project and have had no luck getting it all to work. My problems are

a) getting named routes in my acceptance/integration tests (rspec and test::unit seem to automatically include them but no go with minitest),
b) and the overall lack of adoption in rails makes me uneasy (everyone seems to be using rspec though it's used more with gems/libraries).

Is it worth using minitest when rspec has the main dominance with testing rails applications?

Best Answer

I'm the author of minitest-rails. Things have changed a lot from the time you originally asked this to now. My answer assumes you're using minitest-rails.

Named Routes

If you are using minitest-rails this just works (now). You can use the generators to create these tests, or write them yourself. All the named routes are available in your acceptance/integration tests.

require "minitest_helper"

describe "Homepage Acceptance Test" do
  it "must load successfully" do
    get root_path
    assert_response :success
  end
end

Adoption

I think we will continue to see increased attention on using Minitest with Rails as we get closer to Rails 4.

Worth it?

I think starting with Minitest now is totally worth it. There is tremendous activity going on in Minitest right now. It aligns nicely with the recent focus on fast tests as well. But it really depends on your app and team dynamics.

Related Solutions

Ruby-on-rails – Rails: How to rename a database column in a Ruby on Rails migration

rename_column :table, :old_column, :new_column

You'll probably want to create a separate migration to do this. (Rename FixColumnName as you will.):

script/generate migration FixColumnName
# creates  db/migrate/xxxxxxxxxx_fix_column_name.rb

Then edit the migration to do your will:

# db/migrate/xxxxxxxxxx_fix_column_name.rb
class FixColumnName < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    rename_column :table_name, :old_column, :new_column
  end

  def self.down
    # rename back if you need or do something else or do nothing
  end
end

For Rails 3.1 use:

While, the up and down methods still apply, Rails 3.1 receives a change method that "knows how to migrate your database and reverse it when the migration is rolled back without the need to write a separate down method".

See "Active Record Migrations" for more information.

rails g migration FixColumnName

class FixColumnName < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    rename_column :table_name, :old_column, :new_column
  end
end

If you happen to have a whole bunch of columns to rename, or something that would have required repeating the table name over and over again:

rename_column :table_name, :old_column1, :new_column1
rename_column :table_name, :old_column2, :new_column2
...

You could use change_table to keep things a little neater:

class FixColumnNames < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    change_table :table_name do |t|
      t.rename :old_column1, :new_column1
      t.rename :old_column2, :new_column2
      ...
    end
  end
end

Then just db:migrate as usual or however you go about your business.

For Rails 4:

While creating a Migration for renaming a column, Rails 4 generates a change method instead of up and down as mentioned in the above section. The generated change method is:

$ > rails g migration ChangeColumnName

which will create a migration file similar to:

class ChangeColumnName < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    rename_column :table_name, :old_column, :new_column
  end
end

Ruby – Is it possible to run a single test in MiniTest

The command should be:

% rake test TEST=test/test_foobar.rb TESTOPTS="--name=test_foobar1 -v"