Plugin Testing with a Database
Posted by Lance Ivy Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:08:00 GMT
When I develop a plugin that extends ActiveRecord, I’m really not content to stub out all the database access. I feel that tests should be reasonably complete, and to me that means not making a lot of assumptions about what’s going on underneath the hood of the supporting framework (in this case, ActiveRecord). But at the same time, I hate depending on an application in order to develop and test a plugin.
So I figured out how to package database access into a plugin (thanks to rick olson’s acts_as_paranoid testing). The highlights:
- uses an in-memory SQLite3 database
- loads from a database schema
- a collection of ActiveRecord models designed to compactly represent all the different associations
- provides basic fixtures for all models
- maintains a separate test log
- does not assume that you’re testing your plugin
I’ve adapted the method for a couple plugins so far, and today decided to take the next step and create my own plugin template with all these goodies. I didn’t/won’t make it a generator, but I did package it up to share (MIT-style). Simply unzip this template somewhere, delete whatever internals are simply cruft for your purposes, and search-and-replace the string {template} with your own plugin name to get started.
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