CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2011/ch2 2e ad

Testing frameworks for Ruby

Introduction

This is an introduction to the subject.

Testing Framework Evolution

Explain here how testing in ruby went from regular Test:unit testing to BDD testing.

TDD vs BDD

Give high level example how they differ from each other.

Ruby Testing Frameworks

Compared to five years ago the number of testing framework available for ruby has increased rapidly. Selecting a perfect testing framework for a particular project has become harder.

Overview of testing framework

Selection of testing framework for ruby projects depends on factors like what are we trying to accomplish TDD or BDD, is GUI testing included, is acceptance testing required, do we have to merge legacy ruby test code with new testing framework. Altough GUI testing and acceptance testing are out of scope for this wiki we have made attempt to cover them in some details at the end of this wiki page. Meanwhile, below is the detailed explanation of five most commonly used unit testing framework.

Test:Unit

This testing framework is a base testing framework that is integrated inside ruby. The packages for this testing framework can be downloaded as a gem. The first version gem for this testing framework was released on 20th march 2008.

Testing Framework Details

---

Testing Framework	Released Date	Released Version	Current Version	Testing Type Supported	Install Command	Documentation/Version Support
Test:Unit	03-20-2008	1.2.3	2.3.0	TDD,Mocking	gem install test-unit	Test:Unit Site Versions
Shoulda	04-26-2008	4.1	2.11.3	TDD,Mocking	gem install shoulda	Shoulda Site Versions
RSpec	05-26-2008	1.1.4	1.3.2	TDD,Mocking	gem install rspec	RSpec Site Versions
Riot	10-19-2009	0.9.11	0.12.5	TDD,Mocking	gem install riot	Riot Site Versions
MiniTest	06-10-2008	1.2.1	2.6.9	TDD,Mocking	gem install minitest	Minitest Site
Cucumber	05-20-2009	0.3.6	1.0.6	TDD,Mocking	gem install cucumber	Cucumber Site Versions

Examples

Actual Code being tested (Intro of functionality)

Test:Unit testing code

Shoulda testing code

RSpec testing code

Riot testing code

Mini testing code

Example code goes here

References

• [1] Ruby Forge Test:Unit Site
• [2] Shay Friedman A Mini-Review-Benchmark of Ruby’s Different Testing Frameworks

Note

There are many testing frameworks for Rails, but for this topic, I would like you to concentrate on testing frameworks for Ruby itself. Look up information on these frameworks, and describe their evolution.