Using and abusing RSpec metadata

RSpec allows us to define custom metadata for individual examples or entire example groups. This data can then be used for filtering or altering the affected examples’ behaviour.

One may define custom metadata by passing a hash as a second argument to it, context and describe:

it 'cannot be destroyed', focus: true do
  expect { user.destroy! }.to raise_error
end

This pattern is used, for example, by Capybara to trigger its javascript driver to run integration tests; and by VCR to configure its recording and playback settings for HTTP requests.

There are three ways you can use custom metadata in your own workflow: to filter examples to run, altering how tests are run, and altering context (which I consider an anti-pattern).

Filtering examples

The simplest use case of custom metadata is to “tag” certain examples with keywords, and then tell RSpec to decide whether to run examples based on that keyword.

For example, you might focus your next test run on only those examples you are currently developing by using a “focus” keyword:

describe Post
  describe '#to_param', focus: true do
    it 'returns the slug attribute'
  end
end

To run only the examples tagged with focus, use RSpec’s filtering configuration:

RSpec.configure do |c|
  c.filter_run_including focus: true
  c.run_all_when_everything_filtered = true
end

RSpec will now only run examples tagged with focus. When no examples are tagged, it will run everything. Alternatively, you could filter examples from the command line:

$ rspec --tag focus:true

If you think declaring “tags” as hash keys with value true is ugly, you are not the only one. RSpec 3.0 will also accept symbols as metadata, and you can trigger that behaviour today:

RSpec.configure do |c|
  c.treat_symbols_as_metadata_keys_with_true_values = true
end

This will allow you to write tags like so:

describe Post
  describe '#to_param', :focus do
    it 'returns the slug attribute'
  end
end

Altering how examples are run

ResqueSpec is a nice library to fake running background jobs with Resque. It will queue jobs in a simple in-memory hash, which allows you to easily set expectations on what gets queued:

it 'mails a PDF form to the user' do
  User.create! email: 'foo@example.com'
  expect(PdfMailerJob).to have_queue_size_of(1)
end

ResqueSpec will not run any jobs until you explicitly tell it to. You can either tell it to run all jobs in a queue with ResqueSpec.perform_all(:emails), or wrap your code in a with_resque block:

it 'mails a PDF from to the user' do
  with_resque do
    expect {
      User.create! email: 'foo@example.com'
    }.to send_emails(1)
  end
end

Using RSpec’s around filter can make this spec a little easier to read:

# in spec/models/user.rb
it 'mails a PDF form to the user', :resque do
  expect {
    User.create! email: 'foo@example.com'
  }.to send_emails(1)
end

# in spec/spec_helper.rb
RSpec.configure do |c|
  c.treat_symbols_as_metadata_keys_with_true_values = true

  c.around do |example|
    return unless example.metadata[:resque]
    with_resque do
      example.run
    end
  end
end

Here we see how global hooks (i.e. before, after and around) can automatically filter by metadata. This is a neat way of reducing boilerplate in your examples.

Other uses of this pattern might include:

• temporarily enabling and disabling of verbose logging;
• temporarily redirecting log output to STDOUT;
• using database transactions for regular tests and truncation for integration tests.

Altering example context

When your application has authentication, most of your integration tests will want to sign in as some kind of user as their first step. This is commonly done using a before hook:

describe 'Edit profile' do
  before do
    User.create! username: 'test', password: 'secret'
    visit '/login'
    fill_in 'Username', with: 'test'
    fill_in 'Password', with: 'secret'
    click_button 'Log in'
  end

  it 'stores a new name' do
    visit '/profile'
    fill_in 'Name', with: 'Foo'
    click_button 'Update Profile'
    expect(page).to have_content('Name: Foo')
  end
end

This gets tedious to repeat in all your spec files, so you might be tempted to use metadata and global hooks to trigger authentication as a particular user:

RSpec.configure do |c|
  c.before :each, signed_in: true do
    User.create! username: 'test', password: 'secret'
    visit '/login'
    fill_in 'Username', with: 'test'
    fill_in 'Password', with: 'secret'
    click_button 'Log in'
  end
end

Or, with some refactoring to helper methods, you might even consider using metadata to select what user to authenticate with:

RSpec.configure do |c|
  c.before do
    factory_name = example.metadata[:signed_in_as]
    return unless factory_name
    user = FactoryGirl.create(factory_name)
    sign_in_as(user)
  end
end

Now, you could write your examples like this:

describe 'Editing my profile' do
  it 'changes my username', signed_in_as: :jack do
    # ...
  end

  it 'shows me an error message' do
    # ...
  end
end

The examples read very nicely, which is good. But we are now using metadata to alter to flow of our examples, which is bad. To avoid repeating the same hooks all over your test suite, you would do better to create a custom context method that would make the altered context of the example explicit:

describe 'Editing my profile' do
  def self.when_signed_in_as(factory_name)
    context "when signed in as #{factory_name}" do
      let(:current_user) { create(factory_name) }

      before do
        sign_in_as(current_user)
      end

      yield
    end
  end

  when_signed_in_as :jack do
    it 'changes my username' do
      # ...
    end
  end

  when_signed_out do
    it 'shows me an error message' do
      # ...
    end
  end
end

When deciding between using metadata to trigger some kind of behaviour in your test suite, do think about if you are trying to alter how your tests are run, or what the test should do. Feel free to use metadata for the former, but use other tools for the latter. Your team mates and future self will thank you for it.