CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-railsrspecrequest
Adam
Adam

Reputation: 518

In RSpec, what are Request Specs supposed to test?

Rspec noob here, just trying to improve my test coverage.

One very basic yet important question I have is just: What kinds of tests go where? Model tests are straight forward. I just need to test the functionality of the models methods and validations. View tests seem simple. That would just be testing that each view renders the desired data.

What confuses me is what exactly goes in my Request Specs. Most of my rails experience is from following Michael Hartle's Rails Tutorial. His Request specs seem to be based around a series of actions that the user could take in the application. But he also includes test which seem like they should be in the View Specs that I am considering moving elsewhere.

If someone could help me understand what kinds of tests go in Request, that would be helpful.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 148

Answers (1)

Jordan Running
Jordan Running

Reputation: 106027

From the RSpec docs:

Request specs provide a thin wrapper around Rails' integration tests, and are designed to drive behavior through the full stack, including routing (provided by Rails) and without stubbing (that's up to you).

With request specs, you can:

  • specify a single request
  • specify multiple requests across multiple controllers
  • specify multiple requests across multiple sessions

Check the rails documentation on integration tests for more information.

From Rails' docs on integration tests:

Integration tests are used to test the interaction among any number of controllers. They are generally used to test important work flows within your application.

If your test has to do with how a single view is rendered (which should be completely decoupled from any actual HTTP request), then it's probably better as a view test. If it has to do with multiple views or multiple requests, then an integration test is probably more appropriate.

Upvotes: 2

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