Resetting fixtures for each iteration within a single test

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi,

I want to reset the fixture data manually during a single test. I know this action is performed between tests, but I need to trigger it within a single test.

I need this because I have a directory full of test data (xml files) which need to be sent to the application and validated for their response. These files are all sent to a single controller action, which dispatches the request to the appropriate Restful controller/ action. This controller mainly exists for backward compatibility reasons which do not map to Restful controllers. I already have tests on the Restful controller actions, but I want to run this dispatching test as well. So what I do now is create a single test which iterates over all these files and after each run reset! the session for the next run.

class DispatcherControllerTest < Test::Unit::TestCase

  def test_all_xml_files     all_files.each do |file|       post :submit, file       ...assertions...       reset!     end   end

end

The problem is that the submitted files change the state of the application. I don't want the tests to be dependent of each other so I want to reset the fixture data after each iteration, but I can't find the method to do this.

Does anybody know how to reset the fixtures manually during a single test?

Thanks in advance, Bas van Westing

2

You need to rollback the current database transaction and start a new one. An alternative method would be to dynamically generate a testcase for each data file you have.

Fred

3

Hi Fred,

Thanks for your response. Can you also give me the statement which rolls back the current database transaction?

Regards, Bas

4

Hi Fred,

Thanks for your response. Can you also give the statement for rolling back the current database transaction?

  ActiveRecord::Base.connection.rollback_db_transaction   ActiveRecord::Base.connection.begin_db_transaction

Fred

5

Fred,

Thanks for your help. I ended up generating the test cases dynamically as you suggested. This gives nicer test outputs in case of failing test cases. Ruby is so beautiful...

class DispatcherControllerTest < Test::Unit::TestCase

  Dir.glob( "#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/../internal/*input.xml" ).each do |input_filename|     output_filename = input_filename.gsub( 'input.xml', 'output.xml')     next unless File.exists?( output_filename )     method_name = "test_internal_#{File.basename(input_filename, '.xml')}"     define_method( method_name ) do       ...Actual method contents here, comparing the response with the expected output file.....     end   end

end