why I need testings in rails?

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi --

All the time I hear that RoR has great testing enviroment. Well, why I need tests? I test my webapp all the time - code a page and than test it. So why I need that extra test - does it make some special tests? I am confused

See various other comments on the merits of rigorous testing. I'll throw in a bit of a footnote, which is that the question has arisen in my mind about testing things that have already been tested.... What I mean is that, for example, ActiveRecord has a pretty serious test suite. So if I do:

   validates_size_of :comment, :maximum => "100"

I sometimes wonder whether I really need a test like:

   def test_size_of_comment      @thing.comment = "hello" * 21      assert(!@thing.valid?)    end

or whatever. The method I'm using, validates_size_of, already has unit tests. On the other hand, one could view it as testing to make sure the validation didn't accidentally get deleted from the model file. But then, how does one test to make sure that one didn't forget to put "test_" at the beginning of every test? And so on.

In sum, we live with a horizon beyond which there is no testing. The question is: where is that horizon? Perversely, perhaps, I find this as interesting a question as any in the test realm.

David

2

Regarding tests on validations, see Luke Redpath's excellent discussion at:

http://www.lukeredpath.co.uk/2006/8/29/developing-a-rails-model-using-bdd-and-rspec-part-1

The part I'm specifically referring to is "avoid meaningless tests." With that said, it's important to note that when you write validates_something_or_other, you are imposing a constraint on your model. At some point in the future, you might write other code that is in conflict with this constraint. My perspective is not to test whether the validation really validates, but that expected data actually is validated the way you want.

Does that make sense?

Steve

dblack wrote: