Rails 3.1 with Rspec, Factory Girl, Haml, Database Cleaner, Spork, and Guard

rails31init.md

Install Rails 3.1

gem install rails

generate new app, skipping Test::Unit file generation

rails new my_app -T

Set up Gemfile

Add this to your Gemfile

gem 'haml-rails'
gem 'simple_form'

group :test, :development do
  gem "rspec-rails"
  gem 'rspec-instafail'
  gem 'rb-fsevent'
  gem 'growl'
  gem 'pry'
  gem 'factory_girl_rails'
  gem 'database_cleaner'
  gem "factory_girl_rails"
  gem "capybara"
  gem 'guard-spork'
  gem "guard-bundler"
  gem "guard-rspec"
  gem "guard-migrate"
end

Configure generators to use the gems we want, and skip view spec generation

# in config/application.rb

config.generators do |g|
  g.test_framework :rspec, :fixture => true
  g.fixture_replacement :factory_girl, :dir => 'spec/factories'
  g.template_engine :haml
end

turn on autoloading of lib directory and all its subdirectories

In Rails 3+, the lib directory is no longer autoloaded.

# in config/application.rb
config.autoload_paths += %W(#{config.root}/lib)
config.autoload_paths += Dir["#{config.root}/lib/**/"]

run install tasks for our gems

rails g rspec:install

Setup spork.

spork --bootstrap

Then edit spec/spec_helper.rb and move everything into the prefork section.

Setup database cleaner

Edit spec/spec_helper.rb.

Put this in the prefork section:

require 'database_cleaner'
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation

Put this in the each_run section:

DatabaseCleaner.clean

Factory Girl

Comment out the config.fixture_path line in spec/spec_helper.rb...the comment above implies it shouldn't be used if we're not using ActiveRecord fixtures.

RSpec Instafail

echo '--colour
--drb
--require rspec/instafail
--format RSpec::Instafail' > .rspec

The --drb is needed for spork and --colour is for color, because it's pretty.

Pry

In your config/environments/development.rb, near the end before the YourAppName::Application.configure block, put this:

silence_warnings do
  begin
    require 'pry'
    IRB = Pry
  rescue LoadError
  end
end

Now rails c will startup using pry. You can also add bindings.pry anyplace and your app will stop there with a pry prompt until you exit it.

See Also:

• Railscast #280

Guard

Run these commands:

guard init
guard init bundler
guard init spork
guard init migrate
guard init rspec

You may have to monkey withy our Guardfile some but the order should be right.

If you use rvm, you don't need the bundle exec part. But you are correct if you are not using bundle exec.