Rails 4 Test Prescriptions: Build a Healthy Codebase

Does your Rails code suffer from bloat, brittleness, or inaccuracy? Cure these problems with a regular dose of test-driven development. Rails 4 Test Prescriptions is a comprehensive guide to how tests can help you design and write better Rails applications. In this completely revised edition, you'll learn why testing works and how to test effectively using Rails 4, Minitest 5, and RSpec 3, as well as popular testing libraries such as factory_girl and Cucumber. Do what the doctor ordered to make your applications feel all better. Side effects may include better code, fewer bugs, and happier developers.

Your Ruby on Rails application is sick. Deadlines are looming, but every time you make the slightest change to the code, something else breaks. Nobody remembers what that tricky piece of code was supposed to do, and nobody can tell what it actually does. Plus, it has bugs. You need test-driven development, a process for improving the design, maintainability, and long-term viability of software.

Containing both practical code examples and discussion of why testing works, this book starts with the most basic features delivered as part of core Ruby on Rails. Once you've integrated those features into your coding practice, you'll learn how to use popular third-party testing tools such as RSpec, Mocha, Cucumber, and factory_girl. You'll test the component parts of a Rails application, including the back-end model logic and the front-end display logic. Using Rails examples, you'll learn how to use testing to enable your code to respond better to future change. Plus, you'll see how to handle real-world testing situations.

This completely revised edition contains a new tutorial, as well as new examples throughout the book. Many chapters, including the JavaScript chapter, have undergone major changes to reflect new tools and new practices. And there are brand new chapters on testing for security, and testing external services.

What You Need:
Ruby 2.1, Rails 4

Noel Rappin is a senior developer and agile coach at Table XI, and the author of multiple technical books. Before joining Table XI, Noel ran internal training at Groupon, and has a Ph.D. in educational technology and user-centered design from the GVU Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology.