Rails 3 – Building a Blog – Part 1: Test Setup & Generators

Interesting. I have a rather basic question: why do you use the post[:title] = title style, instead of post.title = title?

Here are some notes from the screencast:

# 7/27/2010
# Notes for TMTC: Rails3-Building a Blog-Part1
# The following contains some modifications from the screencast
# Haml is used in these notes instead of Erb

# start episode

# Rails 3 app already created (‘rpress’)

# Setting up Github
# Create new repository (follow instruction on Github)
# Terminal
git init
git remote add origin (…)
git add .
git commit -m ‘initial commit’
git push origin master

#GemFile
# if using MySQL
gem ‘mysql’

# if using Haml
gem ‘haml’ # (not in screencast)

# group :development, :test do # avoid these gems in production (not in screencast)
gem ‘capybara’
gem ‘database_cleaner’
gem ‘cucumber-rails’
gem ‘cucumber’
gem “rspec-rails”, “>= 2.0.0.beta.17″ # gem ‘rspec’ not needed
gem ‘spork’
gem ‘launchy’ # So you can do Then show me the page
# end

# Terminal
# gem package is deprecated
bundle install

# if getting error installing mysql see
# http://www.andhapp.com/blog/2010/02/26/install-mysql-pg-gems-with-bundler-09x/
# basically type into Terminal ‘ export PATH=/usr/local/mysql/bin:${PATH} ‘

rails g cucumber:install –rspec –capybara

# rails g model post
# rails destroy model post

# database.yml (for MySQL)
development:
adapter: mysql
database: rpress
username: root
pool: 5
timeout: 5000
# repeat for test and production except database name must be different
# ie. rpress_test

#Terminal
rake db:create

# ok to use ‘rake db:migrate’ instead?

# development.rb
# setup global variable after the final end
APP_URL = “http://localhost:3000/”

# create new file
# features/front_page.features
Feature: Front Page
In order to see the most relevant posts
As a reader
I want the 5 most recent posts on the front page

Scenario: 1 post in blog
Given I have a post
And my post has title “My Post”
And my post has body “This is my post. Back off!!!”
And my post has author with name “Charles Max Wood”
And my post was published on “May 22, 2010″
When I go to the homepage
Then I should see “My Post”
And I should see “This is my post. Back off!!!”
And I should see “Charles Max Wood”
And I should see “May 22, 2010″

# Terminal
rake db:migrate
rake cucumber

# rake features deprecated

# Copy the terminal output snippets and paste into
# features/step_definitions/front_page_steps.rb
# modify section:
Given /^I have a post$/ do
@post = Post.create
end

# Terminal
rake features
rails g model post title:string body:text author_id:integer published_on:date
rails g model user name:string
rake db:migrate
rake cucumber

# features/step_definitions/front_page_steps.rb
Given /^my post has title “([^"]*)”$/ do |title|
@post.title = title # ‘ @post[:title] = ‘ is used in the screencast
@post.save
end

Given /^my post has body “([^"]*)”$/ do |body|
@post.body = body # ‘ @post[:body] = ‘ is used in the screencast
@post.save
end

Given /^my post has author with name “([^"]*)”$/ do |name|
@post.author = User.create(:name => name) # ‘ @post[:author] = ‘ is used in the screencast
@post.save
end

# if using ‘@post.author =’ instead of ‘@post[:author] =’,
# you must jump ahead to create the author association in
# post.rb
# belongs_to :author, :class_name => “User”

Given /^my post was published on “([^"]*)”$/ do |date|
@post.published_on = Date.parse(date) # ‘ @post[:published_on] = ‘ is used in the screencast
@post.save
end

# Terminal
rake cucumber
rails g controller posts index

# routes.rb
root :to => “posts#index”

# delete public/index.html

# posts_controller.rb
def index
@posts = Post.all
end

# views/posts/_post.html.haml
%h2= post.title

# views/posts/index.html.haml
%h1 Posts
= render :partial => “post”, :collection => @posts

# troubleshooting
# features/front_page_features
# after ‘When I go to the homepage’
Then show me the page

# Terminal
rake cucumber

# features/front_page_features
# remove ‘Then show me the page’
# remove h2 tag from line
Then I should see “My Post”

# alternatively use ‘ Then I should see “My Post” within “h2″ ‘
# to test the h2 tag

# _post.html.haml
%p.post_body= post.body
%div
%span.author
by
= post.author.name

# The following step was done above out of order from the screencast
# post.rb
# belongs_to :author, :class_name => “User”

# front_page_stebs.rb
# change line to
@post[:author_id] = User.create(:name => name)

# the above line is not needed if using ‘@post.author =’

#_post.html.haml
%div
%span.author
by
= post.author.name
%span.published_on
on
= post.published_on.strftime(“%b %d, %Y”)

# Terminal
rake cucumber

# all tests pass
# end episode

Here are some notes from the screencast:

# 7/27/2010
# Notes for TMTC: Rails3-Building a Blog-Part1
# The following contains some modifications from the screencast
# Haml is used in these notes instead of Erb

# start episode

# Rails 3 app already created ('rpress')

# Setting up Github
# Create new repository (follow instruction on Github)
# Terminal
git init
git remote add origin (…)
git add .
git commit -m 'initial commit'
git push origin master

#GemFile
# if using MySQL
gem 'mysql'

# if using Haml
gem 'haml' # (not in screencast)

# group :development, :test do # avoid these gems in production (not in screencast)
gem 'capybara'
gem 'database_cleaner'
gem 'cucumber-rails'
gem 'cucumber'
gem “rspec-rails”, “>= 2.0.0.beta.17″ # gem 'rspec' not needed
gem 'spork'
gem 'launchy' # So you can do Then show me the page
# end

# Terminal
# gem package is deprecated
bundle install

# if getting error installing mysql see
# http://www.andhapp.com/blog/2010/02/26/install-…
# basically type into Terminal ' export PATH=/usr/local/mysql/bin:${PATH} '

rails g cucumber:install –rspec –capybara

# rails g model post
# rails destroy model post

# database.yml (for MySQL)
development:
adapter: mysql
database: rpress
username: root
pool: 5
timeout: 5000
# repeat for test and production except database name must be different
# ie. rpress_test

#Terminal
rake db:create

# ok to use 'rake db:migrate' instead?

# development.rb
# setup global variable after the final end
APP_URL = “http://localhost:3000/”

# create new file
# features/front_page.features
Feature: Front Page
In order to see the most relevant posts
As a reader
I want the 5 most recent posts on the front page

Scenario: 1 post in blog
Given I have a post
And my post has title “My Post”
And my post has body “This is my post. Back off!!!”
And my post has author with name “Charles Max Wood”
And my post was published on “May 22, 2010″
When I go to the homepage
Then I should see “

My Post

“
And I should see “This is my post. Back off!!!”
And I should see “Charles Max Wood”
And I should see “May 22, 2010″

# Terminal
rake db:migrate
rake cucumber

# rake features deprecated

# Copy the terminal output snippets and paste into
# features/step_definitions/front_page_steps.rb
# modify section:
Given /^I have a post$/ do
@post = Post.create
end

# Terminal
rake features
rails g model post title:string body:text author_id:integer published_on:date
rails g model user name:string
rake db:migrate
rake cucumber

# features/step_definitions/front_page_steps.rb
Given /^my post has title “([^"]*)”$/ do |title|
@post.title = title # ' @post[:title] = ' is used in the screencast
@post.save
end

Given /^my post has body “([^"]*)”$/ do |body|
@post.body = body # ' @post[:body] = ' is used in the screencast
@post.save
end

Given /^my post has author with name “([^"]*)”$/ do |name|
@post.author = User.create(:name => name) # ' @post[:author] = ' is used in the screencast
@post.save
end

# if using '@post.author =' instead of '@post[:author] =',
# you must jump ahead to create the author association in
# post.rb
# belongs_to :author, :class_name => “User”

Given /^my post was published on “([^"]*)”$/ do |date|
@post.published_on = Date.parse(date) # ' @post[:published_on] = ' is used in the screencast
@post.save
end

# Terminal
rake cucumber
rails g controller posts index

# routes.rb
root :to => “posts#index”

# delete public/index.html

# posts_controller.rb
def index
@posts = Post.all
end

# views/posts/_post.html.haml
%h2= post.title

# views/posts/index.html.haml
%h1 Posts
= render :partial => “post”, :collection => @posts

# troubleshooting
# features/front_page_features
# after 'When I go to the homepage'
Then show me the page

# Terminal
rake cucumber

# features/front_page_features
# remove 'Then show me the page'
# remove h2 tag from line
Then I should see “My Post”

# alternatively use ' Then I should see “My Post” within “h2″ '
# to test the h2 tag

# _post.html.haml
%p.post_body= post.body
%div
%span.author
by
= post.author.name

# The following step was done above out of order from the screencast
# post.rb
# belongs_to :author, :class_name => “User”

# front_page_stebs.rb
# change line to
@post[:author_id] = User.create(:name => name)

# the above line is not needed if using '@post.author ='

#_post.html.haml
%div
%span.author
by
= post.author.name
%span.published_on
on
= post.published_on.strftime(“%b %d, %Y”)

# Terminal
rake cucumber

# all tests pass
# end episode

You can definitely do that. You can also create a step in which you run this:

visit ‘/posts/create’

Ok, I’ll admit being wrong. I did some research and write_attribute does NOT commit to the database, which means that @ar_object[:title] = “some title” doesn’t commit to the database either.

In other words the @post.save is necessary.

@post[:title] doesn’t make as much difference as @post[:id] where every object has an identifier in Ruby. This clearly reads the attribute from the @post’s attributes, rather than from the object’s own identifiers in Ruby.

Someone around 2:00 Charles mentions that the bundler stuff is already in the .gitignore

IMO the .bundle in the gitignore isn’t for bundler. It’s for the git-bundles