ordered method testing with rspec

Since I am learning RSpec for Rails I wonder how to write a test which tests the order of the methods called by my method. Now I found a solution which works. The answer is simple: should_receive takes a block which is called after the assertion of the should_receive ran.

Your code may look like this:

    1 # user.rb
    2 def change_my_attributes(name,login,password)
    3   self.name = name
    4   self.login = login
    5   self.password = password
    6   save!
    7 end
    8 
    9 # user_spec.rb
   10 it "should run my methods in #change_my_attributes in the correct order" do
   11   @user = User.new
   12   @user.should_receive(:name=) do
   13     @user.should_receive(:login=) do
   14       @user.should_receive(:password=) do
   15         @user.should_receive(:save!)
   16       end
   17     end
   18   end
   19   @user.change_my_attributes('foo','bar','foobar')
   20 end

Looks kind of ugly but it works...

Welcome

Welcome aboard this blog about best practices for testing Ruby on Rails applications. We are Jan Krutisch and Thorsten Böttger, two Rails hackers from Hamburg, Germany.