LazyMocks

Rationale

In Rspec, using a mock object, the moer functionality you add, the more complaints you get about unexpected messages.

Sometimes you just want an object that responds to anything you throw at it, and just stub specifc behavior.

Enter LazyMocks.

Usage

Every method returns a new instance of LazyMock.

my_mock = LazyMock.new
my_mock.some_method_that_doesnt_exist
=> #<MyMock>

It responds to everything.

my_mock = LazyMock.new
my_mock.respond_to?(:huh?)
=> true

Then you can stub what you want to.

my_mock = LazyMock.new
my_mock.stub(:something).and_return('foo')

Because it returns an instance of iteself, any code paths (the first traversed) will pass:

my_mock = LazyMock.new
if my_mock.thing.other_method.another_method
  return "Test"  if my_mock.has_some_method?
else
  #not getting here..
end

This means that for paths in your specs which you don’t care about (because you’re testing one specific part) won’t break when you add new functionality as you flesh out your implementation.