ValidAttribute

ValidAttribute is a minimalist matcher for validation BDD.

Supported ORMs

• ActiveModel based (ActiveRecord >= 3.0, Mongoid >= 2.0, MongoMapper >= 0.9
• ActiveRecord <= 2.3
• DataMapper
• Custom (with compatible API, see below)

Installation

If you're using RSpec just add the valid_attribute to your Gemfile AFTER rspec gem.

gem 'valid_attribute'

Then add it to your spec_helper.rb

require 'valid_attribute'

or if you're using Test::Unit, you must use Thoughtbot's shoulda-context

# Gemfile
gem 'shoulda-context'

# test_helper.rb
require 'shoulda-context'
require 'valid_attribute'

If you want to you use it with MiniTest::Spec you can use either shoulda-context (see above) or minitest-matchers:

# Gemfile
gem 'minitest-matchers'

# test_helper.rb
require 'minitest/matchers'
require 'valid_attribute'

Usage

Instead of having validation specific matchers ValidAttribute only cares if the attribute is valid under certain circumstances

class User
  include ActiveModel::Validations

  attr_accessor :email, :name, :password

  validates :email,    :format => { :with => /\A([^@\s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+\.)+[a-z]{2,})\Z/i }
  validates :name,     :length => { :minimum => 5 }
  validates :password, :confirmation => true, :presence => true
end

# RSpec
describe User do
  # The .when method can take any number of values that you want to pass
  it { should have_valid(:email).when('test@test.com', 'test+spam@gmail.com') }
  it { should_not have_valid(:email).when('fail', 123) }
  it { should have_valid(:name).when('TestName') }
  it { should_not have_valid(:name).when('Test') }

  # Because 'should' works off the the 'subject' in RSpec we can set other values if necessary for a given validation test
  describe 'password' do
    before { subject.password_confirmation = 'password' }
    it { should have_valid(:password).when('password') }
    it { should_not have_valid(:password).when(nil) }
  end

  # Using .when is optional. Without it, the existing value is examined.
  it { should_not have_valid(:email) }
end

# TestUnit
require 'shoulda/context'
class UserTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
  # The .when method can take any number of values that you want to pass
  should have_valid(:email).when('test@test.com', 'test+spam@gmail.com')
  should_not have_valid(:email).when('fail', 123)
  should have_valid(:name).when('TestName')
  should_not have_valid(:name).when('Test')

  # Because 'shoulda-context' works off the 'subject' we can set other values if necessary for a given validation test
  context 'password' do
    subject { User.new(:password_confirmation => 'password') }
    should have_valid(:password).when('password')
    should_not have_valid(:password).when(nil)
  end

  # Using .when is optional. Without it, the existing value is examined.
  should_not have_valid(:email)
end

# Minitest::Matchers
require 'minitest/matchers'
describe User do
  subject { User.new }

  # The .when method can take any number of values that you want to pass
  must { have_valid(:email).when('test@test.com', 'test+spam@gmail.com') }
  wont { have_valid(:email).when('fail', 123) }
  must { have_valid(:name).when('TestName') }
  wont { have_valid(:name).when('Test') }

  describe 'password' do
    subject { User.new(:password_confirmation => 'password') }
    must {  have_valid(:password).when('password') }
    wont {  have_valid(:password).when(nil) }
  end

  # Using .when is optional. Without it, the existing value is examined.
  wont have_valid(:email)
end

Custom Models

Your model should respond to the following methods:

• valid? - only used to generate errors on the model
• errors - should be a Hash of attributes that have the invalid attributes as keys.

The following would be a compatible (albeit unrealistic) model:

class User
  attr_accessor :name

  def errors
    {:name => ["can't be blank"]}
  end

  def valid?
    false
  end
end

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Brian Cardarella © 2011

@bcardarella

Licensed under the MIT license