How to Load a Spec_Helper.Rb Automatically in Rspec 2

How to load a spec_helper.rb automatically in RSpec 2

In RSpec 2, the /spec folder is always automatically on your load path. This means that all you need is:

require 'spec_helper'

at the top of your spec files. This will always load /spec/spec_helper.rb, and is the minimum you'll be able to get away with.

This means you don't need a horrid approach such as:

require File.join(File.dirname(File.dirname(__FILE__)), 'spec_helper.rb')

(which needs to be updated for different nesting levels).

Also you can add to your .rspec file the option: --require spec_helper, which will require this file in each spec file, without the manual require statement at the top.

RSpec: The spec_helper.rb is not loaded

I always execute my specs.rb from the folder "specs"

Don't.

Run your specs from the root folder, i.e. one level above.

Your command should be:

# (To run just the one file)
rspec specs\spec.rb

# (To run the full suite)
rspec

Side-note: Don't go against the conventions by naming the file spec1.rb. All test files should be named like: <something>_spec.rb; any other files should be used for helper methods etc.

Include spec_helper in Rakefile

I needed to change the Rakefile:

require 'rspec/core/rake_task'

task :default => :spec

RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:spec) do |t|
  t.pattern = "spec/**/*_spec.rb"
end

I also needed to change the spec/spec_helper.rb file:

# added
require 'rubygems'
require 'bundler/setup'

# existing
require 'rack/test'
require 'rspec'

require File.expand_path '../../app.rb', __FILE__

RSpec.configure do |config|

  # rack
  config.include Rack::Test::Methods

  ...

end

When tests are run from rspec:

$ rspec
...
Finished in 0.07952 seconds (files took 0.63445 seconds to load)
15 examples, 0 failures, 1 pending

When tests are run from rake:

$ rake
/Users/<user>/.rbenv/versions/2.3.3/bin/ruby -I/Users/<user>/.rbenv/versions/2.3.3/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rspec-support-3.8.0/lib:/Users/<user>/.rbenv/versions/2.3.3/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.8.0/lib /Users/<user>/.rbenv/versions/2.3.3/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.8.0/exe/rspec --pattern spec/\*\*/\*_spec.rb
...
Finished in 0.08885 seconds (files took 0.70133 seconds to load)
15 examples, 0 failures, 1 pending

Not sure why it adds the $LOAD_PATH, however.

rspec require spec_helper in .rspec file

I don't work on Bundler so I can't speak directly about their practices. Not all projects check-in the .rspec file. The reason is this file, generally by current convention, only has personal configuration options for general output / runner preferences. So if you only required spec_helper there, others wouldn't load it, causing tests to fail.

Another reason, is not all tests may need the setup performed by spec_helper. More recently there have been groups of Rubyists who are trying to move away from loading too many dependencies into the test. By making it explicit when spec_helper is required in the test people have an idea what may be going on. Also, running a single test file or directory that doesn't need that setup will be faster.

In reality, if all of your tests are requiring spec_helper and you've make it a clear convention on the project there's no technical reason you can't or shouldn't do it. It just may be an initial surprise for new people who join the project.

RSpec - Can't find spec/spec_helper.rb

check Gemfile for:

group :development, :test do
  gem 'rspec-rails', '~> 3.0.0.beta'
end

run bundle install command at console:

after rails generate rspec:install

try in a bash at project folder:

find -name spec_helper.rb

there is a complete referece for Rspec usage with rails: https://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails

How to include Rails Helpers on RSpec

I normally include this code to require everything under my spec/support subdirectory once the Rails stack is available:

Spork.prefork do

  # ...

  Dir[Rails.root.join('spec', 'support', '**', '*.rb')].each { |f| require f }

  RSpec.configure do |config|
    config.include MyCustomHelper

    # ...
  end
end

Note that this will include MyCustomHelper in all example types (controllers, models, views, helpers, etc.). You can narrow that down by passing a :type parameter:

config.include MyControllerHelper, :type => :controller

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