= Shared Should - Share and reuse shoulds, contexts, and setups with Shoulda - easy, schmeasy. Shared Should allows you to easily create reusable shoulds, contexts and setups with familiar looking Shoulda syntax. Inspired by Rspec's shared example groups for context reuse, Shared Should allows sharing of contexts, shoulds, and setup blocks. Shared Should goes even further by allowing an initialization block and parameterization to fine-tune the usage of the shared functionality. == Quick-Start Examples Some quick examples to get you started using Shared Should. The domain is customers renting and purchasing textbooks - like we do at Bookrenter.com. === Shared Should Sharing shoulds is easy. context "Book" do context "with an in-stock book" do setup { @book = Book.new(:quantity => 1, :price => 10_00 } ### Define a shared should shared_should_be "available for checkout" { assert @book.available_for_checkout? } context "with a rentable book" do setup { @book.rentable = true } ### Use the "available for checkout" shared_should should_be "available for checkout" end context "with a purchasable book" do setup { @book.purchasable = true } ### Use the "available for checkout" shared_should in this context too should_be "available for checkout" end ### ...or DRY it up by using .with or .when and an initialization block should_be("available for checkout").when("rentable") { @book.rentable = true } should_be("available for checkout").when("purchasable") { @book.purchasable = true } end end === Shared Setup Sharing setups is easy, too. context "Book" do ### Define a shared setup shared_setup_for "an in-stock book" { @book = Book.new(:quantity => 1, :price => 10_00) } context "with an in-stock rentable book" do ### Use the shared setup here setup_for "an in-stock book" ### Do some additional setup after the shared setup setup { @book.rentable = true } should "be available for checkout" { assert @book.available_for_checkout? } end context "with an in-stock purchasable book" do ### Use the shared setup again setup_for "an in-stock book" setup { @book.purchasable = true } should "be available for checkout" { assert @book.available_for_checkout? } end end === Shared Context Sharing whole contexts? Schmeasy! context "Book" do context "with an in-stock book" do setup { @book = Book.new(:quantity => 1, :price => 10_00) } ### Define a shared context shared_context_for "a book available for checkout" do should "be in stock" { assert @book.quantity > 0 } should "have a non-negative price" { assert @book.price > 0 } should "be rentable or purchasable" { assert @book.rentable || @book.purchasable } end context "with a rentable book" do setup { @book.rentable = true } ### Run the shoulds inside the shared context with a rentable book should_be "a book available for checkout" end context "with a purchasable book" do setup { @book.purchasable = true } ### Run the shoulds inside the shared context again with a purchasable book should_be "a book available for checkout" end ### ...or DRY it up by using .with or .when and an initialization block should_be("a book available for checkout").when("rentable") { @book.rentable = true } should_be("a book available for checkout").when("purchasable") { @book.purchasable = true } end end == More Information on Syntax and Usage === Finding Your Share Some rules: * When should_be or setup_for is invoked, it searches up the context hierarchy to find a matching shared definition. * You can redefine your shares by using the same name. These shares will only be available in in the current and descendant contexts. * Shares defined at the root (on your TestCase) are available in all contexts. * If you define a shared setup at the root level, you will need to call super if you have a setup instance method for your test. === Initialization Block The shared invocation accepts an initialization block by chaining when or with. This block can be used to create or modify instance variables used by the shared functionality. It always executes before the shared functionality. context "Book" do setup { @book = Book.new(:quantity => 1, :price => 10_00) } shared_should_be "available for checkout" { assert @book.available_for_checkout? } context "with a rentable book" do # when shared_should_be "available for checkout" is executed, @book will have rentable equal to true should_be "available for checkout".when("rentable") { @book.rentable = true } end context "with a purchasable book" do should_be "available for checkout".when("purchasable") { @book.purchasable = true } end end === Parameterizing Shares Shared functions can also be parameterized using block parameters. This can be done for shared setups, shoulds, and the setups and shoulds contained within a shared context. The value passed to the declared shared function is the return value of the initialization block. The below example parameterizes a shared setup. context "Book" do shared_setup_for "an in-stock book" do |rentable| @book = Book.new(:quantity => 1, :price => 10_00, :rentable => rentable, :purchasable => false) end context "with rentable book" do # the return value of the block is "true" which will be passed as the block parameter "rentable" setup_for("an in-stock book").with("a rentable book") { true } should "be available for checkout" { assert @book.available_for_checkout? } end end Here is a parameterized shared should. context "Book" do context "with in-stock book" do setup { @book = Book.new(:quantity => 1) } shared_should_be "unavailable for checkout for price" do |price| @book.price = price assert_false @book.available_for_checkout? end should_be("unavailable for checkout for price").when("zero") { 0 } should_be("unavailable for checkout for price").when("negative") { -1 } end end And a parameterized shared context. context "Book" do context "with in-stock book" do setup { @book = Book.new(:quantity => 1) } shared_context_for "a book available for checkout at price" do # parameters are on the setup and shoulds, not on the context setup { |price| @book.price = price } # we could also access price in the should blocks, but we don't need it again should "be in stock" { assert @book.quantity > 0 } should "have a non-negative price" { assert @book.price > 0 } should "be rentable or purchasable" { assert @book.rentable || @book.purchasable } end should_be("a book available for checkout at price").when("positive") { 10_00 } end end The shared functions also accept multiple parameters when the initialization block returns an array. context "Book" do context "with rentable book" do setup { @book = Book.new(:rentable => true) } shared_should_be "unavailable for checkout for quantity and price" do |quantity, price| @book.quantity = quantity @book.price = price assert_false @book.available_for_checkout? end should_be("unavailable for checkout for quantity and price").when("zero quantity") { [0, 10_00] } should_be("unavailable for checkout for quantity and price").when("zero price") { [1, 0] } end end === Creating a Library of Shared Functionality The shared functions can also be re-usable across multiple test cases. In your test helper file: class Test::Unit::TestCase shared_setup_for "an in-stock book" do |rentable, purchasable| @book = Book.new(:quantity => 1, :price => 10_00, :rentable => rentable, :purchasable => purchasable) end end In your test file: class BookTest < Test::Unit::TestCase context "with an in-stock book" do shared_setup_for "an in-stock book".with { [true, true] } should "be in stock" { assert @book.quantity > 0 } end end = Credits Shared Shoulda is maintained by Michael Pearce (michael.pearce__at__bookrenter__com) and is funded by Bookrenter.com[http://www.bookrenter.com]. Many of the ideas that have inspired Shared Should come from practical usage by the Bookrenter software development team and conversations with Bookrenter developers Andrew Wheeler and Philippe Huibonhoa. = Copyright Copyright (c) 2011 Michael Pearce, Bookrenter.com. See LICENSE.txt for further details.