How can I clean my database between erroneous rspec specs?

Question

I have added the database_cleaner gem to my rails application in order to clean my database between specs. Here's my current configuration for database_cleaner, located in spec/spec_helper.rb:

  config.before(:suite) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
    DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
    DatabaseCleaner.start
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end

  config.before(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end

  config.after(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end

  config.after(:suite) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end

Now, this configuration works fine, so long as every last spec that is run either passes or fails.

However, in the event of an error (rspec doesn't give you a nice little E like minitest, it throws this sort of thing:

09:17:32 - INFO - Running: spec
/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p392/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-4.0.1/lib/active_record/validations.rb:57:in `save!': Validation failed: Email has already been taken (ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid)

), the database isn't cleaned! Residual data from the spec just before the error stays in the database. I suppose this is because database_cleaner doesn't regard the erroneous spec as finishing and so doesn't clean the database.

Now, this doesn't really cause any harm until you run your specs again. The residual data then causes an error analogous to this:

09:17:32 - INFO - Running: spec
/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p392/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-4.0.1/lib/active_record/validations.rb:57:in `save!': Validation failed: Email has already been taken (ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid)

Getting around this error is simple enough; running rails_env=test rake db:reset or firing up your database shell and emptying the relevant tables with sql statements will clear this data and allow the specs to be run without a hitch.

However, this is getting annoying. One wrong character in any of my specs (anything to make it erroneous rather than a failure) causes my whole testing workflow to jam up, almost like the firing mechanism of an automatic weapon!

What are your suggestions regarding database_cleaner? Do you have any example configurations that allow for the database to be cleaned, even in the event of an erroneous test?

I'm using guard to run my rspecs that are further augmented with factory-girl:

Gemfile:

source 'https://rubygems.org'

group :development do
    gem 'capistrano'
    gem 'rb-fsevent'
    gem 'debugger'
end

group :development, :test do
    gem 'rspec-rails', '~> 2.14.0'
    gem 'sqlite3'
    gem 'guard-rspec'
    gem 'guard-livereload', require: false
    gem 'guard-shell'
    gem 'webrick', '~> 1.3.1'
end

group :test do
    gem 'factory_girl_rails'
    gem 'capybara', '~> 2.2.0'
    gem 'selenium-webdriver'
#   capybara-webkit gem requires an application called 'libqtwebkit-dev' to build. To install 'libqtwebkit-dev' in Ubuntu, run
#   sudo apt-get install libqtwebkit-dev
#   gem 'capybara-webkit'
    gem 'rb-readline'
    gem 'launchy'
    gem 'database_cleaner'
end

group :production do
    gem 'pg'
#   gem 'puma'
end

# rails version
gem 'rails', '4.0.1'

# standard library
gem 'sass-rails', '~> 4.0.0'
gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.3.0'
gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 4.0.0'
gem 'jquery-rails'
gem 'turbolinks'
gem 'jbuilder', '~> 1.2'


group :doc do
  gem 'sdoc', require: false
end

# custom 
gem 'activeadmin', github: 'gregbell/active_admin'
gem 'devise'
gem 'simple_form'

spec/spec_helper:

# This file is copied to spec/ when you run 'rails generate rspec:install'
ENV["RAILS_ENV"] ||= 'test'
require File.expand_path("../../config/environment", __FILE__)
require 'rspec/rails'
require 'capybara/rspec'

# Requires supporting ruby files with custom matchers and macros, etc,
# in spec/support/ and its subdirectories.
Dir[Rails.root.join("spec/support/**/*.rb")].each { |f| require f }

# Checks for pending migrations before tests are run.
# If you are not using ActiveRecord, you can remove this line.
ActiveRecord::Migration.check_pending! if defined?(ActiveRecord::Migration)

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include Capybara::DSL

  config.before(:suite) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
    DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
    DatabaseCleaner.start
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end

  config.before(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end

  config.after(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end

  config.after(:suite) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end

  # Remove this line if you're not using ActiveRecord or ActiveRecord fixtures
  config.fixture_path = "#{::Rails.root}/spec/fixtures"

  # config.include RSpec::Rails::RequestExampleGroup, type: :feature

  # If you're not using ActiveRecord, or you'd prefer not to run each of your
  # examples within a transaction, remove the following line or assign false
  # instead of true.
  config.use_transactional_fixtures = true

  # If true, the base class of anonymous controllers will be inferred
  # automatically. This will be the default behavior in future versions of
  # rspec-rails.
  config.infer_base_class_for_anonymous_controllers = false

  # Run specs in random order to surface order dependencies. If you find an
  # order dependency and want to debug it, you can fix the order by providing
  # the seed, which is printed after each run.
  #     --seed 1234
  config.order = "random"
end

Helvetic

Have you tried completely removing DatabaseCleaner? The use_transactional_fixtures line does exactly what you want to do. – Pollard

I don't think use_transactional_fixtures works with rpsec, only rails' integrated testing suite. – Helvetic

Answer 1

You want to change this

config.after(:suite) do
  DatabaseCleaner.clean
end

To this:

config.after(:suite) do
  DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
end

Otherwise, it will simply roll back the transaction, which will leave any data that existed before the transaction was started.

Shugart

This should really be before, not after. – Constanceconstancia

Answer 2

add a file:

# RSpec
# spec/support/database_cleaner.rb
RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.before(:suite) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
    DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
  end

  config.around(:each) do |example|
    DatabaseCleaner.cleaning do
      example.run
    end
  end
end

and uncomment

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

in spec/rails_heper.rb

Accursed

Answer 3

This works for me:

DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation

...

before(:each) do
  DatabaseCleaner.clean
end

Diversity

Doesn't for me, though it less verbose than my config! It's because the data is written to the database not before each spec or after each spec but during each spec..maybe I should I look into configuring rspec differently... – Helvetic

During the spec is when the tests usually write to the database. There must be something else wrong. Do you have transactional fixtures turned on? I do not because not using fixtures. – Diversity

Answer 4

Please show the spec(s).

You need to be sure that your setup/teardown is done in before/after/its, etc. statements.

If you have setup and variable assignment outside of the above and just 'in the test itself' then the test will bomb out as you are experiencing. If done in setup, this problem can be avoided.

You should not need to be trying to jigger with the internals the way you are. As with many thing in Ror land, if you're doing this, chances are you may be 'going' off the rails with your code. Rails is intended to be a framework that does all the tedium for you, you just have to stay 'on the rails'.

Pericline