Database Cleaner: Clean vs truncation

Question

What is the difference between the following?

• DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
• DatabaseCleaner.clean

What i'm trying to figure out is what is the best way to clean up a before(:all) hook in my tests (performance wise) using database cleaner. My before(:all) hook just creates a ton of factories and creates some associations between them. Currently, i'm just loading them all in a before(:each) not having to worry about the cleanup afterwards.

My current strategy looks like:

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.use_transactional_fixtures = false

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

  config.before(:each) do |example|
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = example.metadata[:js] ? :truncation : :transaction
    DatabaseCleaner.start
  end

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

So in addition to my previous question, what should my after(:all) look like?

Adenovirus

Answer 1

What is the difference between the following?

• DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
• DatabaseCleaner.clean

The difference is pretty straightforward: in the first case you're telling DatabaseCleaner to clean your db now with truncation strategy, and in the second case DatabaseCleaner will clean your db using currently configured strategy.

I think your setup is pretty good already. Since creating a ton of factories (as you said) in before(:all) hook is quite rare, you just need to add to that specific test after(:all) hook to put the db back to stable state.

Cleaning with transaction won't work, since before(:all) is not wrapped in transaction. You're left with 2 options here:

1. after(:all) { DatabaseCleaner.with(:truncation) }

2. after(:all) { DatabaseCleaner.with(:deletion) }

In order to choose between these two, as documentation clearly states, you have to measure and choose what's fastest for you, or just pick some if it doesn't matter.

Pollack

So for my strategy, is DatabaseCleaner.clean in my after(:each) cleaning the strategy set in my before(:each)? – Adenovirus

Awesome thanks that's exactly what I was trying to figure out – Adenovirus