[rspec-users] Then I should be on /users/3/posts/8/comments/2/edit

[Lenny Marks]

On Apr 10, 2009, at 12:51 AM, Ben Mabey wrote:

> Gavin Hughes wrote:
>> "Then I should be on /users/3/posts/8/comments/2/edit"
>>
>> What's the solution for parsing out and matching and arbitrarily deep
>> nested route?
>>
> Hi Gavin,
> Let me try to answer your question without actually answering it. :)
>
> I generally don't test my URLs.  IMO, for the majority of cases the  
> URL is merely an implementation detail of the application.  For  
> example I could easily see the URL in your example (/users/3/posts/8/ 
> comments/2/edit) as being "/posts/8/comments/2/edit" or "/comments/2/ 
> edit" or "/posts/the-name/comments/2/edit".  The user would be fine  
> with all of these cases, they really don't care one way or the  
> other.  Instead of focusing on an implementation detail of the  
> application scenarios should be focused on the behaviour that the  
> user would like to see.  In your particular case what the user  
> really cares about is being able to edit a comment, correct?  So,  
> instead of just verifying that the user is on the right page after  
> clicking on "Edit Comment", you should have the user actually fill  
> out the form to edit the comment.  Then verify that the comment is  
> actually updated on the post's page after they submit the comment  
> editing form.

One place I've actually been interested in testing URLs was to verify  
that the app actually redirected after a form submission. The user  
facing reason for this is to verify that the app works as  
expected(e.g. doesn't repost a comment or something) when the user  
refreshes to get fresh data. Of course, sticking to what the user  
cares about, it would probably be best to have this tested in a  
separate scenario for 'user refreshes page after posting comment' .

-lenny

> Off the top of my head something like this may work:
>
> Scenario: edit comment
>   Given a post exists named "big news"
>   And I have made a comment "bad post!" on the "big news" post
>   And I am viewing the "big news" post
>
>   When I change my "bad post!" comment to "Great post!"
>   And press "Update Comment"
>
>   Then I should see "Great Post!"
>
> With this you are just testing the behaviour of the application.  
> (BTW, you could write the scenario above number of ways and still be  
> testing the same thing- I'm not sure if I love the way I wrote  
> it....) You could change your URL naming scheme and this would still  
> pass because the behaviour hasn't changed.  By embedding the URL in  
> the scenario your URL scheme is now coupled to your features  
> unnecessarily.
>
> Sorry, for not really answering your question but I think you will  
> thank me later if you take this approach. :)
>
>
> -Ben
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