tags: Ruby on Rails date: 2010-12-06 10:43:57.000000000Z

##Generators in rails 3 rocks

Rails 3 comes with an entire new way to create generators and it’s quite awesome. To make it more beautiful rails comes with a new Generators::TestCase making easy to test a generator.

##A real world generator

Let’s take a look at some simple generator, everyone by know should be familiar with “devise” and everyone know about:

rails g devise:install

This generator is quite simple, here’s the code:

module Devise
  module Generators
    class InstallGenerator < Rails::Generators::Base
      source_root File.expand_path("../../templates", __FILE__)

      desc "Creates a Devise initializer and copy locale files to your application."
      class_option :orm

      def copy_initializer
        template "devise.rb", "config/initializers/devise.rb"
      end

      def copy_locale
        copy_file "../../../config/locales/en.yml", "config/locales/devise.en.yml"
      end

      def show_readme
        readme "README" if behavior == :invoke
      end
    end
  end
end

The idea is pretty simple, you need to run the generator and make sure all files are created properly. There are a few methods to help you:

##The API

tests(klass): Sets which generator should be tested:

tests AppGenerator

destination(path): Sets the destination of generator files:

destination File.expand_path("../tmp", File.dirname(__FILE__))

prepare_destination(): Erases the destinations directory, preparing it for the test

run_generator(args=self.default_arguments, config={}): Runs the generator configured for this class. The first argument is an array like command line arguments:

assert_file(relative, *contents): Asserts a given file exists. You need to supply an absolute path or a path relative to the configured destination.

The complete API can be found here.

##Let’s see the code

class InstallGeneratorTest < Rails::Generators::TestCase
  tests Devise::Generators::InstallGenerator
  destination File.expand_path("../tmp", File.dirname(__FILE__))
  setup :prepare_destination

  test "Assert all files are properly created" do
    run_generator
    assert_file "config/initializers/devise.rb"
    assert_file "config/locales/devise.en.yml"
  end

end
  • Set the generator to test
  • Set the destination folder
  • Prepare the directory
  • Run the generator
  • Assert all files are properly created

Simple hum?

I just loved this new generators test API, usually the generators are the darkside of the application and no one cares about testing it. Again, the complete API is here, take a deep look and start testing your new generators.

Cya!