RSpec::RequestDescriber

RSpec plugin to write self-documenting request-specs.

This gem is designed for:

• rack-test
• rspec-rails

Setup

Install

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'rspec-request_describer'

And then execute:

bundle

Or install it yourself as:

gem install rspec-request_describer

Include

Include RSpec::RequestDescriber to your example groups like this:

require 'rspec/request_describer'

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include RSpec::RequestDescriber, type: :request
end

Usage

Note that this is an example in a Rails app.

subject

RSpec::RequestDescriber provides subject from its top-level description.

# subject will be `get('/users')`.
RSpec.describe 'GET /users' do
  it 'returns 200' do
    subject
    expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
  end
end

headers

If you want to modify request headers, change headers before calling subject.

# `subject` will be `get('/users', headers: { 'Authorization' => 'token 12345' })`.
RSpec.describe 'GET /users' do
  context 'with Authorization header' do
    before do
      headers['Authorization'] = 'token 12345'
    end

    it 'returns 200' do
      subject
      expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
    end
  end
end

params

If you want to modify request parameters, change params before calling subject.

# `subject` will be `get('/users', params: { 'sort' => 'id' })`.
RSpec.describe 'GET /users' do
  context 'with sort parameter' do
    before do
      params['sort'] = 'id'
    end

    it 'returns 200 with expected JSON body' do
      subject
      expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
      expect(response.parsed_body).to match(
        [
          hash_including('id' => 1),
          hash_including('id' => 2),
        ]
      )
    end
  end
end

path parameters

You can embed variables in URL path like /users/:user_id. In this example, the returned value of user_id method will be embedded as its real value.

# `subject` will be `get("/users/#{user_id}")`.
RSpec.describe 'GET /users/:user_id' do
  let(:user) do
    User.create(name: 'alice')
  end

  let(:user_id) do
    user.id
  end

  it 'returns 200' do
    subject
    expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
  end
end