The RSpec Book has entered the production process!

July 30th, 2010

I’m thrilled to announce that The RSpec Book has entered the production process!

For those of you unfamiliar with the publishing industry, as I was before this project, “has entered the production process” does not mean that it’s off to the printer. What it does mean is that it is currently being indexed so readers will be able to find the stuff they’re looking for. After indexing it will be copyedited (in which someone with better grammar and spelling than any of the authors possess makes the book more readable) and typeset, and then off to the printer.

If all goes to plan (yes, there actually is a plan!), books.should be_on_shelves in late September, early October.

That light at the end of the tunnel is, finally, not an oncoming train!

Posted by David Filed in BDD, RSpec, Rails, The RSpec Book
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RSpec-2 Documentation

July 1st, 2010

RSpec-2 is getting close to a release candidate, and as the beta gems have been flowing a lot of questions have been coming in, especially about documentation. Here is some information that should help.

Source code

RSpec development has moved to the rspec account on github. There are five repositories at the moment:

rspec-rails depends on rspec, which depends, in turn, on the other three.

This structure has many benefits, but one cost is that the documentation, though plentiful, is a bit scattered.

READMEs

Upgrade Notes

Cucumber features

Each of the repos has a growing set of Cucumber features. Some of the features have been added in after the fact, but many of the new features have been driven out using Cucumber. These are a great source of “How-To” information, and you know they’re up to date because they are executable documentation.

If you peruse these and are unable to find the information you’re looking for, or find any of the information incomplete or confusing, please, please, please submit a github issue (see Known Issues, below). Or, better yet, submit a patch!

RDoc

The RDoc is arguably the weakest link here. Patches welcome!

Known Issues

Issues for rspec-2 are being maintained on github.

If you want to submit an issue and you’re not sure which tracker it belongs in, just pick the one you think is most appropriate. I’m more interested in getting the feedback then you knowing where to put the issue. I’ll move it to the right place if necessary.

Wikis

PLEASE NOTE: github wikis can be updated by anybody with a github account, and I don’t get any notification when wiki pages have changed. Most of the time, users add valuable information, but the structure is poor and always in flux, and there have been occasions in which the information was either misleading or simply inaccurate. The Cucumber features mentioned above, though currently incomplete, are a much better source for accurate documentation.

The RSpec Book

The RSpec Book is being updated for RSpec-2 and Rails-3. There will still be references back to RSpec-1 and Rails-2 where things have changed, but the focus will be on the way forward. Once the rails-3 and rspec-2 release candidates are out, we’ll release one more updated PDF of the book for those in the beta program, and then off to the printer it goes. FINALLY!

Posted by David Filed in BDD, RSpec
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The RSpec Book — Beta 10 and Progress Report

September 23rd, 2009

Beta 10????? When the hell are we going to start chopping down some trees? Well, first, here’s what’s new in Beta 10 of The RSpec Book:

Automating the Browser with Webrat and Selenium

This new chapter from Bryan Helmkamp shows you how to drive Cucumber scenarios right through your browser using Webrat and Selenium. You’ll type a single command and watch a browser fire up and walk through each scenario step by step right before your very eyes, and then see a standard Cucumber report in the shell. It’s a sight to behold, and a great way to drive out behaviour that requires JavaScript.

And now, for your reading pleasure … Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by David Filed in BDD, Cucumber, RSpec, The RSpec Book
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Windy City Rails

July 18th, 2009

I’m presenting at Windy City Rails in September. This is just the second year of this exciting midwest Rails conference, but the schedule looks most impressive. Talks range from How To Test Absolutely Anything to Better Ruby through Functional Programming to a Rails 3 Update from Yehuda Katz, Rails core’s newest member and the man who is bringing the best of Merb to Rails 3.

Last year I did a presentation about BDD and, with such a wide subject, ran out of time before I got through most of it. This year, the organizers of the conference have given me the opportunity to talk for three full hours! Count ‘em. Three!

It’s actually not just me talking (whew!). It’s a tutorial entitled Behaviour Driven Rails with RSpec and Cucumber. I’m planning an intensive skills development workshop, taking attendees through the development of a feature in a Rails app from planning to writing Cucumber scenarios to driving out code with RSpec. This is going to be about as close as you’ll get to a BDD immersion in three hours, so I hope to see you there whether you’re just learning about BDD now or you’ve already been doing it for a while.

See you in September!

Posted by David Filed in BDD, Cucumber, Presentations, RSpec
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