David Chelimsky

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!

The Pragmatic Bookshelf has just released Beta-14 of The RSpec Book.

This is the first beta release since we made the rather ambitious decision to update the book for RSpec-2 and Rails-3, and includes updates to the tutorial in Part I of the book, as well as the first chapter in Part III: Code Examples.

We’re planning two more beta releases over the next couple of weeks. One to update the rest of Part III, and then a final beta release with Part V (the Rails section) updated to RSpec-2 and Rails-3.

What this means for the short run is that 1/2 of the beta book uses newer gem versions, while the rest uses the old versions. We thought for a long time about whether to delay this beta until it was all up to date, but decided in the end that beta readers had waited long enough—now that RSpec 2 and Rails 3 release candidates are just around the corner, we wanted to get this new content out as soon as we could. Keep in mind that this is only for a week or two, while we put the finishing touches on the book.

With that in mind, here is some information that will help you navigate the beta book:

Ruby 1.8.7

The code examples in the book were written using Ruby 1.8.7. Most of them, but not all, will work with 1.9.2-rc2.

Code for the updated chapters in beta-14

While we’re getting these last few beta releases out, the updated chapters all have red headers, like this:

The examples in these chapters work with the following gem versions:

rspec-2.0.0.beta.18
cucumber-0.8.5

Code for the rest of the chapters in beta-14

The chapters that have not been updated yet have gray headers, like this:

The examples in these chapters work with the following gem versions:

rspec-1.3.0
rspec-rails-1.3.2
rails-2.3.5
cucumber-0.6.2
cucumber-rails-0.2.4
database_cleaner-0.4.3
webrat-0.7.0
selenium-client-0.2.18

Reporting Errata

Technical errors in the updated chapters

We are now in the final phases of preparing the book for print. For those of you reading the beta book, we are very interested in technical errata in the updated chapters. If the behaviour of any examples in the updated chapters differs from what the book tells you to expect with the versions listed above, please report that to http://www.pragprog.com/titles/achbd/errata.

Copyedit issues

The book has not been through copyedit yet (that’s next), so please don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or phrasing. That will all be addressed by our very able copyeditor.

Typesetting issues

The book has not been formally typeset yet (that’s last), so please don’t worry about code examples that span page turns, or issues with syntax highlighting.

Other technical errors

If you find that the behaviour works differently with newer Ruby or gem versions than those listed above, please submit bug reports to the appropriate trackers:

• rspec-core (describe/it/etc)
• rspec-expectations (should/should_not + matchers)
• rspec-mocks
• rspec-rails
• cucumber

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 »

The RSpec Book Beta 8.0 was just released. This release includes a number of fixed errata and one new chapter. Yes, only one chapter, but its a doozy:

Managing Complexity in Step Definitions

This chapter introduces a random generator to the Codebreaker game. This brings up several issues that can add complexity to Cucumber scenarios, RSpec code examples, and the code we’re driving out with the aid of these tools and the BDD process. We address these issues and offer strategies to manage the complexity they introduce.

This release introduces two new chapters:

Writing Software that Matters

Having laid out the case for Behaviour Driven Development in The Case for BDD, this new chapter explores the principles and strategies that BDD brings to the Agile table.

Mock Objects

One of the most complex and controversial topics in developer testing is that of Mock Objects. In this new chapter, Mock Objects, we review some basic terminology and explore the underlying motivations for two essential tools in the BDD toolkit: test stubs and mock objects.

We’ve released version 4.0 of The RSpec Book beta. It’s got a number of improvements per suggestions submitted by readers, as well as two exciting new chapters.

New Chapter: Rails Controllers

Continuing inward on our outside-in journey, this chapter explores how (and when) to write controller specs. We also introduce approaches to dealing with some controller-specific spec’ing challenges like filters, global behaviour defined in application controller and sending email.

New Chapter: Extending RSpec

This chapter introduces techniques for extending RSpec to cater to domain-specific needs. Covered topics include custom example group classes, custom matchers (including an exciting new matcher definition DSL), macros and custom formatters. Whether customizing RSpec for your own app, or in order to ship domain-specific spec’ing extensions with the libraries you’re releasing, this chapter is filled with really useful information that will help you make your specs easier to write and read.

Thanks (again, and again, and again)

Many thanks to all of you who are already participating in The RSpec Book beta program and making so many great suggestions. Your ongoing contribution to this process remains invaluable for the book and all of its readers.