Yockeries - Yaml + Mocks + Factories(easy way to create them)

Long ago there was an uprising against YAML fixtures in the rails world. Some people replaced them with things like FactoryGirl, Machinist, Fabrication, and a bunch of others.

However, YAML is still the simpliest thing that works, because it comes with Ruby. When you load in a yaml file with YAML.load_file, the yaml data is converted into a hash, which again is simple to use and test. You can take that hash and create a new object with it: Person.new(yaml_converted_hash), you can use it to create a stand-in double/mock: Struct.new(yaml_converted_hash).

Yockeries is meant to make that a tiny bit simplier with a small amount of code.

Yockeries gives a convienent yaml loader (smart enough to know if you are using rspec, minitest, or testunit) to load an entire fixture file into a hash and then use the get method to select which yaml object you want to work with.

There is also a method mock_for that will create a Struct object where you can create a very simple test double/mock.

YAML File (people.yaml)

robert:
 name: Robert Evans
 email: robert@example.com
 username: revans
 password: 123456
 password_confirmation: 123456

Examples:

Load a specific User from a YAML File

fixture(:people).get(:robert) # => {:name=>"Robert Evans", :email=>"robert@example.com", :username=>"revans", :password=>123456, :password_confirmation=>123456}

Load a mock Object from the YAML file

fixture(:people).mock_for(:robert) #=> #<Struct name="Robert Evans", email="robert@example.com", username="revans", password=123456, password_confirmation=123456>

Real world example with testunit:

assert_difference "Person.count", 1 do
 Person.new(
   fixture(:people).get(:robert)
 )
end

Real world example with rspec

expect {
 Person.new(
   fixture(:people).get(:robert)
 ).save
}.to change { Person.count }.by(1)