Correct way to test lib folder with rspec?

Question

I have a test that tries to test a class located in lib folder.

Right now I do this in my parser_spec.rb

require 'spec_helper'
require 'parser' --> Because my class is /lib/parser.rb

describe "parser" do
  it "needs a url to initialize" do
    expect { Parser.new }.to raise_error(ArgumentError)
  end
end

What would be the correct way to include all the lib files, so that they are in the scope of the rspec tests?

Answer 1

The way you've done it -- require 'parser' is the recommended way. RSpec puts lib on the $LOAD_PATH so that you can require files relative to it, just like you've done.

Answer 2

Try this

require_relative "../../lib/parser.rb"

or 

require 'lib/parser.rb'

rspec automatically loads 'spec/spec_helper.rb' when it runs, and it also automatically adds the 'lib' folder to it's LOAD_PATH, so that your requires in 'lib/parser.rb' are seen and required properly.

Answer 3

Just put the 'lib' folder to autoload_path. For example, in application.rb

config.autoload_paths += "#{Rails.root}/lib/"

Then you can do it normally

require 'spec_helper'

describe Parser do
  ...
end

Answer 4

In order to avoid lib autoload as Ryan Bigg said, you can autoload a custom directory placed in the app root:

Into /your/config/application.rb you can add:

config.autoload_paths += %W(#{config.root}/my_stuff)

Then, you can do:

require 'spec_helper'

describe Parser do
  #your code...
end

Maybe, you can put your class inside a module in order to avoid collisions:

class MyStuff::Parser
  #your code...
end

Then, you can do:

require 'spec_helper'

describe MyStuff::Parser do
  #your code...
end