Gold master testing for RSpec API request specs. Make sure API behavior is not changing by taking and storing a snapshot from an API response on a first run and check if they match on next spec runs.
By default, snapshots are stored under spec/fixtures/snapshots
and should be code reviewed as well. The syntax is inspired by Jest.
References:
Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
gem 'rspec-request_snapshot'
And then execute:
$ bundle
Or install it yourself as:
$ gem install rspec-request_snapshot
RSpec.configure do |config|
# The place where snapshots will be stored
# Default value is spec/fixtures/snapshots
config.request_snapshots_dir = "spec/fixtures/snapshots"
# The json attributes that you want to ignore when comparing snapshots
# Default value is [id, created_at, updated_at]
config.request_snapshots_dynamic_attributes = %w(id created_at updated_at)
# The json attributes that ignore order when comparing nodes
# Default value is []
config.request_snapshots_ignore_order = %w(array_node)
# The default format to use, other formats must be specified using the :format option
# Default value is :json
config.request_snapshots_default_format = :json
end
On the first run, the match_snapshot
matcher will always return success and it will store a snapshot file. On the next runs, it will compare the response with the file content.
If you need to replace snapshots, run the specs with:
REPLACE_SNAPSHOTS=true bundle exec rspec
If you only need to add, remove or replace data without replacing the whole snapshot:
CONSERVATIVE_UPDATE_SNAPSHOTS=true bundle exec rspec
Note: Conservative update will not work along with ignore_order option. It should only be used when there is no major changes in the snapshots that will be updated.
If you want tests to fail in case a snapshot file does not exist (ie: when running on a CI):
BLOCK_CREATE_SNAPSHOTS=true bundle exec rspec
# Stores snapshot under spec/fixtures/snapshots/api/resources_index.json
expect(response.body).to match_snapshot("api/resources_index")
# Using plain text instead of parsing JSON
expect(response.body).to match_snapshot("api/resources_index", format: :text)
Using dynamic_attributes
inline allows to ignore attributes for a specific snapshot.
This is useful to ignore changing attributes, like id
or created_at
.
Notice that all nodes matching those (nested or not) will be ignored. Usage:
# Defining specific test dynamic attributes
expect(response.body).to match_snapshot("api/resources_index", dynamic_attributes: %w(confirmed_at relation_id))
Sometimes you don't want to fully ignore an attribute. For example, you want to make sure
that generated_id
is present and following a given pattern, but that attribute can change
randonly, use dynamic_attributes
with object/regex notation:
# Example generated_id: ABC-001
expect(response.body).to match_snapshot("api/resources_index", dynamic_attributes: [{ generated_id: /^\w{3}-\d{3}$/ }])
Note: Partial matches are also possible, so use the start/end of line characters for a strict match
It is possible to use the ignore_order
inline option to mark which array nodes are unsorted and that elements position
should not be taken into consideration.
# Ignoring order for certain arrays (this will ignore the ordering for the countries array inside the json response)
expect(response.body).to match_snapshot("api/resources_index", ignore_order: %w(countries))
Note: If you are using ignore_order
for arrays of objects/hashes (ie: [{name: "name", value: "value"}, ...]
),
it won't perform well depending on the array and hash size (number of keys)
After checking out the repo, run bin/setup
to install dependencies. Then, run rake spec
to run the tests. You can also run bin/console
for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.
To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install
. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb
, and then run bundle exec rake release
, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem
file to rubygems.org.
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/CareMessagePlatform/rspec-request_snapshot.
The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.