Last night I recieved my very own copy of “Nobody Knows Shoes” by why the lucky stiff. Shoes, in case you are wondering, is a small framework for writing GUI applications that can run on multiple OS’s (Windows, Mac, Linux). “Nobody Knows Shoes” is the API documentation for the framework presented in the form of… well… comic book/ short stories/ examples… and that doesn’t even do it justice. I played around with Shoes and decided to get the book to see what it was all about. It is well worth the cost (less than $15, including shipping), if not for the pure entertainment value. It is also a good reference, as well.

If you haven’t experienced why or any of his code, you should definitely take a look. You will be entertained and enlightened.

photo by laffy4k

So I came across Dan Manges Fixture Factory as a way to relieve myself of the pain of fixtures for testing. I don’t mind fixtures that much, but when I have to start setting up so many different combinations, it gets a little challenging. In reading through the comments I found that Scott Taylor had implemented it as a plugin. Now I get all that goodness for my specs.

The other day I wanted to play with some things using script/console, but was feeling too lazy to set up all of the data I was going to need to do what I wanted. Sure enough after looking at the documentation for fixture_replacement, I can use it there too:

  % script/console
  >> include FixtureReplacement
  >> cause = create_cause
  >> user = create_user
  >> cause.users << user 

It is really useful for easily setting up your test data in the spec (or test) that you are writing. Instead of having to go off to the fixture files and add new fixtures (and try to remember to set up all of the dependent fixtures that are needed), you can use new_xxx or create_xxx to get an object to test in a valid state with all its dependent data.

Take a look at the FixtureReplacement plugin now.