Robby on Rails: Rails, Logger, and those pesky Tests

Rails, Logger, and those pesky Tests

Robby Russell — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:06:00 -0600

First of all, I would like to thank all of you who took a moment to gather around the campfire with me and share your stuff. That was much appreciated.

So, I started playing with the idea of logging in unit and functional tests and I quickly realized that calling logger.info wasn’t an option. What’s the deal-e-o? Before I gather up my posse and conspire a train hijacking, I decided that I would see how quickly I could solve my problem before I called you all out to the Rio Rails Grande for an old-fashioned shoot out. Ya know, the kind that results in a Bon Jovi song and a little blood.

You’re all in luck because:

A) my holster was eaten by my dog and
B) I found a quick solution to clean up this logger situation.

Okay… are you ready?

I know… this is totally groundbreaking!!!

Open up test/test_helper.rb and add the method… logger.

# other stuff at the top of the file... just 
# look down below at def logger
class Test::Unit::TestCase
  self.use_transactional_fixtures = true
  self.use_instantiated_fixtures  = false

  # here... look here! right below this
  def logger
    RAILS_DEFAULT_LOGGER
  end
end

Save that and pick up your pistol…

The next step is to call the logger method in your unit and functional tests.

def test_the_obvious
  logger.info( 'asserting that 1 is 1' )
  assert 1, 1
end

I posted this on Rails Weenie as well.

"Rails, Logger, and those pesky Tests" by Victor Cosby

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 21:22:32 -0600

Sweet.

Now you can also get your assert messages for failures to log by adding this to the end of your helper.

module Test
  module Unit
    module Assertions
      alias_method :assert_block_original, :assert_block

      def assert_block(message="assert_block failed.", &block)
            begin
              assert_block_original(message, &block)
            rescue AssertionFailedError => error
              logger.info(message.to_s)
              raise error
            end
      end
    end
  end
end

"Rails, Logger, and those pesky Tests" by logger

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 09:16:43 -0600

You want logging in unit tests so you can help debug what went wrong when a problem is found. Logging is for always.

"Rails, Logger, and those pesky Tests" by Robby Russell

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 10:49:54 -0600

I find that when I’m testing some more complex units of test and want to get some information about what is happening before and after each database interaction… having some of my own text help break things out gives me clarity. :-)

"Rails, Logger, and those pesky Tests" by Mitch

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 09:13:51 -0600

I am also wondering why logging would be important in tests. I use $stdout.puts statements right now if I need to know anything.

But that was a smart idea ;)

"Rails, Logger, and those pesky Tests" by Damien Tanner

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 05:26:02 -0600

My god the ground is breaking beneath my feet, only yesterday was I wondering how to do this.

"Rails, Logger, and those pesky Tests" by Pat

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:35:22 -0600

Maybe you posted this in another blog, but I’m curious as to why you’d want logging in unit tests. It’s not like you’re getting diagnostic info from your app in development mode that you don’t want filling up your production logs..simple puts statements should do the trick in unit tests, shouldn’t they?