How to organize minitest/unit tests?

Question

After using RSpec for several projects, I'm giving minitest/unit a go. I'm liking it so far, but I miss using describe/context blocks to group my tests/specs in a logical way.

I know minitest/spec provides this functionality, but I like that minitest/unit feels a bit closer to barebones Ruby.

Are there any gems that provide describe/context support for minitest/unit? Or, should I just live with my long, unorganized test files in minitest/unit?

Answer 1

I know several folks coming from RSpec to minitest struggling with the same question. They love the ability to nest using describe/context blocks and want to continue in minitest. There are several solutions:

1. Use minitest's spec DSL: While there are minor differences, the spec DSL gives you most (all?) of the good parts of the rspec DSL. The big difference is the lack of context blocks. But you can just as easily use describe in its place and everything works as you'd expect.
2. Use directories and files: I prefer this option. I dislike scrolling through a 300 line test file, regardless whether its using the spec DSL or the classical xUnit style. I do not find nesting unrelated tests helpful. The same rules for comprehension for code applies to tests. So break it up. Create a directory and place several files within it.

Here is an example of how my test files are organized:

test/
     models/
            user/
                 authentication_test.rb
                 email_test.rb
                 reservation_test.rb
                 user_test.rb
                 username_test.rb

I use this structure whether I'm using the spec DSL or the xUnit style. When using the spec DSL I specify what I'm testing in my describe block like so:

require "minitest_helper"

describe User, :authentications do

  before do
    # ...