Class | Fixtures |
In: |
vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb
|
Parent: | YAML::Omap |
Fixtures are a way of organizing data that you want to test against; in short, sample data. They come in 3 flavors:
1. YAML fixtures 2. CSV fixtures 3. Single-file fixtures
This type of fixture is in YAML format and the preferred default. YAML is a file format which describes data structures in a non-verbose, human-readable format. It ships with Ruby 1.8.1+.
Unlike single-file fixtures, YAML fixtures are stored in a single file per model, which are placed in the directory appointed by Test::Unit::TestCase.fixture_path=(path) (this is automatically configured for Rails, so you can just put your files in <your-rails-app>/test/fixtures/). The fixture file ends with the .yml file extension (Rails example: "<your-rails-app>/test/fixtures/web_sites.yml"). The format of a YAML fixture file looks like this:
rubyonrails: id: 1 name: Ruby on Rails url: http://www.rubyonrails.org google: id: 2 name: Google url: http://www.google.com
This YAML fixture file includes two fixtures. Each YAML fixture (ie. record) is given a name and is followed by an indented list of key/value pairs in the "key: value" format. Records are separated by a blank line for your viewing pleasure.
Note that YAML fixtures are unordered. If you want ordered fixtures, use the omap YAML type. See yaml.org/type/omap.html for the specification. You will need ordered fixtures when you have foreign key constraints on keys in the same table. This is commonly needed for tree structures. Example:
--- !omap - parent: id: 1 parent_id: NULL title: Parent - child: id: 2 parent_id: 1 title: Child
Fixtures can also be kept in the Comma Separated Value format. Akin to YAML fixtures, CSV fixtures are stored in a single file, but instead end with the .csv file extension (Rails example: "<your-rails-app>/test/fixtures/web_sites.csv")
The format of this type of fixture file is much more compact than the others, but also a little harder to read by us humans. The first line of the CSV file is a comma-separated list of field names. The rest of the file is then comprised of the actual data (1 per line). Here‘s an example:
id, name, url 1, Ruby On Rails, http://www.rubyonrails.org 2, Google, http://www.google.com
Should you have a piece of data with a comma character in it, you can place double quotes around that value. If you need to use a double quote character, you must escape it with another double quote.
Another unique attribute of the CSV fixture is that it has no fixture name like the other two formats. Instead, the fixture names are automatically generated by deriving the class name of the fixture file and adding an incrementing number to the end. In our example, the 1st fixture would be called "web_site_1" and the 2nd one would be called "web_site_2".
Most databases and spreadsheets support exporting to CSV format, so this is a great format for you to choose if you have existing data somewhere already.
This type of fixture was the original format for Active Record that has since been deprecated in favor of the YAML and CSV formats. Fixtures for this format are created by placing text files in a sub-directory (with the name of the model) to the directory appointed by Test::Unit::TestCase.fixture_path=(path) (this is automatically configured for Rails, so you can just put your files in <your-rails-app>/test/fixtures/<your-model-name>/ — like <your-rails-app>/test/fixtures/web_sites/ for the WebSite model).
Each text file placed in this directory represents a "record". Usually these types of fixtures are named without extensions, but if you are on a Windows machine, you might consider adding .txt as the extension. Here‘s what the above example might look like:
web_sites/google web_sites/yahoo.txt web_sites/ruby-on-rails
The file format of a standard fixture is simple. Each line is a property (or column in db speak) and has the syntax of "name => value". Here‘s an example of the ruby-on-rails fixture above:
id => 1 name => Ruby on Rails url => http://www.rubyonrails.org
Since fixtures are a testing construct, we use them in our unit and functional tests. There are two ways to use the fixtures, but first let‘s take a look at a sample unit test:
require 'web_site' class WebSiteTest < Test::Unit::TestCase def test_web_site_count assert_equal 2, WebSite.count end end
As it stands, unless we pre-load the web_site table in our database with two records, this test will fail. Here‘s the easiest way to add fixtures to the database:
... class WebSiteTest < Test::Unit::TestCase fixtures :web_sites # add more by separating the symbols with commas ...
By adding a "fixtures" method to the test case and passing it a list of symbols (only one is shown here though), we trigger the testing environment to automatically load the appropriate fixtures into the database before each test. To ensure consistent data, the environment deletes the fixtures before running the load.
In addition to being available in the database, the fixtures are also loaded into a hash stored in an instance variable of the test case. It is named after the symbol… so, in our example, there would be a hash available called @web_sites. This is where the "fixture name" comes into play.
On top of that, each record is automatically "found" (using Model.find(id)) and placed in the instance variable of its name. So for the YAML fixtures, we‘d get @rubyonrails and @google, which could be interrogated using regular Active Record semantics:
# test if the object created from the fixture data has the same attributes as the data itself def test_find assert_equal @web_sites["rubyonrails"]["name"], @rubyonrails.name end
As seen above, the data hash created from the YAML fixtures would have @web_sites["rubyonrails"]["url"] return "www.rubyonrails.org" and @web_sites["google"]["name"] would return "Google". The same fixtures, but loaded from a CSV fixture file, would be accessible via @web_sites["web_site_1"]["name"] == "Ruby on Rails" and have the individual fixtures available as instance variables @web_site_1 and @web_site_2.
If you do not wish to use instantiated fixtures (usually for performance reasons) there are two options.
- to completely disable instantiated fixtures: self.use_instantiated_fixtures = false - to keep the fixture instance (@web_sites) available, but do not automatically 'find' each instance: self.use_instantiated_fixtures = :no_instances
Even if auto-instantiated fixtures are disabled, you can still access them by name via special dynamic methods. Each method has the same name as the model, and accepts the name of the fixture to instantiate:
fixtures :web_sites def test_find assert_equal "Ruby on Rails", web_sites(:rubyonrails).name end
Some times you don‘t care about the content of the fixtures as much as you care about the volume. In these cases, you can mix ERb in with your YAML or CSV fixtures to create a bunch of fixtures for load testing, like:
<% for i in 1..1000 %> fix_<%= i %>:
id: <%= i %> name: guy_<%= 1 %>
<% end %>
This will create 1000 very simple YAML fixtures.
Using ERb, you can also inject dynamic values into your fixtures with inserts like <%= Date.today.strftime("%Y-%m-%d") %>. This is however a feature to be used with some caution. The point of fixtures are that they‘re stable units of predictable sample data. If you feel that you need to inject dynamic values, then perhaps you should reexamine whether your application is properly testable. Hence, dynamic values in fixtures are to be considered a code smell.
TestCases can use begin+rollback to isolate their changes to the database instead of having to delete+insert for every test case. They can also turn off auto-instantiation of fixture data since the feature is costly and often unused.
class FooTest < Test::Unit::TestCase self.use_transactional_fixtures = true self.use_instantiated_fixtures = false fixtures :foos def test_godzilla assert !Foo.find(:all).empty? Foo.destroy_all assert Foo.find(:all).empty? end def test_godzilla_aftermath assert !Foo.find(:all).empty? end end
If you preload your test database with all fixture data (probably in the Rakefile task) and use transactional fixtures, then you may omit all fixtures declarations in your test cases since all the data‘s already there and every case rolls back its changes.
In order to use instantiated fixtures with preloaded data, set +self.pre_loaded_fixtures+ to true. This will provide access to fixture data for every table that has been loaded through fixtures (depending on the value of use_instantiated_fixtures)
When not to use transactional fixtures:
1. You're testing whether a transaction works correctly. Nested transactions don't commit until all parent transactions commit, particularly, the fixtures transaction which is begun in setup and rolled back in teardown. Thus, you won't be able to verify the results of your transaction until Active Record supports nested transactions or savepoints (in progress). 2. Your database does not support transactions. Every Active Record database supports transactions except MySQL MyISAM. Use InnoDB, MaxDB, or NDB instead.
YAML fixtures that don‘t specify an ID get some extra features:
Here, have a monkey fixture:
george: id: 1 name: George the Monkey reginald: id: 2 name: Reginald the Pirate
Each of these fixtures has two unique identifiers: one for the database and one for the humans. Why don‘t we generate the primary key instead? Hashing each fixture‘s label yields a consistent ID:
george: # generated id: 503576764 name: George the Monkey reginald: # generated id: 324201669 name: Reginald the Pirate
ActiveRecord looks at the fixture‘s model class, discovers the correct primary key, and generates it right before inserting the fixture into the database.
The generated ID for a given label is constant, so we can discover any fixture‘s ID without loading anything, as long as we know the label.
Specifying foreign keys in fixtures can be very fragile, not to mention difficult to read. Since ActiveRecord can figure out the ID of any fixture from its label, you can specify FK‘s by label instead of ID.
Let‘s break out some more monkeys and pirates.
### in pirates.yml reginald: id: 1 name: Reginald the Pirate monkey_id: 1 ### in monkeys.yml george: id: 1 name: George the Monkey pirate_id: 1
Add a few more monkeys and pirates and break this into multiple files, and it gets pretty hard to keep track of what‘s going on. Let‘s use labels instead of ID‘s:
### in pirates.yml reginald: name: Reginald the Pirate monkey: george ### in monkeys.yml george: name: George the Monkey pirate: reginald
Pow! All is made clear. ActiveRecord reflects on the fixture‘s model class, finds all the belongs_to associations, and allows you to specify a target label for the association (monkey: george) rather than a target id for the FK (monkey_id: 1).
Supporting polymorphic relationships is a little bit more complicated, since ActiveRecord needs to know what type your association is pointing at. Something like this should look familiar:
### in fruit.rb belongs_to :eater, :polymorphic => true ### in fruits.yml apple: id: 1 name: apple eater_id: 1 eater_type: Monkey
Can we do better? You bet!
apple: eater: george (Monkey)
Just provide the polymorphic target type and ActiveRecord will take care of the rest.
Time to give our monkey some fruit.
### in monkeys.yml george: id: 1 name: George the Monkey pirate_id: 1 ### in fruits.yml apple: id: 1 name: apple orange: id: 2 name: orange grape: id: 3 name: grape ### in fruits_monkeys.yml apple_george: fruit_id: 1 monkey_id: 1 orange_george: fruit_id: 2 monkey_id: 1 grape_george: fruit_id: 3 monkey_id: 1
Let‘s make the HABTM fixture go away.
### in monkeys.yml george: name: George the Monkey pirate: reginald fruits: apple, orange, grape ### in fruits.yml apple: name: apple orange: name: orange grape: name: grape
Zap! No more fruits_monkeys.yml file. We‘ve specified the list of fruits on George‘s fixture, but we could‘ve just as easily specified a list of monkeys on each fruit. As with belongs_to, ActiveRecord reflects on the fixture‘s model class and discovers the has_and_belongs_to_many associations.
If your table/model specifies any of ActiveRecord‘s standard timestamp columns (created_at, created_on, updated_at, updated_on), they will automatically be set to Time.now.
If you‘ve set specific values, they‘ll be left alone.
The label of the current fixture is always available as a column value:
geeksomnia: name: Geeksomnia's Account subdomain: $LABEL
Also, sometimes (like when porting older join table fixtures) you‘ll need to be able to get ahold of the identifier for a given label. ERB to the rescue:
george_reginald: monkey_id: <%= Fixtures.identify(:reginald) %> pirate_id: <%= Fixtures.identify(:george) %>
You probably already know how to use YAML to set and reuse defaults in your +database.yml+ file,. You can use the same technique in your fixtures:
DEFAULTS: &DEFAULTS created_on: <%= 3.weeks.ago.to_s(:db) %> first: name: Smurf <<: *DEFAULTS second: name: Fraggle <<: *DEFAULTS
Any fixture labeled "DEFAULTS" is safely ignored.
DEFAULT_FILTER_RE | = | /\.ya?ml$/ |
table_name | [R] |
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb, line 469 469: def self.cache_fixtures(connection, fixtures) 470: cache_for_connection(connection).update(fixtures.index_by(&:table_name)) 471: end
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb, line 451 451: def self.cache_for_connection(connection) 452: @@all_cached_fixtures[connection.object_id] ||= {} 453: @@all_cached_fixtures[connection.object_id] 454: end
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb, line 460 460: def self.cached_fixtures(connection, keys_to_fetch = nil) 461: if keys_to_fetch 462: fixtures = cache_for_connection(connection).values_at(*keys_to_fetch) 463: else 464: fixtures = cache_for_connection(connection).values 465: end 466: fixtures.size > 1 ? fixtures : fixtures.first 467: end
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb, line 497 497: def self.create_fixtures(fixtures_directory, table_names, class_names = {}) 498: table_names = [table_names].flatten.map { |n| n.to_s } 499: connection = block_given? ? yield : ActiveRecord::Base.connection 500: 501: table_names_to_fetch = table_names.reject { |table_name| fixture_is_cached?(connection, table_name) } 502: 503: unless table_names_to_fetch.empty? 504: ActiveRecord::Base.silence do 505: connection.disable_referential_integrity do 506: fixtures_map = {} 507: 508: fixtures = table_names_to_fetch.map do |table_name| 509: fixtures_map[table_name] = Fixtures.new(connection, File.split(table_name.to_s).last, class_names[table_name.to_sym], File.join(fixtures_directory, table_name.to_s)) 510: end 511: 512: all_loaded_fixtures.update(fixtures_map) 513: 514: connection.transaction(Thread.current['open_transactions'].to_i == 0) do 515: fixtures.reverse.each { |fixture| fixture.delete_existing_fixtures } 516: fixtures.each { |fixture| fixture.insert_fixtures } 517: 518: # Cap primary key sequences to max(pk). 519: if connection.respond_to?(:reset_pk_sequence!) 520: table_names.each do |table_name| 521: connection.reset_pk_sequence!(table_name) 522: end 523: end 524: end 525: 526: cache_fixtures(connection, fixtures) 527: end 528: end 529: end 530: cached_fixtures(connection, table_names) 531: end
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb, line 456 456: def self.fixture_is_cached?(connection, table_name) 457: cache_for_connection(connection)[table_name] 458: end
Returns a consistent identifier for label. This will always be a positive integer, and will always be the same for a given label, assuming the same OS, platform, and version of Ruby.
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb, line 536 536: def self.identify(label) 537: label.to_s.hash.abs 538: end
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb, line 488 488: def self.instantiate_all_loaded_fixtures(object, load_instances = true) 489: all_loaded_fixtures.each do |table_name, fixtures| 490: Fixtures.instantiate_fixtures(object, table_name, fixtures, load_instances) 491: end 492: end
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb, line 473 473: def self.instantiate_fixtures(object, table_name, fixtures, load_instances = true) 474: object.instance_variable_set "@#{table_name.to_s.gsub('.','_')}", fixtures 475: if load_instances 476: ActiveRecord::Base.silence do 477: fixtures.each do |name, fixture| 478: begin 479: object.instance_variable_set "@#{name}", fixture.find 480: rescue FixtureClassNotFound 481: nil 482: end 483: end 484: end 485: end 486: end
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb, line 542 542: def initialize(connection, table_name, class_name, fixture_path, file_filter = DEFAULT_FILTER_RE) 543: @connection, @table_name, @fixture_path, @file_filter = connection, table_name, fixture_path, file_filter 544: @class_name = class_name || 545: (ActiveRecord::Base.pluralize_table_names ? @table_name.singularize.camelize : @table_name.camelize) 546: @table_name = ActiveRecord::Base.table_name_prefix + @table_name + ActiveRecord::Base.table_name_suffix 547: @table_name = class_name.table_name if class_name.respond_to?(:table_name) 548: @connection = class_name.connection if class_name.respond_to?(:connection) 549: read_fixture_files 550: end
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb, line 446 446: def self.reset_cache(connection = nil) 447: connection ||= ActiveRecord::Base.connection 448: @@all_cached_fixtures[connection.object_id] = {} 449: end
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb, line 552 552: def delete_existing_fixtures 553: @connection.delete "DELETE FROM #{@connection.quote_table_name(table_name)}", 'Fixture Delete' 554: end
# File vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb, line 556 556: def insert_fixtures 557: now = ActiveRecord::Base.default_timezone == :utc ? Time.now.utc : Time.now 558: now = now.to_s(:db) 559: 560: # allow a standard key to be used for doing defaults in YAML 561: delete(assoc("DEFAULTS")) 562: 563: # track any join tables we need to insert later 564: habtm_fixtures = Hash.new do |h, habtm| 565: h[habtm] = HabtmFixtures.new(@connection, habtm.options[:join_table], nil, nil) 566: end 567: 568: each do |label, fixture| 569: row = fixture.to_hash 570: 571: if model_class && model_class < ActiveRecord::Base 572: # fill in timestamp columns if they aren't specified and the model is set to record_timestamps 573: if model_class.record_timestamps 574: timestamp_column_names.each do |name| 575: row[name] = now unless row.key?(name) 576: end 577: end 578: 579: # interpolate the fixture label 580: row.each do |key, value| 581: row[key] = label if value == "$LABEL" 582: end 583: 584: # generate a primary key if necessary 585: if has_primary_key_column? && !row.include?(primary_key_name) 586: row[primary_key_name] = Fixtures.identify(label) 587: end 588: 589: # If STI is used, find the correct subclass for association reflection 590: reflection_class = 591: if row.include?(inheritance_column_name) 592: row[inheritance_column_name].constantize rescue model_class 593: else 594: model_class 595: end 596: 597: reflection_class.reflect_on_all_associations.each do |association| 598: case association.macro 599: when :belongs_to 600: # Do not replace association name with association foreign key if they are named the same 601: fk_name = (association.options[:foreign_key] || "#{association.name}_id").to_s 602: 603: if association.name.to_s != fk_name && value = row.delete(association.name.to_s) 604: if association.options[:polymorphic] 605: if value.sub!(/\s*\(([^\)]*)\)\s*$/, "") 606: target_type = $1 607: target_type_name = (association.options[:foreign_type] || "#{association.name}_type").to_s 608: 609: # support polymorphic belongs_to as "label (Type)" 610: row[target_type_name] = target_type 611: end 612: end 613: 614: row[fk_name] = Fixtures.identify(value) 615: end 616: when :has_and_belongs_to_many 617: if (targets = row.delete(association.name.to_s)) 618: targets = targets.is_a?(Array) ? targets : targets.split(/\s*,\s*/) 619: join_fixtures = habtm_fixtures[association] 620: 621: targets.each do |target| 622: join_fixtures["#{label}_#{target}"] = Fixture.new( 623: { association.primary_key_name => row[primary_key_name], 624: association.association_foreign_key => Fixtures.identify(target) }, nil) 625: end 626: end 627: end 628: end 629: end 630: 631: @connection.insert_fixture(fixture, @table_name) 632: end 633: 634: # insert any HABTM join tables we discovered 635: habtm_fixtures.values.each do |fixture| 636: fixture.delete_existing_fixtures 637: fixture.insert_fixtures 638: end 639: end