Rails 4 Test Prescriptions

Trying Cucumber

Cucumber is a tool for writing acceptance tests in plain language. (I almost said in plain English, but that’s too limiting—Cucumber speaks a lot of different languages, including LOLCat.) It’s designed to allow you to write simple and clear integration and acceptance tests. It can be used to have a nondeveloper client or manager cowrite or sign off on the acceptance tests, though my personal experience with that has been hit-and-miss. Because it adds a level of indirection to acceptance testing, some people feel that Cucumber is more trouble than it’s worth.

I like to look at Cucumber as a tool that does two things. First, it allows me to structure integration tests somewhat cleanly. Second, it allows me the option to ...