Improving Testing Experience in RSpec by Changing Output Configuration

In any software development process, automated tests are key to boosting code quality. RSpec, my favorite testing framework 😍, offers various configuration options to customize test output. In this article, we’ll explore how to enhance the testing experience by adjusting the default formatter associated with test output formats.

If I asked you to close your eyes and imagine a set of tests running, you’d probably describe something like this:

A series of green dots indicating each of our tests passed successfully. In case of a failure, a red F is displayed along with a description of why it failed.

In RSpec, you can modify the output format to suit your needs. The output you imagined a moment ago is the default format, and it actually works great for almost all cases. I really like it because it provides a concise overview of test progress as they run.

However, there are times when I prefer to get more details about the tests being executed. A clear example is when we’re running tests from a single file. That is, when we run something like this:

bundle exec rspec spec/models/client_spec.rb

In this case, we’re only running tests for the client model, and a more detailed output with the description of each test scenario would be really helpful.

This can be configured very easily, we just need to add the following code to ourspec_helper.rb or rails_helper.rbfile:

config.default_formatter = 'doc'

This configuration allows us to get a more comprehensive test output, making it easier to understand the results and debug issues.

The problem is, it can be too much information if tests from multiple files are being executed.

Fortunately, we can change the formatter conditionally. That is, we leave the default formatter (progress) if tests from multiple files are being executed, and switch to the doc formatter if we’re running tests from a single file.

Our configuration would look like this:

config.default_formatter = 'doc' if config.files_to_run.one?

The value of this is that by keeping the progress formatter for multiple test files, we can maintain a clear overview of the progress of our tests in larger environments.

I’ve been using this setup for a couple of years now and it has greatly improved my development experience. By customizing the RSpec configuration to specific needs, I can significantly enhance my testing experience and increase efficiency in software development.