Fixture Groups

One of the things I like about working with Rails is test fixtures. However when the data model becomes more complex, the fixtures can become rather large. Worse yet, tests that require fixtures among two or more models feel clunky.

I wrote a plugin to help organize fixtures called fixture_groups.

./script/plugin install \
  http://source.elevatorfight.com/public/fixture_groups

Example:

class BlahTest
  fixture_group :group1
  fixtures :foo, :bar

  ...
end

This will look in RAILS_ROOT/test/fixtures/group1 for the fixtures. If a fixture_group isn’t specified, then the fixtures will use the normal folder.

h3. Update 8/10/07

For the most part, I’ve given up on fixtures in my tests. Although I have it in my mind to check out fixture scenarios soon.