I’ll be presenting on A/B testing at tonight’s raleigh.rb meetup. As developers, we use tools like RSpec and Cucumber to verify that our application is functional, but how can we verify that the layout of our home page is user-friendly? How can we determine the ideal size for our signup … Continue reading
Several of my Rails projects surface a RESTful API. I use integration tests to verify that the API calls work as expected. I also version my API calls so I can easily adapt the API to new circumstances while maintaining backwards compatibility. To move to a new API version, I … Continue reading
If anyone still happens to be using test_spec, you’ll be thrilled to know that the test_spec_on_rails plugin is now compatible with Rails 2.3. It has also been converted to a gem. Install with: Add to your Rails app’s test.rb like so: Enjoy the goodness of test-spec helpers from inside your … Continue reading
Jared Richardson just posted a series of interviews in anticipation of the upcoming RubyRX/AgileRX conference taking place in Reston, Virginia in September. In my interview we discuss iPhone development, MacRuby, Git, and testing frameworks. I’m really looking forward to presenting again at RubyRX. I’ll be giving two talks this year. … Continue reading
So you’re savvy with flexmock, a fine Rails plugin that lets you create mock objects in your tests. You’ve been coding up a boatload of fine tests that are elegant in their isolation thanks to your super mocks. They all run fine, but they’re kind of slow so you go … Continue reading
My father recently had an experience which bitterly proves that minor details can have major consequences. Last week, his insurance company mistakenly reported to the DMV that the coverage on his auto had lapsed. The DMV responded by revoking his tags within the space of 48 hours (quite speedy for … Continue reading
I recently had the honor of reviewing the Pragmatic Programmers’ latest work of art, Venkat Subramaniam and Andy Hunt’s Practices of an Agile Developer. The book doesn’t ship until March 1st, but I would certainly consider adding it to my Amazon.com wish list now, especially if I were new to … Continue reading
I’ve been using Watir for a week or so now and have (naturally) run into a couple of problems. I’ve also come up with a handy way to reference fields on a page. I thought I’d share these tips so others won’t have to spend their precious time working through … Continue reading
WATIR stands for “Web Application Testing in Ruby”. Watir is a free, open-source functional testing tool for automating browser-based tests of web applications. It is pronounced water. I began experimenting with Watir over the weekend. I run a database-driven web site for a local non-profit group and have been looking … Continue reading