How to test email sending using Rspec?

Question

What are the best practices and tools to test email-sending using rspec with Rails?

For instance, how do I test that an email has been sent or what should I test to have efficient testing and acceptable coverage.

If you guys need an example, how would I go and test this:

class UserMailer < ActionMailer::Base

 def jobdesc_has_been_reviewed(user, title)
    @body[:title]  = title
    @body[:jobdesc]  = jobdesc
    @body[:url]  = "http://" + user.account.subdomain + "." + Constants::SITE_URL + "/jobdescs/#{jobdesc.id}"
 end

end

Answer 1

What do you want to test exactly?

Do you want to test that the email is indeed really sent?

I don't recommend it as it will make your test slower and it really depends on the machine you are using to run your tests (network connection, smtp server).

What I usually do is make sure the controller action / model / rake task which send emails runs correctly (meaning without error, I stub the final send call). I also make sure the body, title and recipients for the mail are correct.

Edit:

Not directly related to testing but I just came over this article.

I like his point of view of using the model to send emails. So to explain a little more in details:

I would use the controller to set up view variables like @body, @title, @recipient.

So I would test that given correct parameters the mail template (which is a view) is correctly rendered. This is were mistakes can happen from my point of view.

I will update this post with example when I am back home later today.

Answer 2

email-spec looks like a good library

http://github.com/bmabey/email-spec