Rails 2.3.2 unit test passes when run with normal ruby, fails when run with rake test:units

Question

Hi folks,

When creating a record in a unit test, I'm getting an 'ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid' when it's run with rake test:units. I don't get this error when I run the unit test manually with ruby ('ruby unit/blah_test.rb'). I've narrowed the issue down to a validation that exists in my model. It is an inclusion validation which is actually performing a find against a different model to get the valid values. I'm thinking this is related to the fixtures not being loaded in time, but I do have 'fixtures :all' in my test_helper.rb (I've also tried including 'fixtures :all' in the unit test itself.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can try to narrow this down even further?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Certainly what you are seeing would fit with fixtures being missing. With rake test:units the test database schema will be set up (and cleared) so your included model's fixtures may not be populated. With the direct call you'll be using the test database in the state you last left it which probably does include the fixutres for the included model.

Is there another call to fixtures in the test class which may be causing fixtures :all not to kick in?

You could try doing rake db:test:prepare prior to running your test via ruby which would mean you were running on a fresh test database. This would further highlight if the fixtures aren't being loaded for your included model.