Is it okey to DRY the action of a test?

Question

From my understanding of AAA - arrange act assert, it is important to make it clear what code is for arranging, acting and asserting.

When testing a complex scenario, I am used to having multiple times the same action, every test. The arranging changes, and so does the assertion. But the action remains the same.

Recently I have encountered this code:

before do
    post 'somewhere'
end

it 'creates something' do
    expect 'something'.to be true
end

And I am not sure if this is a good practice. Arranging code gets in the middle of action and assertion when, for instance, we add contexts.

before do
    post 'somewhere'
end

[ some tests ]

context 'when a more complex scenario applies' do
    before do 
      [more complex arrangements]
    end

    it 'creates something more complex' do
        expect 'something'.to be true
    end
end

Is it a good practice to DRY these actions?

Answer 1

Yes. This is still preferable (IMHO) because if you change the site, then you can change the code of all of your tests in just one place. Just make a helpers file and add your methods in here.

# spec/helpers.rb
module Helpers

  def method1(*args)
    # do something
  end

end

You can add it via rails_helper or in individual files:

require 'helpers'
RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include Helpers
end

And then you just call them in your specs like any regular method.