Stubbing 3rd party API calls in Rails integration tests

Question

I have a TwitterAPI class defined, which interacts with Twitter's API. The methods in the module make two separate API calls. So I have two WebMock stub_requests defined in before blocks in my unit tests for the TwitterAPI class.

I am writing capybara/rspec-based integration tests now. Some of the test scenarios involve pages that use Twitter API data, e.g.:

feature 'View Twitter feed,' do

  let(:twitter_feed_page)      { TwitterFeedPage.new }
  let(:user)                   { FactoryGirl.create :user }

  scenario "Twitter feed is displayed" do
    login(user)
    twitter_feed_page.load
    expect(twitter_feed_page).to have_text("Test tweet")
    # etc.
  end
end

I want these integration tests to use the same stubbed data as my unit tests. So the stub_requests will be shared among multiple tests. Should I just move the stub_requests I've defined to my rails_helper.rb and have some sort of flag that allows specific tests to use the stubs? Or should I just copy/paste the stub_requests to the integration test itself? Having multiple copies of the stub requests is not the DRY way to do this, but it seems easier to read/understand how the stubbing works.

Answer 1

When reusing stubs, I do like to put them in a shared file. I also like to wrap them as methods. So, I might have a file called something like stubbing_helper.rb in my spec folder that looks something like:

# spec/stubbing_helper.rb
def stub_successful_twitter_feed_load
  # a stub goes here
end 

def stub_failed_twitter_feed_load
  # another stub goes here
end

Naturally, remember to require this file in rails_helper.rb:

# spec/rails_helper.rb
...
require 'rspec/rails'
# Add additional requires below this line. Rails is not loaded until this point!
require 'stubbing_helper'
...

Then call the appropriate stub method as appropriate:

feature 'View Twitter feed,' do

  let(:twitter_feed_page)      { TwitterFeedPage.new }
  let(:user)                   { FactoryGirl.create :user }

  scenario "Twitter feed is displayed" do
    stub_successful_twitter_feed_load
    login(user)
    twitter_feed_page.load
    expect(twitter_feed_page).to have_text("Test tweet")
    # etc.
  end
end