Problem

A step-by-step guide to setting up rspec in a pure Ruby project

---

Situation

When it comes to testing Ruby applications, RSpec has emerged as a widely adopted testing framework, offering a powerful and expressive syntax.

While many tutorials focus on integrating RSpec with popular Ruby frameworks like Ruby on Rails, the process of using RSpec with pure Ruby often goes unnoticed.

In this comprehensive guide, we aim to bridge that gap by providing you with a step-by-step walkthrough on how to install and configure RSpec with pure Ruby.

---

Solution

• Create project

• Configure Gemfile

• Configure rspec

• Create a spec

• Create a class

---

Create project

Create the directory's project

mkdir ruby-challenges

---

Configure Gemfile

Create the Gemfile

In the root of the app, create the Gemfile by running the following command:

bundle init

The output should be something like this

Writing new Gemfile to /home/alexandre/var/www/ruby-challenges/Gemfile

---

Update Gemfile

Insert the following code into the Gemfile:

# ruby-challenges/Gemfile

source "https://rubygems.org"

gem "rspec"

---

Install

This step is focused on installing rspec based on the content of the Gemfile.

bundle install --path .bundle

Your output should look like this

---

Configure rspec

Create spec's directory

inside the project's directory ruby-challenges

mkdir spec

At the moment, this should be your project's structure: Run ls

ls

the output should look something like this

Gemfile  spec

---

Create a spec

Create a spec file

# ruby-challenges/spec
touch string_checker_spec.rb

---

Initiate the spec implementation

# ruby-challenges/spec/string_checker_spec.rb

describe StringChecker do

end

---

Test

Let's test what we already have so far. In the root of the app:

# ruby-challenges/
bundle exec rspec

Your output would look something like the following picture

In this case, this error is totally normal and it indicates we don't have a StringChecker class.

---

Require the model

This step consists in inserting the model file name into the rspec file.

# ruby-challenges/spec/string_checker_spec.rb
require "string_checker"

describe StringChecker do

end

My model name needs to be called string_checker.rb

---

Create a class

Create a lib directory

Insite the root of the application

mkdir lib

So far, this is the directory's structure:

Gemfile  Gemfile.lock  lib  spec

---

Create the class

touch string_checker.rb

---

Implement the class

# ruby-challenges/lib/string_checker.rb:1
class StringChecker

end

---

Test it

bundle exec rspec

Your output should look something like this

No examples found.


Finished in 0.00007 seconds
0 examples, 0 failures

---

Repository

Check it out here.

---

Celebrate

There are no errors. Time to celebrate.

---

Let's get to know each other

• Github

• LinkedIn

• Hashnode

• Youtube

---

Final thoughts

I hope this article helped you. Let me know if you have any questions.

Your thoughts, suggestions and corrections are more than welcome.

By the way, feel free to drop your suggestions on new blog articles.

Hope to see you next time.

---