In order to reliably test a migration, we need to test it against a database
schema that this migration has been written for. In order to achieve that we
have some migration helpers and RSpec test tag, called :migration.
If you want to write a test for a migration consider adding :migration tag to
the test signature, like describe SomeMigrationClass, :migration.
How does it work?
Adding a :migration tag to a test signature injects a few before / after
hooks to the test.
The most important change is that adding a :migration tag adds a before
hook that will revert all migrations to the point that a migration under test
is not yet migrated.
In other words, our custom RSpec hooks will find a previous migration, and
migrate the database down to the previous migration version.
With this approach you can test a migration against a database schema that this
migration has been written for.
Use migrate! helper to run the migration that is under test.
The after hook will migrate the database up and reinstitutes the latest
schema version, so that the process does not affect subsequent specs and
ensures proper isolation.
Testing a class that is not an ActiveRecord::Migration
In order to test a class that is not a migration itself, you will need to
manually provide a required schema version. Please add a schema tag to a
context that you want to switch the database schema within.
Use table helper to create a temporary ActiveRecord::Base derived model
for a table.
Use migrate! helper to run the migration that is under test. It will not only
run migration, but will also bump the schema version in the schema_migrations
table. It is necessary because in the after hook we trigger the rest of
the migrations, and we need to know where to start.
See spec/support/migrations_helpers.rb for all the available helpers.
An example
require'spec_helper'# Load a migration class.requireRails.root.join('db','post_migrate','20170526185842_migrate_pipeline_stages.rb')describeMigratePipelineStages,:migrationdo# Create test data - pipeline and CI/CD jobs.let(:jobs){table(:ci_builds)}let(:stages){table(:ci_stages)}let(:pipelines){table(:ci_pipelines)}let(:projects){table(:projects)}beforedoprojects.create!(id:123,name:'gitlab1',path:'gitlab1')pipelines.create!(id:1,project_id:123,ref:'master',sha:'adf43c3a')jobs.create!(id:1,commit_id:1,project_id:123,stage_idx:2,stage:'build')jobs.create!(id:2,commit_id:1,project_id:123,stage_idx:1,stage:'test')end# Test the migration.it'correctly migrates pipeline stages'doexpect(stages.count).tobe_zeromigrate!expect(stages.count).toeq2expect(stages.all.pluck(:name)).tomatch_array%w[test build]endend
Best practices
Note that this type of tests do not run within the transaction, we use
a deletion database cleanup strategy. Do not depend on transaction being
present.