From: Chris Roos <chrisjroos@...>
Date: 2006-09-21T22:22:21+09:00
Subject: Re: Test::Unit and class attributes

On 9/21/06, aidy <aidy.rutter@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a test class the inherits from Test::Unit::TestCase.
>
> If I create a setup and teardown method
>
> def setup
>   Browser.start
>   log_in
> end
>
>
> def teardown
>   log_out
>   Browser.close
> end
>
> # and create class attributes here
>
> @search = "Employee was created successfully"
>
> they are not seen in my test method ...
>
> def test_ST_MSE_4
>
>   enter_employee
>   click_submit
>   assert($ie.contains_text(@search))
>
> end
>
> But if I put the class attributes in the setup method, they are seen by
> my test(s).
> Is it normal practice to enter your class attributes in the setup
> method?
>
Yup.

A class that derives from Test::Unit::TestCase is still just a normal
class.  Normal classes don't follow what you seem to expect of a
test_case derived class.

Consider...

class Foo
  @foo = 123
  def bar
    p @foo
  end
end

Foo.new.bar
#=> nil

The instance of Foo that we create can't see the class instance
variable (@foo = 123).

You could change the bar method to..
p self.class.instance_variable_get(:@foo)

but I'd guess you don't want to do that.

Hope this helps,

Chris