Using virtualenvwrapper

Going to start playing with virtualenvwrapper:

http://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.org/en/latest/index.html

Updating Python On Mac OS X

The Python that comes with OS X is a bit out of date, so I decided to update it.  After poking around the internet for a while, I came across some pretty good docs:

http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/starting/install/osx/

Basically, I ran:

$ brew install python

I got Python along with Pip and Distribute, which is awesome.  I heard both pieces of software helps you with installing and uninstalling other Python packages.

I then installed virtualenv, a handy dev tool that allows me to create virtual Python environments that do not interfere with each other.

$ pip install virtualenv

In order to see the new version of Python in action, I had to open a new terminal window.  Everything looks good.  My only complaint is that the version of Python I have now installed is 2.7.5 instead of 2.7.6, so it is a step behind the latest and greatest version.  I am going to have to investigate if this is a serious issue or not.  I heard 2.7.6 did fix some bugs in 2.7.5, but the user might have to install an updated version of Tcl/Tk to get IDLE working.

DataSquid Screen Grabs

I have always been interested in data visualization, so for my final project I decided to explore D3.js.  After taking a bike ride on Venice Beach, I came up with the following name.

DataSquid allows a user to upload a JSON file that describes relationships with between various nodes.  DataSquid then uses D3.js to generate a fun, interactive force directed graph that users can then modify.

Looking forward to playing with D3.js and other data visualization tools some more!  Paper.js looks cool (http://paperjs.org/).

Used JSFiddle For The First Time!

Created my first public fiddle on JSFiddle:

http://jsfiddle.net/cspears2002/vVL99/

A pretty useful tool.  I am using it to post my code on StackOverflow, so users can help me get to the bottom of the issue I have been having with implementing a fisheye distortion on the force directed graph.  For some reason, the nodes are distorting before the links.

Stubbing Out A User For Your Rspec Test

How to stub out a user when testing a controller with rspec:

# for controllers
user = User.create(:name => 'user@example.com', :password => 'caplin')
ApplicationController.stub(:current_user).and_return(user)

Refactoring Rspec/Capybara tests (with a little help from FactoryGirl)

"We will encourage you to develop the three great virtues of a programmer: laziness, impatience, and hubris." - Larry Wall

I am writing a web app using BDD.  In order to do just about anything in my app, the user needs to log in, so I was encouraged to write a function that will sign the user every time a rspec test is run.  Basically, the code for the features test will end up looking like this:

DataSquid/spec/features/user_logs_in_spec.rb

require 'spec_helper'

feature "signing in" do

  before :each do

    @user = User.create(:name => 'user@example.com', :password => 'caplin')

  end

  scenario "user who logs in with correct credentials" do

    sign_in(@user)

    expect(page).to have_content 'Hi user@example.com'

  end

end

First I read this article: http://robots.thoughtbot.com/rspec-integration-tests-with-capybara

Unfortunately, the author did not point out that they used FactoryGirl to work.  In your Gemfile, add FactoryGirl:

# For testing

group :test, :development do

  gem 'rspec-rails'

  gem 'guard-rspec'

  gem 'capybara'

  gem 'selenium-webdriver'

  gem 'database_cleaner'

  gem "factory_girl_rails", "~> 4.0"

end

After running 'bundle install', you should be good to go.  I then made this file, which holds the sign_in function.

DataSquid/spec/support/features/session_helpers.rb

module Features

  module SessionHelpers

    def sign_in(user=nil)

      user ||= FactoryGirl.create(:user)

      visit '/authentications/new'

      fill_in 'Login', with: user.name

      fill_in 'Password', with:  user.password

      click_button 'Sign in'

    end

  end

end

From what I can tell, the code in the file below makes the code in the session_helpers.rb file available to all of the feature tests.

DataSquid/spec/support/features.rb

RSpec.configure do |config|

  config.include Features::SessionHelpers, type: :feature

end

Now I have a handy function I can call in my feature tests!  Here is the link to my conversation on Stack Overflow about this issue: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20390072/trouble-with-refactoring-code-for-rspec-feature-tests-in-rails-4.