Factory

An Array of strings specifying locations that should be searched for factory definitions. By default, factory_girl will attempt to require “factories,” “test/factories,” and “spec/factories.” Only the first existing file will be loaded.

Defines a new alias for attributes.

Arguments:

• pattern: Regexp A pattern that will be matched against attributes when looking for aliases. Contents captured in the pattern can be used in the alias.

• replace: String The alias that results from the matched pattern. Captured strings can be substituded like with +String#sub+.

Example:

Factory.alias /(.*)_confirmation/, '\1'

factory_girl starts with aliases for foreign keys, so that a :user association can be overridden by a :user_id parameter:

Factory.define :post do |p|
  p.association :user
end

# The user association will not be built in this example. The user_id
# will be used instead.
Factory(:post, :user_id => 1)

# File lib/factory_girl/aliases.rb, line 35
def self.alias (pattern, replace)
  self.aliases << [pattern, replace]
end

Generates and returns a Hash of attributes from this factory. Attributes can be individually overridden by passing in a Hash of attribute => value pairs.

Arguments:

• name: Symbol or String The name of the factory that should be used.

• overrides: Hash Attributes to overwrite for this set.

Returns: Hash A set of attributes that can be used to build an instance of the class this factory generates.

# File lib/factory_girl/factory.rb, line 233
def self.attributes_for (name, overrides = {})
  factory_by_name(name).run(Proxy::AttributesFor, overrides)
end

Generates and returns an instance from this factory. Attributes can be individually overridden by passing in a Hash of attribute => value pairs.

Arguments:

• name: Symbol or String The name of the factory that should be used.

• overrides: Hash Attributes to overwrite for this instance.

Returns: Object An instance of the class this factory generates, with generated attributes assigned.

# File lib/factory_girl/factory.rb, line 249
def self.build (name, overrides = {})
  factory_by_name(name).run(Proxy::Build, overrides)
end

Generates, saves, and returns an instance from this factory. Attributes can be individually overridden by passing in a Hash of attribute => value pairs.

Instances are saved using the save! method, so ActiveRecord models will raise ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid exceptions for invalid attribute sets.

Arguments:

• name: Symbol or String The name of the factory that should be used.

• overrides: Hash Attributes to overwrite for this instance.

Returns: Object A saved instance of the class this factory generates, with generated attributes assigned.

# File lib/factory_girl/factory.rb, line 269
def self.create (name, overrides = {})
  factory_by_name(name).run(Proxy::Create, overrides)
end

Executes the default strategy for the given factory. This is usually create, but it can be overridden for each factory.

Arguments:

• name: Symbol or String The name of the factory that should be used.

• overrides: Hash Attributes to overwrite for this instance.

Returns: Object The result of the default strategy.

# File lib/factory_girl/factory.rb, line 300
def self.default_strategy (name, overrides = {})
  self.send(factory_by_name(name).default_strategy, name, overrides)
end

Defines a new factory that can be used by the build strategies (create and build) to build new objects.

Arguments:

• name: Symbol or String A unique name used to identify this factory.

• options: Hash

Options:

• class: Symbol, Class, or String The class that will be used when generating instances for this factory. If not specified, the class will be guessed from the factory name.

• parent: Symbol The parent factory. If specified, the attributes from the parent factory will be copied to the current one with an ability to override them.

• default_strategy: Symbol The strategy that will be used by the Factory shortcut method. Defaults to :create.

Yields: Factory The newly created factory.

# File lib/factory_girl/factory.rb, line 54
def self.define (name, options = {})
  instance = Factory.new(name, options)
  yield(instance)
  if parent = options.delete(:parent)
    instance.inherit_from(Factory.factory_by_name(parent))
  end
  if self.factories[instance.factory_name]
    raise DuplicateDefinitionError, "Factory already defined: #{name}"
  end
  self.factories[instance.factory_name] = instance
end

Generates and returns the next value in a sequence.

Arguments:

name: (Symbol)
  The name of the sequence that a value should be generated for.

Returns:

The next value in the sequence. (Object)

# File lib/factory_girl/sequence.rb, line 55
def self.next (sequence)
  unless self.sequences.key?(sequence)
    raise "No such sequence: #{sequence}"
  end

  self.sequences[sequence].next
end

Defines a new sequence that can be used to generate unique values in a specific format.

Arguments:

name: (Symbol)
  A unique name for this sequence. This name will be referenced when
  calling next to generate new values from this sequence.
block: (Proc)
  The code to generate each value in the sequence. This block will be
  called with a unique number each time a value in the sequence is to be
  generated. The block should return the generated value for the
  sequence.

Example:

Factory.sequence(:email) {|n| "somebody_#{n}@example.com" }

# File lib/factory_girl/sequence.rb, line 43
def self.sequence (name, &block)
  self.sequences[name] = Sequence.new(&block)
end

Generates and returns an object with all attributes from this factory stubbed out. Attributes can be individually overridden by passing in a Hash of attribute => value pairs.

Arguments:

• name: Symbol or String The name of the factory that should be used.

• overrides: Hash Attributes to overwrite for this instance.

Returns: Object An object with generated attributes stubbed out.

# File lib/factory_girl/factory.rb, line 285
def self.stub (name, overrides = {})
  factory_by_name(name).run(Proxy::Stub, overrides)
end

Adds an attribute that should be assigned on generated instances for this factory.

This method should be called with either a value or block, but not both. If called with a block, the attribute will be generated “lazily,” whenever an instance is generated. Lazy attribute blocks will not be called if that attribute is overriden for a specific instance.

When defining lazy attributes, an instance of Factory::Proxy will be yielded, allowing associations to be built using the correct build strategy.

Arguments:

• name: Symbol or String The name of this attribute. This will be assigned using :“#{name}=” for generated instances.

• value: Object If no block is given, this value will be used for this attribute.

# File lib/factory_girl/factory.rb, line 113
def add_attribute (name, value = nil, &block)
  if block_given?
    if value
      raise AttributeDefinitionError, "Both value and block given"
    else
      attribute = Attribute::Dynamic.new(name, block)
    end
  else
    attribute = Attribute::Static.new(name, value)
  end

  if attribute_defined?(attribute.name)
    raise AttributeDefinitionError, "Attribute already defined: #{name}"
  end

  @attributes << attribute
end

Adds an attribute that builds an association. The associated instance will be built using the same build strategy as the parent instance.

Example:

Factory.define :user do |f|
  f.name 'Joey'
end

Factory.define :post do |f|
  f.association :author, :factory => :user
end

Arguments:

• name: Symbol The name of this attribute.

• options: Hash

Options:

• factory: Symbol or String

  The name of the factory to use when building the associated instance.
  If no name is given, the name of the attribute is assumed to be the
  name of the factory. For example, a "user" association will by
  default use the "user" factory.

# File lib/factory_girl/factory.rb, line 172
def association (name, options = {})
  factory_name = options.delete(:factory) || name
  if factory_name_for(factory_name) == self.factory_name
    raise AssociationDefinitionError, "Self-referencing association '#{name}' in factory '#{self.factory_name}'"
  end
  @attributes << Attribute::Association.new(name, factory_name, options)
end

Calls add_attribute using the missing method name as the name of the attribute, so that:

Factory.define :user do |f|
  f.name 'Billy Idol'
end

and:

Factory.define :user do |f|
  f.add_attribute :name, 'Billy Idol'
end

are equivilent.

# File lib/factory_girl/factory.rb, line 145
def method_missing (name, *args, &block)
  add_attribute(name, *args, &block)
end

Adds an attribute that will have unique values generated by a sequence with a specified format.

The result of:

Factory.define :user do |f|
 f.sequence(:email) { |n| "person#{n}@example.com" }
end

Is equal to:

Factory.sequence(:email) { |n| "person#{n}@example.com" }

Factory.define :user do |f|
 f.email { Factory.next(:email) }
end

Except that no globally available sequence will be defined.

# File lib/factory_girl/factory.rb, line 196
def sequence (name, &block)
  s = Sequence.new(&block)
  add_attribute(name) { s.next }
end