Rails unit tests without db setup or teardown?

Question

I want to write a few unit tests that do not make any changes to a database.

I have a Rails 2.3.11 application. This app has a SQLite database as its primary database. In many ways, this is a run-of-the-mill Rails app.

What makes this app unique is that it also establishes a connection to a SQL Server database. I have some models which are abstract classes and they use the SQL Server database. I have before_save and before_destroy callbacks to prevent any changes being made to the SQL Server database. Also, the user credentials to connect to SQL Server are supposed to be read-only.

I would like to write unit tests that make assertions on the data that is already present in the SQL Server database. But I don't want to setup or teardown the SQL Server database.

I am afraid to just see what happens. I would like to have a setting in the unit test that will prevent Rails from trying to setup or teardown the SQL Server database. Is this possible? How do I do it?

Thank you!

Answer 1

The setup/tear down only affects the application database (SQLite, sounds like), not additional, external database connections.

Also, you should keep your test environment completely separate from your production environment. So, if you're using a test SQLServer DB as well (and you should be, with test data in it - not the production one) then you should be fine even if the worst happens.