Setting up one time login with minitest/capybara for running rails tests

Question

I'm using capybara with minitest on Rails 2.3.14 . Like most applications, this one also requires login to do anything inside the site. I'd like to be able to login once per test-suite and use that session throughout all tests that are run. How do I refactor that to the minitest_helper ? Right now my helper looks something like this:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

ENV['RAILS_ENV'] = 'test'
require File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) + "/../config/environment")

gem 'minitest'
gem 'capybara_minitest_spec'

require 'minitest/unit'
require 'minitest/spec'
require 'minitest/mock'
require 'minitest/autorun'
require 'capybara/rails'
require 'factory_girl'


FactoryGirl.find_definitions

class MiniTest::Spec

  include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
  include Capybara::DSL
  include ActionController::URLWriter

  before(:each) do
    # .. misc global setup stuff, db cleanup, etc.
  end

  after(:each) do
    # .. more misc stuff
  end

end

thanks.

Answer 1

Here's an example of multiple sessions and custom DSL in an integration test

require 'test_helper'

class UserFlowsTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
  fixtures :users

  test "login and browse site" do

    # User avs logs in
    avs = login(:avs)
    # User guest logs in
    guest = login(:guest)

    # Both are now available in different sessions
    assert_equal 'Welcome avs!', avs.flash[:notice]
    assert_equal 'Welcome guest!', guest.flash[:notice]

    # User avs can browse site
    avs.browses_site
    # User guest can browse site as well
    guest.browses_site

    # Continue with other assertions
  end

  private

  module CustomDsl
    def browses_site
      get "/products/all"
      assert_response :success
      assert assigns(:products)
    end
  end

  def login(user)
    open_session do |sess|
      sess.extend(CustomDsl)
      u = users(user)
      sess.https!
      sess.post "/login", :username => u.username, :password => u.password
      assert_equal '/welcome', path
      sess.https!(false)
    end
  end
end

Source : http://guides.rubyonrails.org/testing.html#helpers-available-for-integration-tests