RSpec
After you get the VCR gem installed, use the configure_rspec_metadata! option to get VCR to automatically name your cassettes based off your test’s spec description.

Here’s a sample VCR confguration (spec/support/vcr.rb):

VCR.configure do |c|
  c.cassette_library_dir = 'spec/cassettes'
  c.hook_into :fakeweb
  c.configure_rspec_metadata!
end

RSpec.configure do |c|
  c.treat_symbols_as_metadata_keys_with_true_values = true
end

There are more details about the configure_rspec_metadata! option here: https://www.relishapp.com/myronmarston/vcr/v/2-0-0/docs/test-frameworks/usage-with-rspec-metadata

After this is setup, you just need to tag your specs, with :vcr. Here’s a sample:

it "should make me a sandwich", :vcr do
…
end

Cucumber
For Cucumber, you need to use the use_scenario_name option. (This option isn’t in a release version of VCR yet, so you’ll have to use the master branch version on GitHub.)

Here’s a sample VCR confguration for Cucumber (features/support/vcr.rb):

VCR.configure do |c|
  c.cassette_library_dir = 'features/cassettes'
  c.hook_into :fakeweb
end

VCR.cucumber_tags do |t|
  t.tag '@vcr', use_scenario_name: true
end

Then after this is setup, you can tag your scenarios or features with @vcr and it will automatically name the cassette using the scenario name combined with the feature name.

@vcr
Feature: Truffle shuffle
…

It’s really simple to setup VCR for automatic cassette naming for both RSpec and Cucumber. Which makes it really effortless to use VCR with the :vcr and @vcr tags. Which makes using VCR a no brainer.

$ gem install rails --no-rdoc --no-ri

But there’s another way to prevent documentation from being installed. Create a .gemrc file in your home directory with the following:

gem: --no-ri --no-rdoc

Now you don’t have to worry about supplying the command line options, this will give you no documentation by default.

Get Vim

First the easy part, download and install your flavor of Vim: http://www.vim.org/download.php

Vimrc file

Now, before you start editing any files, you’ll probably want to create a vimrc file. You’ll be spending a lot of time in here, this is where most of you preferences and customizations for Vim will go. This file is like using a Vim performance enhancer. Tweaking this file will turn your normal ride into a high performance sports car. But to me, simply copying someone else’s vimrc file is like getting into someone else’s car where you have to adjust the seat, mirrors, steering wheel, radio presets, etc. because it’s customized for them, not you. And with my brief experience with Vim, it’s unlikely that you’re going to find a vimrc file that is exactly what you want. So you have to customize it. Below are some links on creating and customizing your vimrc file.

Information on the vimrc file: http://www.derekwyatt.org/vim/the-vimrc-file/

More basic info: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Open_vimrc_file

Here’s a good thread on Stack Overflow to find good settings for your vimrc file:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/164847/what-is-in-your-vimrc

You can use vimbits.com to handpick vimrc settings.

You can browse and cherry-pick from other people’s vimrc files on GitHub, by using a search query like this in Google: “.vimrc site:github.com”

Here is an online resource for all vimrc options (which is the same as the built-in documenation):
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/quickref.html#option-list

If you want to know what a certain vimrc option does, just type: ‘:help option-name’ and it will tell you what it does and what the long and short form of the option is.

Learn more about the different key mappings:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3776117/vim-what-is-the-difference-between-the-remap-noremap-nnoremap-and-vnoremap-ma

Learn more about the <leader> character:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1764263/what-is-the-leader-in-a-vimrc-file

Set a default color scheme and font

Now that you have a basic vimrc file setup, here’s a quick and easy win to customize your Vim experience by picking a default color scheme and font.

Here are some good color themes I have found:

• jellybeans: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2555
• railscasts: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2175
• vividchalk: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1891

The color theme files go in ~/.vim/colors or ~\vimfiles\colors if you’re on Windows. Then you in your vimrc file you can set your default color scheme:

" Set default color scheme
colorscheme jellybeans

It’s also nice to have a good programming font in Vim. Here’s a list of preferred fonts and also how to set a default font in your vimrc file:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/485174/programming-fonts
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Change_font

Install plug-ins

Next, you’ll probably want to install some plug-ins to add additional functionality to Vim. There are two main ways (I know of) to manage your plug-ins: Pathogen and Vundle. Personally, I use Vundle, I like how you can keep track of all your plug-ins in your vimrc file and run one command to install them all, kinda like Bundler. Anyway, here are some handy plug-ins that I have discovered so far:

• https://github.com/tpope/vim-rails
• https://github.com/tpope/vim-endwise
• https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive
• https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree
• https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround
• https://github.com/lucapette/vim-ruby-doc.git
• https://github.com/vim-scripts/YankRing.vim.git
• https://github.com/wincent/Command-T

Summary

Well, that’s about it. Definitely not an exhaustive guide, but hopefully it’s enough to get started. Like I said I just got started using Vim for Ruby on Rails myself, so I know there’s a lot of plug-ins and settings I haven’t discovered yet.

I’ve learned that keeping your Ruby methods well named, short and focused makes them easier to read and also easier to test.

Example:

messages.delete('twitter') unless user.twitter_username

Using the translation, this Ruby code would read as: delete twitter messages except if the user has a twitter username.

Using and reading unless in Ruby was like Greek to me when I first saw it, but now that my brain automatically makes the association/translation for me, using it has become second nature.

Hopefully this technique will help someone else struggling to use unless in Ruby.

This fix applies if you’re using cucumber on Windows.

It turns out the error message is related to the json gem that cucumber depends on. The details and solution are buried in this thread.

To fix it, you just have to run:

gem uninstall json

followed by:

gem install json --platform=ruby

Notes:
You need to have DevKit installed for this fix: https://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/wiki/Development-Kit

If you get an error when installing the new json gem, make sure a rails server or console isn't running in the background.

The offending version of json for me was 1.4.6-x86-mingw32, so you need to uninstall and install that version: gem install json --version=1.4.6 --platform=ruby

If you install new gems after you make this fix, the error message will pop-up again, so you'll have to uninstall/install the json gem again. If anyone knows a way around this, please let me know.

Anyway, I hope this fix is helpful, that error was driving me nuts!

First, I downloaded the latest SQlite3 DLL. (I grabbed the DLL of the SQLite library without the TCL bindings.)

Then, I exracted the .dll and .def files to my C:\ruby\bin directory and that fixed my issue. (You’ll might have to restart your console session.)

These steps will also fix this error message:
“The procedure entry point sqlite3_column_database_name could not be located in the dynamic link library sqlite3.dll.”

Hope this helps someone else running into the same issue.

def self.up
  if RAILS_ENV == 'development'
    # set all of your test data for development...
  end
end