(Testing Rails Notes) Types of tests, when to use them, and some useful gems

From Testing Rails book...

FEATURE/ACCEPTANCE:

• Check the happy paths
• Expensive so use sparingly

REQUEST:

• These are like feature tests, they go through router, render content, etc. More expensive than Controller specs.

CONTROLLER

• good to check 'Sad Paths'
• you can assert against an actual response object, but not check content rendered

VIEW & HELPER:

• Test a little piece of logic you have. Cheaper than feature spec, etc.

MODEL:

• Unit tests

Useful Gems:

• email-spec (https://github.com/email-spec/email-spec)
• shoulda-matchers (https://github.com/thoughtbot/shoulda-matchers) for validation testing on models