How to use Rails routes in feature specs

Want to use Rails’ routes in your acceptance specs? No problem. Here’s what you want:

# In spec_helper.rb

RSpec.configure do |config|
  # Make the rails routes available in all specs
  config.include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers
  # or
  # Make them available only in acceptance specs
  config.include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers, :type => :acceptance
end

Fair warning: I’ve seen some folks say that you shouldn’t do this, and instead should define your routes in paths.rb. This way testing your routes is part of your acceptance suite.

I see where they’re coming from, but this just doesn’t seem worth it to me. I don’t find routes to be a very bug-prone area in my apps, so keeping duplicate my routes in two files is too high a price to pay.

I’ve been using Rails’ built-in route helpers in my specs for several months now, and can’t think of a single routing issue that’s come up. YMMV.