March 2014 Summaries

The post discusses strategies for handling external resources while writing tests, emphasizing the use of mock instances to prevent reliance on actual external systems, which can lead to slow or error-prone test suites. Highlighting tools like Timecop, Webmock, and VCR, it outlines how Timecop can manage time-based conditions without altering timestamps manually, how Webmock allows the stubbing of HTTP requests to avoid real network calls, and how VCR records and replays HTTP interactions to ensure speed and accuracy in tests. The text also addresses testing OAuth flows with tools like the OmniAuth gem and Cucumber, explaining how mock authentication can facilitate integration testing without real user credentials. The article concludes with a reminder about maintaining security by revoking access to API tokens after tests and staying updated with any API changes to ensure test relevance.

Semaphore has upgraded its communication by introducing new HTML-formatted build and deploy emails, enhancing the user experience by making them visually similar to the Semaphore website. These emails now include additional features like a log tail when a command fails, catering to diverse user needs and workflows. While the new format aims to provide a more engaging experience, the option to receive plain text emails remains available due to the use of multipart emails. Users can further integrate Semaphore with platforms like Slack and Campfire or utilize webhooks, and discussions about these updates can be continued on Semaphore's Discord channel.

Semaphore has announced an official integration with Slack, a team communication service, allowing users to receive status messages about build or deploy completions directly in their chosen Slack room. This integration is designed to enhance communication efficiency and can be set up quickly by following instructions provided on Slack's service page. The collaboration between Semaphore and Slack has been positively received, and users are invited to discuss the integration further on Semaphore's Discord channel.

A platform update scheduled for March 5, 2014, introduces Ruby 2.1.1 to the stack, with Ruby 2.0.0 and 1.9.3 receiving patchlevel upgrades that may necessitate a bundle update for the debugger. Firefox is upgraded to version 27, which will require most projects using the selenium-webdriver gem to update their bundle as well. Additionally, both Node and NPM are updated to their latest versions. Initially, an ElasticSearch package change meant the server did not run on boot, requiring users to add a command to start it manually; however, this was corrected by March 17, with the server running on boot again. Further details and discussion are available in the platform changelog and on Discord.