ruby VCR, easy trick for easy re-record

I do a lot of work with external HTTP API’s, and I love the vcr for use in writing tests/specs involving these. It records the interaction, so most of the time the tests are running based on a recorded interaction, not actually going out to the remote HTTP server.

This makes the tests run faster, it makes more sense on a CI server like Travis, it let’s tests run automatically without having to hard-code credentials in for authenticated services (make sure to use VCR’s filter_sensitive_data feature, figuring out the a convenient way to do that with real world use cases is a different discussion), and it even lets people run the tests without having credentials themselves at all to make minor PRs and such.

But in actual local dev, I sometimes want to run my tests against live data for sure, often as the exactly HTTP requests change as I edit my code. Sometimes I need to do this over and over again in a cycle. Previously, I was doing things like manually deleting the relevant VCR cassettes files , to ensure I was running with live data, or avoid VCR “hey, this is a new request buddy” errors.

Why did I never think of using the tools VCR already gives us to make it a lot easier on myself?

	VCR.configure do |c|
	c.cassette_library_dir = 'spec/vcr_cassettes'
	c.hook_into :webmock # or :fakeweb
	c.configure_rspec_metadata!
	# Let's you set default VCR mode with VCR=all for re-recording
	# episodes. :once is VCR default
	record_mode = ENV["VCR"] ? ENV["VCR"].to_sym : :once
	c.default_cassette_options = { :record => record_mode }
	end

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sample_vcr_config.rb

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Normally works as always, but I just gotta VCR=all ./bin/rspec to run that run with brand newly recorded cassettes. Or VCR=all ./bin/rspec some_specific_spec.rb to re-record only that spec, or only the specs I’m working on, etc.

Geez, I should have figured that out years ago. So I’m sharing with you.

Just don’t ask me if it makes more sense to put VCR configuration in spec_helper.rb or rails_helper.rb. I still haven’t figured out what that split is supposed to be about honestly. I mean, I do sometimes VCR specs of service objects that do not have Rails dependencies…. but I usually just drop it (and all my other config) in rails_helper.rb and ignore the fact that rspec these days is trying to force us to make a choice I don’t really understand the implications or utility of and don’t want to think about.