Creating a Ruby gem that talks to another gem

Question

I am working on creating an interface gem that works with the Jira-Ruby gem.

I have several questions and would like a general review for both my code and my attempt at creating a gem (I've never written one before). Any advice on where to go next would also be appreciated.

File structure:

jira_interface
 lib
 jira_interface
 config.rb
 version.rb
 app_interface.rb 
 jira_interface.rb
 jira_interface.gemspec
 #...etc files, I used bundle's gem command to set up

My main module (jira_interface.rb) looks like this:

require "jira_interface/version"
require "jira"
require "jira_interface/config"
require "jira_interface/app_interface"
module JiraInterface
 def get_jira_client
 @client = Jira::Client.new(USERINFORMATION)
 end
 def get_project(project_name)
 @client.Project.find(project_name)
 end
end

And my app_interface.rb looks like this:

class AppInterface < JiraInterface
 before_filter :get_jira_client
 def create_issue(issue_desc, project)
 issue = @client.Issue.build
 issue.save({"fields"=>{"summary"=> issue_desc, "project"=> {"id" => project.id}, "issuetype"=> {"id"=> "1"}}})
 end
 def update_issue(issue_id)
 issue = @client.Issue.find(issue_id)
 comment = issue.comments.build
 comment.save({"body"=> "This happened again at #{Date.time}"})
 end
 def get_issues(issue_desc, project_name)
 project = get_project(project_name)
 if project.issues.detect { |issue| issue.fields['summary'].include?(issue_desc) }
 update_issue(issue.id)
 else
 create_issue(issue_desc, project)
 end
 end
end

The goal is pretty simple: call get_issues() from the rails app when an error happens. If the error is already documented, post a comment saying that it happened again. If it's not, then create a new issue.

To the best of my knowledge, this should work because I've been following the examples found online. However, I've been having a heck of a time just testing it. If anyone could suggest a good way of testing this, that would be much appreciated.

• CMW: Aside from what I posted in my answer, your approach looks great. Naming could be improved, but like they say, it is hard. Keep the good work up!
• CMW: does my answer help at all? If not, I'd very much appreciate any feedback.

Answer 1

I suggest you take a close look at how the gem you are using is tested . Those tests include mocks for all responses of the API (I assume) and is a good example for testing gems in general.

Notice:

• helper methods in the support folder including shared examples
• mock data to simulate responses from the source API
• custom matchers to make code better readable and reduce repetition of code (DRY-principle)

Those to me are the three most important you should embrace for now.