inline_fixtures

This adds a helper method to your tests so you can insert test records (fixtures) quickly and without fuss. Here's an example:

describe Post do
  describe ".first" do
    it "should find the first post" do
      first_post_id = inline_fixture :posts, :body => "First post!",
                                             :posted_at => "2013-01-15 23:08:12"
      second_post_id = inline_fixture :posts, :body => "Second post!",
                                               :posted_at => "2013-01-15 23:10:53"

      Post.first.id.should == first_post_id
    end
  end
end

That's a trivial example to give you a feel. The real benefit comes when you want to insert whole bunches of records quickly, e.g.:

describe Report do

  describe ".last_3_months_revenue" do
    it "should return the revenue report" do
      account_ids = inline_fixture :accounts, [:name] { [["Example Account 1"], ["Example Account 2"], ["Example Account 3"]] }
      two_months_ago = 2.months.ago.to_s(:db)
      last_month     = 1.month.ago.to_s(:db)
      this_month     = Date.today.to_s(:db)
      inline_fixture :invoices, [:date, :amount, :account_id] do
        [
          [3.months.ago.to_s(:db), "14.00", account_ids[1]],
          [two_months_ago, "27.00", account_ids[0]],
          [two_months_ago, "88.00", account_ids[1]],
          [two_months_ago, "104.00", account_ids[2]],
          [last_month, "30.00", account_ids[0]],
          [last_month, "120.00", account_ids[1]],
          [last_month, "96.00", account_ids[2]],
          [this_month, "63.00", account_ids[0]],
          [this_month, "144.00", account_ids[1]],
          [this_month, "103.00", account_ids[2]]
          [1.months.from_now.to_s(:db), "29.00", account_ids[0]],
        ]
      end
      Report.last_3_months_revenue.should == 775.0
    end
  end

end

Granted this is still a pretty simple example, but the above would result in just 4 inserts, meaning it would be uber fast.