getting_started.md

Install it

[sudo] gem install vcr
[sudo] gem install fakeweb

Configure it

Create a file named vcr_setup.rb with content like:

require 'vcr'

VCR.config do |c|
  c.cassette_library_dir = 'vcr_cassettes'
  c.stub_with :fakeweb
  c.default_cassette_options = { :record => :once }
end

Ensure this file is required by your test suite before any of the tests are run.

Use it

Run your tests. Any tests that make HTTP requests using Net::HTTP will raise errors like:

FakeWeb::NetConnectNotAllowedError: Real HTTP connections are disabled.
Unregistered request: GET http://example.com/.
You can use VCR to automatically record this request and replay it later.
For more details, visit the VCR documentation at: http://relishapp.com/myronmarston/vcr

Find one of these tests (preferably one that uses the same HTTP method and request URL every time--if not, you'll have to configure the request matcher). Wrap the body of it (or at least the code that makes the HTTP request) in a VCR.use_cassette block:

VCR.use_cassette('whatever cassette name you want') do
   # the body of the test would go here...
end

Run this test. It will record the HTTP request to disk as a cassette (a test fixture), with content like:

--- 
- !ruby/struct:VCR::HTTPInteraction 
  request: !ruby/struct:VCR::Request 
    method: :get
    uri: http://example.com:80/
    body: 
    headers: 
  response: !ruby/struct:VCR::Response 
    status: !ruby/struct:VCR::ResponseStatus 
      code: 200
      message: OK
    headers: 
      content-type: 
      - text/html;charset=utf-8
      content-length: 
      - "26"
    body: This is the response body.
    http_version: "1.1"

Disconnect your computer from the internet. Run the test again. It should pass since VCR is automatically replaying the recorded response when the request is made.