18.6. RSpec’s Mocks and Stubs

It’s possible to use a number of mocking frameworks including Mocha, Flexmock, RR, and more. In our examples, however, we’ll use RSpec’s own mocking and stubbing facilities, which are almost the same and equally powerful. Mostly the method names vary.

Mock Objects

To create a mock object, you simply call the mock method anywhere in a spec, and give it a name as an optional parameter. It’s a good idea to give mock objects a name if you will be using more than one of them in your spec. If you use multiple anonymous mocks, you’ll probably have a hard time telling them apart if one fails.