If you have a question about Rails testing that starts with "How do I?" or "How does that work?", I want you to be able to find the answer in this book. If you are relatively new to testing Rails programs, and want to get placed on the right track, I want you to find help in this book. If you are a more advanced Rails programmer looking to find best practice for more specific topics, guess what -- I want the answer to be in this book. For a partial table of contexts, see this blog entry.
That's a lot of answers for one book, but you can help tune it -- use the form on the front page to submit a suggestion, or email me. What do you want in a book about Rails testing? What would be most helpful?
Of course, the most useful thing will change over time, which brings us to...
In February, 2008, I released a book, Professional Ruby on Rails, I finished writing the draft of the book in October, turned in the final copy in November. During the course of the book, I wrote against Edge Rails in the hope the book would have a shelf life longer than an artichoke. Then I waited for the inevitable.
As I write this, the book has been in print well under a year, but ensuing plugin, gem, and Rails releases have caused about one-third of the book to be seriously dated. (For example, a chapter on internationalization largely mooted by Rails 2.2, or a chapter on deployment that doesn't mention Phusion Passenger). Now, I still feel that a lot of the structural advice and guidance in the book still holds, but it's going to get harder and harder for a new reader to pull those pieces out of the book.
I don't want that to happen here. I'm planning to continually release updates after the initial release of this book based on user feedback, new releases, me changing my mind, and what have you. I want this to be the resource for testing Rails programs, and I want that to be the case for a long time.
