Testing Events

Event testing covers two things separately: that a service emits the right events, and that an Event class invokes the right services when an event fires. Testing them independently means you can refactor either side with clear feedback about what changed.

Testing that a service emits events

Use the emit_event matcher to assert a service emits an event on success or failure:

RSpec.describe Treasury::TransferGold::Service do
  let(:from_account) { create(:account, balance: 1000) }
  let(:to_account) { create(:account, balance: 500) }

  it "emits gold_transferred on success" do
    expect {
      described_class.call(
        from_account: from_account,
        to_account: to_account,
        gold_dragons: 50
      )
    }.to emit_event(:gold_transferred_event)
  end

  it "emits with the transfer amount in the payload" do
    expect {
      described_class.call(
        from_account: from_account,
        to_account: to_account,
        gold_dragons: 50
      )
    }.to emit_event(:gold_transferred_event).with(hash_including(transferred: 50))
  end
end

You can also pass an Event class instead of a symbol:

expect {
  described_class.call(
    from_account: from_account,
    to_account: to_account,
    gold_dragons: 50
  )
}.to emit_event(GoldTransferredEvent)

Testing Event classes

Event classes are tested by calling their handle class method with a payload. Services declared with enqueue are always enqueued, so assert with the .async chain — call_service without it asserts a synchronous .call, which an Event class never makes:

RSpec.describe GoldTransferredEvent do
  let(:payload) do
    {
      transferred: 50,
      from_balance: 950,
      to_balance: 550
    }
  end

  it "enqueues Ledger::RecordEntry" do
    expect {
      described_class.handle(payload)
    }.to call_service(Ledger::RecordEntry::Service).async
  end

  it "enqueues it with the expected arguments" do
    expect {
      described_class.handle(payload)
    }.to call_service(Ledger::RecordEntry::Service).async.with(
      transferred: payload[:transferred]
    )
  end
end

Chaining

.async and .with can be combined:

expect {
  described_class.handle(payload)
}.to call_service(Ravens::SendReceipt::Service).async
  .with(amount: 50)
  .async

Testing conditional invocations

When an Event class uses if: or unless: conditions, test both paths:

RSpec.describe GoldTransferredEvent do
  context "when transfer exceeds 100 gold dragons" do
    let(:payload) { { transferred: 150, from_balance: 850, to_balance: 650 } }

    it "dispatches a raven" do
      expect {
        described_class.handle(payload)
      }.to call_service(Ravens::DispatchMessage::Service).async
    end
  end

  context "when transfer is 100 or less" do
    let(:payload) { { transferred: 50, from_balance: 950, to_balance: 550 } }

    it "does not dispatch a raven" do
      expect {
        described_class.handle(payload)
      }.not_to call_service(Ravens::DispatchMessage::Service).async
    end
  end
end