Rails 7: Add from: option to ActiveSupport::TestCase#assert_no_changes

ActiveSupport has a ton of great assertions that make writing tests a joy! One such welcome change is the addition of the from option to assert_no_changes. Let’s have a look at what changed.

Before

To test if an action changes the value of an object, there is a useful assertion that ActiveSupport provides.

assert_changes -> {blog.title} do
	blog.update title: "new title"
end

This assertion has support for from and to parameters as well, making it easier to monitor changes.

assert_changes -> {blog.title}, from: 'original title', to: 'new title' do
	blog.update title: "new title"
end

It is also possible to monitor if the object does not change, using the following assertion,

assert_no_changes -> {blog.category} do
	blog.update title: "new title"
end

However, we were not provided with a from option for this assertion. Hence, asserting that no change occurs from a fixed starting point was not easy to determine.

After

Thanks to this PR, we now have a from option. It makes it easy to assert that no change occurred during a transaction.

assert_no_changes -> {blog.category}, from: blog.category do
	blog.update title: "new title"
end

It permits asserting on the initial value that is expected not to change.