FixturesEdit
Fixtures, in Rails parlance, are files containing sample data to be inserted into the test database for testing purposes.
Set up and tear down
It is important not to be mislead by the example on the RSpec website:
fixtures :people, :animals
before(:each) do
# fixtures are setup before this
end
after(:each) do
# fixtures are torn down after this
end
It is true that they are "set up" by the time you hit the before block. That is, the data is in the database (most likely, inserted when the fixtures method is first encountered) and the local variable for accessing them is set-up (people).
But what you may think from the example is that after the after block they get removed from the database. This is not the case. I don’t know what "torn down" actually means in this context; I suspect it means that the contents of the local people variable get cleaned out or reset.
If you run your specs and then check the database you’ll see that the fixture data is still present, and the "tear down" does not include wiping clean the database.
But note that the specs are run inside a database transaction; on leaving the describe block the contents of the database will revert back to how things were when the fixtures were first declared.