class Timecop
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Wrapper class for manipulating the extensions to the Time, Date, and DateTime objects
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Allows us to “freeze” time in our Ruby applications.
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Optionally allows time travel to simulate a running clock, such time is not technically frozen.
This is very useful when your app's functionality is dependent on time (e.g. anything that might expire). This will allow us to alter the return value of Date.today, Time.now, and DateTime.now, such that our application code never has to change.
Constants
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Public Instance Methods
# File lib/timecop/timecop.rb, line 76 def baseline instance.send(:baseline) end
# File lib/timecop/timecop.rb, line 80 def baseline=(baseline) instance.send(:baseline=, baseline) end
Allows you to run a block of code and “fake” a time throughout the execution of that block. This is particularly useful for writing test methods where the passage of time is critical to the business logic being tested. For example:
joe = User.find(1) joe.purchase_home() assert !joe.mortgage_due? Timecop.freeze(2008, 10, 5) do assert joe.mortgage_due? end
freeze and travel will respond to several different arguments:
When a block is also passed, Time.now, DateTime.now and Date.today are all reset to their previous values after the block has finished executing. This allows us to nest multiple calls to #travel and have each block maintain it's concept of “now.”
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Note: #freeze will actually freeze time. This can cause unanticipated problems if benchmark or other timing calls are executed, which implicitly expect Time to actually move forward.
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Rails Users: Be especially careful when setting this in your development environment in a rails project. Generators will load your environment, including the migration generator, which will lead to files being generated with the timestamp set by the #freeze call in your dev environment
Returns the value of the block if one is given, or the mocked time.
# File lib/timecop/timecop.rb, line 49 def freeze(*args, &block) send_travel(:freeze, *args, &block) end
Reverts back to system's Time.now, Date.today and DateTime.now (if it exists) permamently when no block argument is given, or temporarily reverts back to the system's time temporarily for the given block.
# File lib/timecop/timecop.rb, line 87 def return(&block) if block_given? instance.send(:return, &block) else instance.send(:unmock!) nil end end
# File lib/timecop/timecop.rb, line 96 def return_to_baseline instance.send(:return_to_baseline) Time.now end
# File lib/timecop/timecop.rb, line 105 def safe_mode=(safe) @safe_mode = safe end
# File lib/timecop/timecop.rb, line 109 def safe_mode? false || @safe_mode end
Allows you to run a block of code and “scale” a time throughout the execution of that block. The first argument is a scaling factor, for example:
Timecop.scale(2) do ... time will 'go' twice as fast here end
See #freeze for exact usage of the other arguments
Returns the value of the block if one is given, or the mocked time.
# File lib/timecop/timecop.rb, line 72 def scale(*args, &block) send_travel(:scale, *args, &block) end
Allows you to run a block of code and “fake” a time throughout the execution of that block. See #freeze for a sample of how to use (same exact usage syntax)
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Note: #travel will not freeze time (as opposed to #freeze). This is a particularly good candidate for use in environment files in rails projects.
Returns the value of the block if one is given, or the mocked time.
# File lib/timecop/timecop.rb, line 60 def travel(*args, &block) send_travel(:travel, *args, &block) end
Private Instance Methods
# File lib/timecop/timecop.rb, line 114 def send_travel(mock_type, *args, &block) val = instance.send(:travel, mock_type, *args, &block) block_given? ? val : Time.now end