Correct way to use shared_examples_for

Question

I might have a flawed understanding of what shared_examples_for should do, but hear me out.

Basically, I have a common navigation bar that appears in

Answer 1

Not sure what your issue is really, but how necessary is the describe block in the shared example? That's my first stab.

This code works for me.

shared_examples_for 'all pages' do
  # the following two would be navs for all pages
  it { should have_selector 'h1', text: 'About' }
  it { should have_selector 'a', text: 'Songs' }
  # these would be dynamic depending on the page
  it { should have_selector('h1',    text: header) }
  it { should have_selector('title', text: full_title(title)) }
end

describe "About" do
  before { visit about_path }

  let(:title) {'About'}
  let(:header) {'About Site'}

  it_should_behave_like 'all pages'
end

describe "Songs" do 
  before { visit songs_path }

  let(:title) { 'Songs Title' }
  let(:header) { 'Songs' }

  it_should_behave_like 'all pages'
end

Answer 2

Here's a nice intention-revealing way to bind these things together:

shared_examples_for 'a page with' do |elements|
  # the following two would be navs for a page with
  it { should have_selector 'h1', text: 'About' }
  it { should have_selector 'a', text: 'Songs' }
  # these would be dynamic depending on the page
  it { should have_selector('h1',    text: elements[:header]) }
  it { should have_selector('title', text: full_title(elements[:title])) }
end

describe "About" do
  it_behaves_like 'a page with', title: 'About', header: 'About Header' do
    before { visit about_path }
  end
end

describe "Songs" do 
  it_behaves_like 'a page with', title: 'Songs', header: 'Songs Header' do
    before { visit songs_path }
  end
end