factory_girl_example.rb

# This will guess the User class
Factory.define :user do
  first_name 'John'
  last_name  'Doe'
  admin false
end

# This will use the User class (Admin would have been guessed)
Factory.define :admin, :class => User do |u|
  u.first_name 'Admin'
  u.last_name  'User'
  u.admin true
end

# Lazy Attributes:
Factory.define :user do |u|
  # ...
  u.activation_code { User.generate_activation_code }
end

# Dependent Attributes:
Factory.define :user do |u|
  u.first_name 'Joe'
  u.last_name  'Blow'
  u.email {|a| "#{a.first_name}.#{a.last_name}@example.com".downcase }
end

# Associations
Factory.define :post do |p|
  # ...
  p.author {|author| author.association(:user, :last_name => 'Writely') }
end

# Or in short form
Factory.define :post do |p|
  p.association :author, :factory => :user
end

# Defines a new sequence
Factory.sequence :email do |n|
  "person#{n}@example.com" 
end

# Uses the sequence
Factory.next :email
# => "[email protected]"

# Build and save a User instance
Factory(:user)

# Build a User instance and override the first_name property
Factory.build(:user, :first_name => 'Joe')

# Return an attributes Hash that can be used to build a User instance
attrs = Factory.attributes_for(:user)