This post is the optimal configuration I’ve found for such a situation. It uses transactions for your non-Javascript tests, and truncation with the :pre_count option for your Javascript ones. Just drop this file into spec/support/. Aside from rspec, make sure your
dependencies include database_cleaner >= 0.9.1 and capybara-webkit.

Capybara.javascript_driver = :webkit # Selenium works, but not as well

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.use_transactional_fixtures = false

  # Use transactions by default
  config.before :each do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
  end

  # Switch to truncation for javascript tests, but *only clean used tables*
  config.before :each, :js => true do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation, {:pre_count => true}
  end

  config.before :each do
    DatabaseCleaner.start
  end

  config.after :each do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end
end

See on github

Note for Postgres users

Database Cleaner’s :pre_count option has (or had) a bug for Postgres, where it just blew up. I submitted a patch, and it should be in the next release. As of this writing it’s at 0.9.1. So until a higher version is out, you should add database_cleaner to your Gemfile like this:

gem 'database_cleaner', :git => 'git://github.com/bmabey/database_cleaner.git'