Don't always find factory definitions, as that can be problematic (see http://groups.google.com/group/factory_girl/browse_thread/thread/a6e4d67974fa214?hl=en). Added init.rb to do rails specific factory loading. Factory.find_definition will also check subdirectories for definitions to load.

init.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+config.after_initialize do
+  require 'factory_girl'
+  Factory.definition_file_paths = [
+    File.join(RAILS_ROOT, 'test', 'factories'),
+    File.join(RAILS_ROOT, 'spec', 'factories')
+  ]
+  Factory.find_definitions
+end

lib/factory_girl.rb

@@ -11,6 +11,4 @@ require 'factory_girl/aliases'
 #   Factory(:user, :name => 'Joe')
 def Factory (name, attrs = {})
   Factory.create(name, attrs)
-end
-
-Factory.find_definitions
+end

lib/factory_girl/factory.rb

@@ -182,10 +182,12 @@ class Factory
 
     def find_definitions #:nodoc:
       definition_file_paths.each do |path|
-        begin
-          require(path)
-          break
-        rescue LoadError
+        require("#{path}.rb") if File.exists?("#{path}.rb")
+
+        if File.directory? path
+          Dir[File.join(path, '*.rb')].each do |file|
+            require file
+          end
         end
       end
     end

test/factory_test.rb

@@ -432,21 +432,61 @@ class FactoryTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     end
 
   end
+  
+  def self.context_in_directory_with_files(*files)
+    context "in a directory with #{files.to_sentence}" do
+      setup do
+        @pwd = Dir.pwd
+        @tmp_dir = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), 'tmp')
+        FileUtils.mkdir_p @tmp_dir
+        Dir.chdir(@tmp_dir)
+        
+        files.each do |file|
+          FileUtils.mkdir_p File.dirname(file)
+          FileUtils.touch file
+          Factory.stubs(:require).with(file)
+        end
+      end
+      
+      teardown do
+        Dir.chdir(@pwd)
+        FileUtils.rm_rf(@tmp_dir)
+      end
 
-  Factory.definition_file_paths.each do |file|
-    should "automatically load definitions from #{file}.rb" do
-      Factory.stubs(:require).raises(LoadError)
+      yield
+    end
+  end
+  
+  def self.should_require_definitions_from(file)
+    should "load definitions from #{file}" do
       Factory.expects(:require).with(file)
       Factory.find_definitions
+    end    
+  end
+  
+  context_in_directory_with_files 'factories.rb' do
+    should_require_definitions_from 'factories.rb'
+  end
+  
+  %w(spec test).each do |dir|
+    context_in_directory_with_files File.join(dir, 'factories.rb') do
+      should_require_definitions_from "#{dir}/factories.rb"
+    end
+
+    context_in_directory_with_files File.join(dir, 'factories', 'post_factory.rb') do
+      should_require_definitions_from "#{dir}/factories/post_factory.rb"
+    end
+
+    context_in_directory_with_files File.join(dir, 'factories', 'post_factory.rb'), File.join(dir, 'factories', 'person_factory.rb') do
+      should_require_definitions_from "#{dir}/factories/post_factory.rb"
+      should_require_definitions_from "#{dir}/factories/person_factory.rb"
+    end
+
+    context_in_directory_with_files File.join(dir, 'factories.rb'), File.join(dir, 'factories', 'post_factory.rb'), File.join(dir, 'factories', 'person_factory.rb') do
+      should_require_definitions_from "#{dir}/factories.rb"
+      should_require_definitions_from "#{dir}/factories/post_factory.rb"
+      should_require_definitions_from "#{dir}/factories/person_factory.rb"
     end
   end
 
-  should "only load the first set of factories detected" do
-    first, second, third = Factory.definition_file_paths
-    Factory.expects(:require).with(first).raises(LoadError)
-    Factory.expects(:require).with(second)
-    Factory.expects(:require).with(third).never
-    Factory.find_definitions
-  end
-
 end