3 files changed, 28 insertions, 18 deletions
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini.rb
index 0513c0d4d0..ccd1349491 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini.rb
@@ -6,15 +6,24 @@ module ActiveSupport
   #   XmlMini.backend = 'LibXML'
   module XmlMini
     extend self
-    delegate :parse, :to => :@backend
 
-    class << self
-      attr_reader :backend
-    end
+    attr_reader :backend
+    delegate :parse, :to => :backend
 
     def backend=(name)
-      require "active_support/xml_mini/#{name.to_s.downcase}.rb"
-      @backend = ActiveSupport.const_get("XmlMini_#{name}")
+      if name.is_a?(Module)
+        @backend = name
+      else
+        require "active_support/xml_mini/#{name.to_s.downcase}.rb"
+        @backend = ActiveSupport.const_get("XmlMini_#{name}")
+      end
+    end
+
+    def with_backend(name)
+      old_backend, self.backend = backend, name
+      yield
+    ensure
+      self.backend = old_backend
     end
   end
 
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/nokogiri.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/nokogiri.rb
index bfafa29dd5..5c8a6bfe89 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/nokogiri.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/xml_mini/nokogiri.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# = XML Mini Nokogiri implementation
+# = XmlMini Nokogiri implementation
 module ActiveSupport
   module XmlMini_Nokogiri #:nodoc:
     extend self
@@ -7,8 +7,11 @@ module ActiveSupport
     # string::
     #   XML Document string to parse
     def parse(string)
-      return {} if string.blank?
-      doc = Nokogiri::XML(string).to_hash
+      if string.blank?
+        {}
+      else
+        Nokogiri::XML(string).to_hash
+      end
     end
 
     module Conversions
diff --git a/activesupport/test/xml_mini/nokogiri_engine_test.rb b/activesupport/test/xml_mini/nokogiri_engine_test.rb
index 5c4002d34e..1ab36785ac 100644
--- a/activesupport/test/xml_mini/nokogiri_engine_test.rb
+++ b/activesupport/test/xml_mini/nokogiri_engine_test.rb
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
 require 'abstract_unit'
 require 'active_support/xml_mini'
 
-
 begin
+  gem 'nokogiri', '>= 1.1.1'
+rescue Gem::LoadError
+  # Skip nokogiri tests
+else
 
 require 'nokogiri'
 
@@ -10,7 +13,7 @@ class NokogiriEngineTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
   include ActiveSupport
 
   def setup
-    @default_backend = XmlMini.backend.to_s.split('_').last
+    @default_backend = XmlMini.backend
     XmlMini.backend = 'Nokogiri'
   end
 
@@ -99,14 +102,9 @@ class NokogiriEngineTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
 
   private
   def assert_equal_rexml(xml)
-    XmlMini.backend = 'REXML'
-    hash = XmlMini.parse(xml)
-
-    XmlMini.backend = 'Nokogiri'
-
+    hash = XmlMini.with_backend('REXML') { XmlMini.parse(xml) }
     assert_equal(hash, XmlMini.parse(xml))
   end
 end
-rescue LoadError
-  # Yay, no errors
+
 end