testing "create" method in ruby with rspec

Question

I have written this controller code in Ruby on Rails

class PostsController < ApplicationController
  before_filter :authenticate_user!

  def index  
    @posts = Post.all(:order => "created_at DESC")  
    respond_to do |format|  
      format.html  
    end  
  end  

  def create  
    @post = Post.create(:message => params[:message])  
    respond_to do |format|  
      if @post.save  
        format.html { redirect_to posts_path }  
        format.js
      else  
        flash[:notice] = "Message failed to save."  
        format.html { redirect_to posts_path }  
      end  
    end  
  end  
end

and corresponding to this I have written the following test case :-

require 'spec_helper'

describe PostsController do
  describe "GET 'index'" do
    it "returns http success" do
      get 'index'
      response.should be_success
    end
  end

  describe "#create" do
    it "creates a successful mesaage post" do
      @post = Post.create(message: "Message")
      @post.should be_an_instance_of Post
    end
  end
end

I am getting failures on both. Please take a look on the code and help me figure out.

Could you include the error messages?

Stefan
– Stefan

2012-07-03 08:17:24 +00:00
Commented Jul 3, 2012 at 8:17 — Stefan
– Stefan, Commented Jul 3, 2012 at 8:17

Tigraine · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-03 08:36:26Z

5

I suspect you are not logged in since you are using Devise?

Maybe you need to include the devise testhelpers:

describe PostsController do
  include Devise::TestHelpers
  before(:each) do
    @user = User.create(...)
    sign_in @user
  end

  #assertions go here
end

answered Jul 3, 2012 at 8:36

Tigraine

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Comments

Adam · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-04 01:40:59Z

1

As Tigraine states, it appears as though you probably are not logged in (with Devise) when the tests get executed. However, showing the failures would help in narrowing down the problem further.

On top of that, the second test isn't really an integration test and I would probably prefer something like the following to test the same condition. There are two types of test you could do:

# inside 'describe "#create"'

let(:valid_params) { {'post' => {'title' => 'Test Post'} }

it 'creates a new Post' do
  expect {
    post :create, valid_params
  }.to change(Post, :count).by(1)
end

# and / or

it 'assigns a new Post' do
  post :create, valid_params
  assigns(:post).should be_a(Post)
  assigns(:post).should be_persisted
end

edited Jul 4, 2012 at 1:40

answered Jul 3, 2012 at 9:03

Adam

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2 Comments

shah khan Over a year ago

It says, NoMethodError: undefined method `symbolize_keys' for "valid_params":String

Adam Over a year ago

Sorry, valid_params should be a hash mirroring a valid set of attributes for your Post model e.g. { 'post' => { 'name' => 'Test' } }

Tom Hert · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-04 05:46:37Z

0

Don't forget to add this line into your spec_helper.rb

require "devise/test_helpers"
include Devise::TestHelpers

Nevertheless, here is link for Devise wiki - How to test Controllers where you can find more info about this approach. I recommend writing the before method without (:each), what I remember it sometimes causes problems.

before do
 @user = FactoryGirl.create(:user)
 sign_in @user
end

Can always use:

puts response.inspect

To see how your response looks like.

answered Jul 4, 2012 at 5:46

Tom Hert

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