DRY rspec syntax for controller specs

Question

Typically in my controller specs I'll do something like this:

describe MyController do
  describe 'POST #create' do
    let!(:my_model) { initialize_something_here }

    before :each do
      post :create, my_model: my_model
    end

    it 'should be successful' do
      response.should be_successful
    end

    ... more tests ...
  end
end

My question is, when I do assertions that use an expect block such as checking that the count of items in the database is incremented after a create, I have to remove the post call from the before :each block, like this and repeat it for each it statement:

describe MyController do
  describe 'POST #create' do
    let!(:my_model) { initialize_something_here }

      it 'should insert into database' do
        expect { post :create, my_model: my_model }.to change(MyModel, :count).by(1)
      end

      it 'should be successful' do
        post :create, my_model: my_model
        response.should be_successful
      end

      ... more tests ...
    end
  end

Is there a DRY-er way to do the post call?

Ismael · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-12 19:22:25Z

2

I believe you can use a lambda for that maybe in a let

  let(:post_create_model) { -> { post :create, my_model }}

  it 'should insert into database' do
     expect(post_create_model).to change(MyModel, :count).by(1)
  end

  it 'should be successful' do
    post_create_model.call
    response.should be_successful
  end

edited Jun 12, 2013 at 19:22

answered Jan 18, 2013 at 23:47

Ismael

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2 Comments

Shane Andrade Over a year ago

I suppose that could work... I was hoping there was a more concise or built-in way to do something like that.

Philipp Over a year ago

Nice tip! Though could it be that the expect should be like this: expect(post_create_model).to change... (note the brackets)?

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