controller is Nil in rspec test

Question

I have following RSpec test:

require 'rails_helper'
require 'spec_helper'

RSpec.describe "Users", type: :request do  


  describe "sign in/out" do

    describe "success" do
      it "should sign a user in and out" do
        attr = {:name=>"Test1",
        :email => "[email protected]",
        :password => "foobar",
        :password_confirmation => "foobar"
        }
        user = User.create(attr)
          visit signin_path
        fill_in "Email", :with => user.email
        fill_in "Password", :with => user.password
        puts page.body
        click_button "Sign in"
        controller.should be_signed_in
        click_link "Sign out"
        controller.should_not be_signed_in
      end
    end
  end

end

I am getting the following error:

 Failure/Error: controller.should be_signed_in
   expected  to respond to `signed_in?

This is because controller is nil. What is wrong here which causes controller to be nil?

Controller class is:

class SessionsController < ApplicationController
  def new
    @title = "Sign in"
  end
  def create
    user = User.authenticate(params[:session][:email],
                             params[:session][:password])
    if user.nil?
      flash.now[:error] = "Invalid email/password combination."
      @title = "Sign in"
      render 'new'
    else
      sign_in user
      redirect_to user
    end
  end
  def destroy
    sign_out
    redirect_to root_path
  end
end

signed_in method is defined in session helper which is included.

Ruby platform information: Ruby: 2.0.0p643 Rails: 4.2.1 RSpec: 3.2.2

Frederick Cheung · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-20 16:28:33Z

4

This is a request spec (which is basically a rails integration test) which is designed to span multiple requests, possibly across controllers.

The controller variable is set by the request methods that integration testing provides (get, put, post etc.)

If instead you use the capybara DSL (visit, click etc.) then the integration test methods never get called and accordingly controller will be nil. When using capybara you don't have access to individual controller instances so you can't test things such as what signed_in? returns - you have to test a higher level behaviour (e.g. what is on the page).

answered May 20, 2015 at 16:28

Frederick Cheung

84.3k9 gold badges157 silver badges175 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

doptimusprime Over a year ago

I moved this test case to controller test case.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

controller is Nil in rspec test

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related