test update request with RSpec failed - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have two problems when I try to test the update action with RSpec, here is the controller file:
#volunteers_controller.rb
module Api
module V1
class VolunteersController < ApplicationController
before_action :find_volunteer, only: %i[show update destroy]
def update
#volunteer.update!(volunteer_params)
head :no_content
end
private
def find_volunteer
#volunteer = Volunteer.find_by!(id: params[:id])
end
def volunteer_params
params.require(:volunteer).permit(:image_url, :name, :job_desc)
end
end
end
end
Here is the test file:
require 'rails_helper'
RSpec.describe Api::V1::VolunteersController, type: :request do
...
describe '#update' do
let(:volunteer) { Volunteer.create!( :image_url=>"first.jpg", :name=>"test1", :job_desc=>"description") }
let(:params){
{:volunteer => {
"image_url"=>"new.jpg",
"name"=>"test1",
"job_desc"=>"description"
}
}
}
it 'updates a certain volunteer' do
patch :patch, :params => params #failed, bad URL
expect(volunteer.image_url).to eq("new.jpg") #failed, still return 'first.jpg'
end
it 'returns a no_content header' do
patch "http://localhost:3000/api/v1/volunteers/#{volunteer.id}", :params => params
expect(response).to have_http_status "204"
end
end
end
private
def json_parse(string)
if string.class==String
json = JSON.parse(string)
end
json
end
So my questions are:
when try to write the URL like this: patch :patch, :params => params, I got the following error:
Api::V1::VolunteersController#update updates a certain volunteer
Failure/Error: patch :patch, :params => params
URI::InvalidURIError:
bad URI(is not URI?): "http://www.example.com:80patch"
How can I change the URL to: "http://localhost:3000/api/v1/volunteers/#{volunteer.id}"?
I manually test the update action, putting a binding.pry in the update action, it does update volunteer subject, however, when it goes back to the test, it shows that it doesn't not get updated, why is that?
Thank you!!

Answer 1

The first problem is really your update method itself and its complete lack of error handling and meaningful feedback to the client. update! will raise ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid if the input is invalid - which is not rescued at all in your controller. And exceptions should no be used for normal code flow - invalid input is not really an exceptional event.
Instead you should rewrite your controller so that it checks if the update is performed and returns the appropriate response:
def update
if #volunteer.update(volunteer_params)
head :no_content
else
head :unprocessable_entity
end
end
As for the spec itself you're mixing up controller specs and request specs. While they look somewhat similar the key difference is that a request spec sends actual HTTP requests your rails server while a controller spec stubs the actual request and passes it to an instance of the controller under test.
In a controller spec you could write:
patch :update, params: { ... }
Because its actually calling the update method on an instance of the controller. But of course:
patch :patch, :params => params #failed, bad URL
Will not work in request spec since its not a valid URL and request specs send actual HTTP requests. Note that you should pass relative URLs and not absolute URLs as the test server may run on a different port then the dev server
# Bad
patch "http://localhost:3000/api/v1/volunteers/#{volunteer.id}", :params => params
# Good
patch "/api/v1/volunteers/#{volunteer.id}", params: params
ActiveRecord models are not "live reloading" - the representation in memory will not automatically be updated when the values in the database are updated. You need to manaully reload the record for that to happen:
it 'updates a certain volunteer' do
patch "/api/v1/volunteers/#{volunteer.id}", params: params
volunteer.reload
expect(volunteer.image_url).to eq("new.jpg")
end
Altogether your spec should actually look something like:
# Describe the endpoint - not the controller implmentation
RSpec.describe "V1 Volunteers API", type: :request do
describe 'PATCH /api/v1/volunteers/:id' do
# use do ... end if the expression does not fit on one line
let(:volunteer) do
# enough with the hashrockets already!
Volunteer.create!(
image_url: "first.jpg",
name: "test1",
job_desc: "description"
)
end
context "with invalid parameters" do
# some set of failing parameters
let(:params) do
{
volunteer: {
name: ""
}
}
end
it "returns unproccessable entity" do
patch "/api/v1/volunteers/#{volunteer.id}", params: params
expect(resonse).to have_http_status :unproccessable_entity
end
it "does not update the volunteer" do
patch "/api/v1/volunteers/#{volunteer.id}", params: params
expect { volunteer.reload }.to_not change(volunteer, :name).to("")
end
end
context "with valid parameters" do
# some set of failing parameters
let(:params) do
{
volunteer: {
image_url: "new.jpg",
name: "test1",
job_desc: "description"
}
}
end
it "returns no content" do
patch "/api/v1/volunteers/#{volunteer.id}", params: params
expect(resonse).to have_http_status :no_content
end
it "updates the volunteer" do
patch "/api/v1/volunteers/#{volunteer.id}", params: params
expect { volunteer.reload }.to change(volunteer, :image_url)
.to("new.jpg")
end
end
end
end