Using Let to build multiple instances of a model - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm trying to run a test on will_paginate. I know that it technically works, but I can't get the spec to work because of my inability to create multiple records. I'm using Capybara and Rspec on with Ruby on Rails.
Here is what I have in my feature spec.
RSpec.describe "Users Index", type: :feature do
describe "Pagination" do
let(:valid_user) { create(:user, name: "Mogli") }
let(:other_user) { create(:user, 50) }
it "successfully paginates" do
log_in_as_feature(valid_user)
visit users_path
puts URI.parse(current_url)
expect(page).to have_css('div.pagination')
expect(page).to have_link(href: user_path(valid_user), text: valid_user.name)
first_page_of_users = User.paginate(page: 1)
first_page_of_users.each do |user|
expect(page).to have_link(href: user_path(user), text: user.name)
unless user == valid_user
expect(page).to have_link(href: user_path(user), text: "delete")
end
end
end
end
end
My factory is simple:
FactoryGirl.define do
sequence(:name) { |n| "Person#{n}" }
factory :user do
name
email { "#{name}#example.com" }
password "foobar"
password_confirmation "foobar"
activated true
activated_at Time.zone.now
end
end
My fourth line is the culprit. It's not actually building the users. I tried to use a FactoryGirl.create(:user, 50), but that ends up breaking 27 tests across the board, and I have to reset the test database.
I don't know how else to create more than one dummy user at once, all the while keeping Mogli as first. Any insight is appreciated.
Edit: If I commented the have_css test, then my tests pass.
Here is the error of the div
1) Users Index Pagination successfully paginates
Failure/Error: expect(page).to have_css('div.pagination')
expected to find css "div.pagination" but there were no matches
# ./spec/features/users_index_spec.rb:13:inblock (3 levels) in '
Finished in 0.82368 seconds (files took 2.17 seconds to load)`
EDIT: adding my partial and index.html.erb view.
My view just renders #users partial
which is:
1 <li>
2 <%= gravatar_for user, size: 50 %>
3 <%= link_to user.name, user %>
4 <% if current_user.admin? && !current_user?(user) %>
5 | <%= link_to "delete", user, method: :delete,
6 data: { confirm: "You sure?" } %>
7 <% end %>
8
9 </li>

Answer 1

Your example has a few issues. As mentioned by others let is lazily evaluated, so to create objects that aren't directly referenced you would need to use let!. Additionally, FactoryGirl's create doesn't take a number of records to produce, you need create_list for that. Finally, Capybara's have_link takes the text of the link you're looking for as the first parameter so there's no need to pass a :text option
RSpec.describe "Users Index", type: :feature do
describe "Pagination" do
let!(:valid_user) { create(:user, name: "Mogli") }
let!(:other_users) { create_list(:user, 50) }
it "successfully paginates" do
log_in_as_feature(valid_user)
visit users_path
puts URI.parse(current_url)
expect(page).to have_css('div.pagination')
expect(page).to have_link(valid_user.name, href: user_path(valid_user))
User.paginate(page: 1).each do |user|
expect(page).to have_link(user.name, href: user_path(user))
expect(page).to have_link("delete", href: user_path(user)) unless user == valid_user
end
end
end

Answer 2

First of all, let is lazy-evaluated. That means it will not be evaluated until the moment you call it in your spec. You don't use other_user in your spec, so it is not evaluated.
Secondly, if you want to create a list of 50 users to set up your spec, use a before block:
before do
# using create_list
create_list(:user, 50)
# OR just
50.times { create(:user) }
end
it "successfully paginates" do
# ...
end

Answer 3

As mentioned already by Jan, let is lazily-evaluated. If you don't use other_user, it will never be created. There's an eager-counterpart, though.
let!(:other_user) { create(:user, 50) }
This one is always created.