Controller testing with rpec and factorygirl in Rails 5 - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm attempting to create some controller specs in my Rails 5 app using rspec, but the code keeps throwing the following error:
1) SessionsController Log in and log out logs in with valid user
Failure/Error: user = User.find_by(email: params[:session][:email].downcase)
NoMethodError:
undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass
My spec is pretty straightforward. The user instance variable uses factory-girl to create a user with the email "user#example.com" and password as "password." When I call puts on these variables, I can see that they are set correctly.:
require 'rails_helper'
RSpec.describe SessionsController, type: :controller do
before :each do
#user = create(:user)
end
describe "Log in and log out" do
before :each do
post :create, { session: { email: #user.email,
password: #user.password }}
end
it "logs in with valid user" do
puts #user.email + " " + #user.password
expect(is_logged_in?).to be_truthy
end
end
end
Finally, the code from the sessions controller is below:
class SessionsController < ApplicationController
def new
end
def create
user = User.find_by(email: params[:session][:email].downcase)
if user && user.authenticate(params[:session][:password])
log_in user
remember user
redirect_to user
else
flash.now[:danger] = 'Invalid email/password combination'
render 'new'
end
end
end
Am I misunderstanding the way params are sent to the controller in rspec? Is there any other reason for this error to be returned?

Answer 1

Changes were made in Rails 5 to the way you send params in controller tests.
Instead of:
before :each do
post :create, { session: { email: #user.email,
password: #user.password }}
end
You need to provide the params key in post request attribute hash. Like so...
before :each do
post :create, params: { session: { email: #user.email,
password: #user.password }}
end
It's subtle, but it's different. Let me know if that works.