RSpec InfiniteRedirectError when visiting root_path - ruby-on-rails

Question

It's with a capybara feature test. I have no before_action filters set in my controller for the root page, so I'm completely stumped by this. Anyone else had the same problem?
The line that causes the error is simply
visit(root_path)
Very weird.
Also, when running just this test on its own, it passes, but when running the whole test suite, it fails with the InfiniteRedirectError.
user_and_role_spec.rb:
require 'rails_helper'
def manually_create_user
visit new_user_registration_path
fill_in('user_first_name', :with => 'Test')
fill_in('user_last_name', :with => 'User')
fill_in('user_email', :with => 'testuser#email.com')
fill_in('user_password', :with => 'testuser')
fill_in('user_password_confirmation', :with => 'testuser')
click_button('Sign up')
end
def create_user_and_login_as(type)
user = FactoryGirl.create(type)
visit(new_user_session_path)
fill_in('user_email', :with => user.email)
fill_in('user_password', :with => user.password)
click_button('Log in')
end
describe 'with users and roles' do
context "if user is not an admin" do
it "makes sure Login/Logout works" do
visit(root_path)
click_link("Sign up")
fill_in('user_email', :with => "testuser#email.com")
fill_in('user_first_name', :with => "Test")
fill_in('user_last_name', :with => "User")
fill_in('user_password', :with => "password")
fill_in('user_password_confirmation', :with => "password")
click_button "Sign up"
expect(current_path).to eq(root_path)
expect(page).to have_content('Welcome! You have signed up successfully.')
end
end
end
static_pages_controller.rb:
class StaticPagesController < ApplicationController
before_action :an_admin?, only: [:admin]
def home
#testimonials = Testimonial.all
end
def admin
#groups = Group.all
#users = User.all
#students = Student.all
#teachers = Teacher.all
end
private
def an_admin?
unless signed_in? && (current_user.admin == true)
redirect_to root_path, notice: "You have to be a signed-in admin to view the admin page"
end
end
end
routes.rb:
Rails.application.routes.draw do
resources :materials
root 'static_pages#home'
devise_for :users, :controllers => { registrations: 'registrations' }
get 'admin' => 'static_pages#admin'
resources :groups
resources :users
resources :students
resources :teachers
resources :testimonials
post 'assign_to_group' => 'students#assign_to_group' # Could have been 'patch', but default in the controller method is 'post', so I left the method as default and changed this route to 'post'. Doesn't NEED to be patch.
post 'remove_from_group' => 'students#remove_from_group'
post 'unassign_teacher' => 'groups#unassign_teacher'
post 'assign_as_student' => 'teachers#assign_as_student'
post 'assign_as_teacher' => 'students#assign_as_teacher'
post 'add_student' => 'groups#add_student'
post 'remove_student_from_group' => 'groups#remove_student_from_group'
end
rails_helper.rb:
# This file is copied to spec/ when you run 'rails generate rspec:install'
ENV['RAILS_ENV'] ||= 'test'
require 'spec_helper'
require File.expand_path('../../config/environment', __FILE__)
require 'rspec/rails'
require 'capybara/rspec'
require 'database_cleaner'
require 'devise'
# Add additional requires below this line. Rails is not loaded until this point!
# Requires supporting ruby files with custom matchers and macros, etc, in
# spec/support/ and its subdirectories. Files matching `spec/**/*_spec.rb` are
# run as spec files by default. This means that files in spec/support that end
# in _spec.rb will both be required and run as specs, causing the specs to be
# run twice. It is recommended that you do not name files matching this glob to
# end with _spec.rb. You can configure this pattern with the --pattern
# option on the command line or in ~/.rspec, .rspec or `.rspec-local`.
#
# The following line is provided for convenience purposes. It has the downside
# of increasing the boot-up time by auto-requiring all files in the support
# directory. Alternatively, in the individual `*_spec.rb` files, manually
# require only the support files necessary.
#
# Dir[Rails.root.join('spec/support/**/*.rb')].each { |f| require f }
# Checks for pending migrations before tests are run.
# If you are not using ActiveRecord, you can remove this line.
ActiveRecord::Migration.maintain_test_schema!
RSpec.configure do |config|
# Remove this line if you're not using ActiveRecord or ActiveRecord fixtures
config.fixture_path = "#{::Rails.root}/spec/fixtures"
# If you're not using ActiveRecord, or you'd prefer not to run each of your
# examples within a transaction, remove the following line or assign false
# instead of true.
config.use_transactional_fixtures = true
# RSpec Rails can automatically mix in different behaviours to your tests
# based on their file location, for example enabling you to call `get` and
# `post` in specs under `spec/controllers`.
#
# You can disable this behaviour by removing the line below, and instead
# explicitly tag your specs with their type, e.g.:
#
# RSpec.describe UsersController, :type => :controller do
# # ...
# end
#
# The different available types are documented in the features, such as in
# https://relishapp.com/rspec/rspec-rails/docs
config.infer_spec_type_from_file_location!
config.include Devise::TestHelpers, :type => :controller
Capybara.register_driver :rack_test do |app|
Capybara::RackTest::Driver.new(app, :respect_data_method => true, :redirect_limit => 20)
end
end
spec_helper.rb:
RSpec.configure do |config|
# rspec-expectations config goes here. You can use an alternate
# assertion/expectation library such as wrong or the stdlib/minitest
# assertions if you prefer.
config.expect_with :rspec do |expectations|
# This option will default to `true` in RSpec 4. It makes the `description`
# and `failure_message` of custom matchers include text for helper methods
# defined using `chain`, e.g.:
# be_bigger_than(2).and_smaller_than(4).description
# # => "be bigger than 2 and smaller than 4"
# ...rather than:
# # => "be bigger than 2"
expectations.include_chain_clauses_in_custom_matcher_descriptions = true
end
# rspec-mocks config goes here. You can use an alternate test double
# library (such as bogus or mocha) by changing the `mock_with` option here.
config.mock_with :rspec do |mocks|
# Prevents you from mocking or stubbing a method that does not exist on
# a real object. This is generally recommended, and will default to
# `true` in RSpec 4.
mocks.verify_partial_doubles = true
end
end
test.log:
Started GET "/" for 127.0.0.1 at 2015-05-19 13:37:49 +0200
Processing by StaticPagesController#home as HTML
Redirected to http://www.example.com/
Filter chain halted as :an_admin? rendered or redirected
Completed 302 Found in 6ms (ActiveRecord: 0.0ms)
Started GET "/" for 127.0.0.1 at 2015-05-19 13:37:49 +0200
Processing by StaticPagesController#home as HTML
Redirected to http://www.example.com/
Filter chain halted as :an_admin? rendered or redirected
Completed 302 Found in 7ms (ActiveRecord: 0.0ms)
Started GET "/" for 127.0.0.1 at 2015-05-19 13:37:49 +0200
Processing by StaticPagesController#home as HTML
Redirected to http://www.example.com/
Filter chain halted as :an_admin? rendered or redirected
...etc etc
To me, this says my before_action in my static_pages_controller kicked in, but I don't understand why it would, given the an_admin? method's code?
UPDATE:
I may be getting close to solving this: static_controller_spec is run before user_and_role_spec when running the full test suite. When I disable static_controller_spec, the user_and_role_spec test runs with no errors when running the whole test suite. The culprit seems to be this line:
controller.class.skip_before_action :an_admin?
This line is in the static_controller_spec:
require "rails_helper.rb"
describe StaticPagesController do
describe "GET #home" do
it "renders the :home view" do
get :home
expect(response).to render_template :home
end
end
describe "GET #admin" do
it "renders the :admin view" do
# This is line 14. The next line is intended to disable the :an_admin? before_action in the controller
controller.class.skip_before_action :an_admin?
get :admin
expect(response).to render_template :admin
# The next line is intended to reverse line 15
controller.class.before_action :an_admin?
end
it "requires user to be signed_in"
it "requires user to be an admin"
end
end
I wanted to disable the before_action for this test. To be honest, I don't really understand that line - it was a straight copy/paste from somewhere. It seems to be messing up my user_and_role_spec test, though, but I don't understand why. Any ideas?

Answer 1

In your user_and_role_spec.rb you have an extra end after the end closing def create_user_and_login_as(type).
You need two end at the bottom of spec to close describe 'with users and roles' do and context "if user is not an admin" do.
In your routes.rb you need an end at the bottom to close Rails.application.routes.draw do
I am not sure if you just did not paste them, but it does matter in your application and it does matter when you post code.

Answer 2

SOLVED:
With reference to the update in my original post, I simply completely removed those two controller.class lines in the static_pages_controller_spec and the whole test suite passes (thank god!). Of course, it does make me wonder why I had those lines in there in the first place - I simply can't remember.
It's all still a bit of a mystery, though, which is why I started this other thread to try to shed some light on it. I know I'm asking for a fair bit of hand-holding here, but any help would be much appreciated. I do study a lot myself, but it's also great to get other people's input too.