OCMock - "Unexpected Method Invoked" although stubbed - ios

Question

Here is the testing code:
id dataControllerMock = [OCMockObject mockForClass:[RAMImsakyaDataController class]];
[[[dataControllerMock expect] andReturn:dataControllerMock] alloc];
(void)[[[dataControllerMock expect] andReturn:dataControllerMock] init];
[[[dataControllerMock stub] andReturn:#"30.06 , 50.67"] getLocationTitle];
[self.viewController viewDidLoad];
XCTAssertTrue([self.viewController.title isEqualToString:#"30.06 , 50.67"], #"View controller title is wrong");
[dataControllerMock verify];
The problem is that the dataControllerMock causing a failure with "unexpected method invoked: getLocationTitle"! I do stub the method. And even if I change the stub to expect, same thing. When I breakpoint inside viewDidLoad, the mock is already there as expected yet it doesn't recognize the getLocationTitle method.
Update: here is the viewDidLoad code
NSString *location = [self.dataController getLocationTitle];
if (location == nil) {
self.title = #"إمساكية رمضان ١٤٣٥ هـ";
} else {
self.title = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"إمساكية رمضان ١٤٣٥ هـ (توقيت %#)", location];
}

Answer 1

Why not take a different approach and use a partial mock?
RAMImsakyaDataController* realObject = [RAMImsakyaDataController new];
id partialObject = [OCMockObject partialMockForObject:realObject];
[[[partialObject stub] andReturn:#"30.06 , 50.67"] getLocationTitle];
[partialObject viewDidLoad]; // Method under test
XCTAssertTrue([partialObject.title isEqualToString:#"30.06 , 50.67"], #"View controller title is wrong");
I find that trying to mock alloc can lead to difficult behavior.
EDIT
// In MyViewController
- (RAMImsakyaDataController*)dataController {
if (!_dataController) {
_dataController = [[RAMImsakyaDataController alloc] init];
}
return _dataController;
}
Then partial mock the VC and replace this method with one that returns your partially mocked data controller.

Answer 2

My guess is that OCMock is failing to correctly mock the data controller's +alloc method so your view controller is using a real data controller instead of a mock.
I've had a difficult time mocking object creation. What I've ended up doing instead of trying to mock +alloc is putting testability stubs on the objects I want to test that create their dependencies, and then I can use a partial mock of the object under test to override the object creation. Like:
#implementation ViewController
- (void)init {
...
_dataController = [self newDataController];
...
}
- (DataController *)newDataController {
return [[DataController alloc] init];
}
#end
And then in my test
ViewController *underTest = [ViewController alloc];
id mockUnderTest = [OCMockObject partialMockForObject:underTest];
id mockDataController = [OCMockObject niceMockForClass:[DataController class]];
[[[mockUnderTest stub] andReturn:[mockDataController retain]] newDataController];
underTest = [underTest init];