Rspec similar code for testing DELETE request gives different results - ruby-on-rails

Question

Following Michael Hartl's book on Ruby on Rails, I can't seem to understand why one of the tests pass and another fails, considering they do mostly the same. This derives from testing UsersController#destroy from Exercise 9.6-9.
This is my spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb:
require 'spec_helper'
describe "User pages" do
subject { page }
describe "index" do
let(:user){ FactoryGirl.create(:user) }
#before/after ALL TESTS, not USERS
before(:all){ 30.times {FactoryGirl.create(:user) }}
after(:all) {User.delete_all}
#before EACH TEST, no user
before(:each) do
valid_signin user
visit users_path
end
describe "delete links" do
it { should_not have_link('delete') }
describe "as an admin user" do
let(:admin) { FactoryGirl.create(:admin) }
let(:non_admin) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }
before do
valid_signin admin
visit users_path
end
it "should be able to delete another user" do
expect { delete user_path(user) }.to change(User, :count).by(-1)
end
.
.
.
end
And this is my spec/requests/authentication_pages_spec.rb:
require 'spec_helper'
describe "AuthenticationPages" do
subject{ page }
describe "signin page" do
before { visit signin_path }
it { should have_selector('h1',text: 'Sign in') }
it { should have_selector('title', text: full_title('Sign in')) }
end
describe "signin" do
before { visit signin_path }
#INVALID INFO
describe "with invalid information" do
before { click_button "Sign in"}
it{ should have_selector('title', text: 'Sign in')}
#it{ should have_selector('div.alert.alert-error', text: 'Invalid')}
it{ should have_error_message('Invalid')}
describe "after visiting another page" do
before { click_link "Home" }
#it{ should_not have_selector('div.alert.alert-error')}
it{ should_not have_error_message()}
#exercise 9.6-3
it{ should_not have_link('Profile')}
it{ should_not have_link('Settings')}
end
end
#VALID INFO
describe "with valid information" do
let(:user) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }
before{ valid_signin(user) }
it{ should have_selector('title', text: user.name)}
it{ should have_link('Users', href: users_path)}
it{ should have_link('Profile', href: user_path(user))}
it{should have_link('Settings', href: edit_user_path(user))}
it{ should have_link('Sign out', href: signout_path)}
it{ should_not have_selector('Sign in', href:signin_path)}
describe "followed by signout" do
before{click_link "Sign out"}
it{ should have_link('Sign in') }
end
#Exercise 9.6-6
describe "accessing new and create actions" do
describe "through website" do
before{visit signup_path}
it{ should_not have_selector('h1',text:"Sign up")}
it{ should_not have_button("Create my account")}
end
describe "through a POST request" do
before { post users_path}
specify { response.should redirect_to(root_path)}
end
end
end
end
describe "authorization" do
describe "as non-admin user" do
let(:admin) {FactoryGirl.create(:admin)}
let(:non_admin) {FactoryGirl.create(:user)}
before{valid_signin non_admin}
#Check that loggin to nonadmin works(debug ex.9.6-9)
describe "should render the non-admin profile page" do
it{ should have_selector('title', text: non_admin.name)}
end
describe "submitting a DELETE request to the Users#destroy action" do
before do
delete user_path(admin)
#puts response.message
#puts response.success?
end
specify{ response.should redirect_to(root_path) }
specify{ response.should_not be_success }
end
end
#Exercise 9.6-9 prevent admin from destroying himself
describe "as admin user" do
let(:user){FactoryGirl.create(:user)}
let(:admin){FactoryGirl.create(:admin)}
let(:non_admin){FactoryGirl.create(:user)}
before do
valid_signin admin
visit users_path
end
it "should be able to delete another user" do
expect { delete user_path(user) }.to change(User, :count).by(-1)
end
.
.
.
end
I know from interacting with the application that deleting users does work, the problem is with testing it.The test of interest here is the one described as "should be able to delete another user", which is the same in both files user_pages_spec.rb and authentication_pages_spec.rb.
There's two things I cannot seem to understand:
At user_pages_spec.rb the test with expect { delete user_path(user) }.to change(User,:count).by(-1) does pass, however if I change it to expect { delete user_path(non_admin) }.to change(User,:count).by(-1), it fails. Why is that? They are both created with the same factory parameters.
Why is the test in the authentication_pages_spec.rb never passing? No matter whether it's user_path(user) or user_path(non_admin).
This is my factory:
FactoryGirl.define do
factory :user do
sequence(:name){ |n| "Person #{n}" }
sequence(:email){ |n| "person_#{n}#example.com"}
password "foobar"
password_confirmation "foobar"
factory :admin do
admin true
end
end
end
Here my users_controller.rb:
class UsersController < ApplicationController
before_filter :signed_in_user, only: [:index, :edit, :update]
before_filter :correct_user, only: [:edit, :update]
before_filter :admin_user, only: [:destroy]
def new
#change for exercise 9.6-6
if signed_in?
redirect_to root_path
else
#user=User.new
end
end
def show
#user=User.find(params[:id])
end
def create
if signed_in?
redirect_to root_path
else
#user = User.new(params[:user])
if #user.save
sign_in #user
flash[:success]="Welcome to the Sample App!"
# Handle a successful save.
redirect_to #user
else
render 'new'
end
end
end
def edit
##user= User.find(params[:id]) <----we can delete this because the before filter correct_user now defines #user variable
end
def update
##user = User.find(params[:id])
if #user.update_attributes(params[:user])
# Handle a successful update.
flash[:success]="Profile updated"
sign_in #user
redirect_to #user
else
render 'edit'
end
end
def index
##users= User.all
#users= User.paginate(page: params[:page])
end
def destroy
puts "The current user is:"+current_user.name
puts "Is user admin?:"+current_user.admin.to_s
User.find(params[:id]).destroy
flash[:success]="User destroyed."
redirect_to users_path
end
private
def signed_in_user
unless signed_in?
store_location
redirect_to signin_path, notice: "Please sign in."
end
end
def correct_user
#user =User.find(params[:id])
redirect_to(root_path) unless current_user?(#user)
end
def admin_user
redirect_to(root_path) unless current_user.admin?
end
end
And the model user.rb:
# == Schema Information
#
# Table name: users
#
# id :integer not null, primary key
# name :string(255)
# email :string(255)
# created_at :datetime not null
# updated_at :datetime not null
#
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :email, :name, :password, :password_confirmation
has_secure_password
before_save { self.email.downcase! }
#callback for session token generation
before_save :create_remember_token
validates :name, presence: true, length: {maximum: 50}
VALID_EMAIL_REGEX = /\A[\w+\-.]+#[a-z\d\-.]+\.[a-z]+\z/i
validates :email, presence: true, format: { with: VALID_EMAIL_REGEX }, uniqueness: { case_sensitive: false}
#validates :password, presence: true, length:{minimum:6}
validates :password, length:{minimum:6}
validates :password_confirmation, presence: true
private
def create_remember_token
self.remember_token=SecureRandom.urlsafe_base64
end
end
This is the support file where valid_signin is defined:
include ApplicationHelper
def valid_signin(user)
visit signin_path
fill_in "Email", with: user.email
fill_in "Password", with: user.password
click_button "Sign in"
# Sign in when not using Capybara as well.
cookies[:remember_token] = user.remember_token
end
def valid_signup(user)
fill_in "Name", with: user.name
fill_in "Email", with: user.email
fill_in "Password", with: user.password
fill_in "Confirm Password", with: user.password_confirmation
#click_button "Sign in"
end
RSpec::Matchers.define :have_error_message do |message|
match do |page|
page.should have_selector('div.alert.alert-error', text: message)
end
end
RSpec::Matchers.define :have_success_message do |message|
match do |page|
page.should have_selector('div.alert.alert-success', text: message)
end
end
"
Note to others: This is a follow-on to Rails response.should be_success is never true
"
Edit
This is the SessionsHelper( spec/helpers/sessions_helper.rb):
module SessionsHelper
def sign_in(user)
cookies.permanent[:remember_token]=user.remember_token
current_user=user
end
def signed_in?
!current_user.nil?
end
def current_user=(user)
#current_user = user
end
def current_user
#current_user ||= User.find_by_remember_token(cookies[:remember_token])
end
def current_user?(user)
user == current_user
end
def sign_out
current_user=nil
cookies.delete(:remember_token)
end
def redirect_back_or(default)
redirect_to(session[:return_to] || default)
session.delete(:return_to)
end
def store_location
session[:return_to] = request.fullpath
end
end
EDIT 2 Added puts to UsersController#destroy.
This is the output for the different test running:
rspec on spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb trying to delete user:
..The current user is: Person 35
Is user admin?: true
..
Finished in 8.16 seconds
4 examples, 0 failures
rspec on spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb trying to delete non_admin:
The current user is: Person 35
Is user admin?: true
F.
Failures:
1) User pages index delete links as an admin user should be able to delete another user
Failure/Error: expect { delete user_path(non_admin) }.to change(User, :count).by(-1)
count should have been changed by -1, but was changed by 0
# ./spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb:48:in `block (5 levels) in <top (required)>'
rspec on spec/requests/authentication_pages_spec.rb trying to delete either user or non_admin:
Run options: include {:full_description=>/(?-mix:as\ admin\ user)/}
The current user is: Person 1
Is user admin?: true
FThe current user is: Person 3
Is user admin?: true
FThe current user is: Person 5
Is user admin?: true
.
Failures:
1) AuthenticationPages authorization as admin user should be able to delete another user
Failure/Error: expect { delete user_path(user) }.to change(User, :count).by(-1)
count should have been changed by -1, but was changed by 0
# ./spec/requests/authentication_pages_spec.rb:99:in `block (4 levels) in <top (required)>'
I'm still not sure why it does it three times, one for each let(...)?
Final Edit
See solution as last answer.

Answer 1

In response to your first question, the difference between user and non-admin is that you logged in as user in the outer describe block. If your subsequent attempt to log-in as admin is failing and you remain logged in as user, that would explain the behavior you're seeing. You haven't provided the definition of valid_signin, but if it doesn't work independent of whether you are already signed in and have navigated to the sign in page, then this would explain what's going on.
Similarly, your authentication_pages_spec.rb examples rely entirely on valid_signin working successfully. While you haven't logged in previously in this example, you haven't done any navigation either, so if valid_signin is a simple form fill-in (as it was defined in the 3.2 version of the tutorial at http://ruby.railstutorial.org/book/ruby-on-rails-tutorial?version=3.2), then that would explain why it's failing in this case.
As an aside, if you're mixing 3.2 code snippets with 4.0 code snippets, you're going to encounter a lot of problems.
Note to others: This is a follow-on to Rails response.should be_success is never true

Answer 2

Well, apparently I managed to solve the issue. The root of the problem was that let(...) is lazily evaluated, which means that "it is not evaluated until the first time
the method it defines is invoked.". Documentation here.
Instead, let!(..:) can be used to force its evaluation. I have to thank NemesisD at the channel #rubyonrails for pointing this out, and also Peter Alfvin here on Stackoverflow.
The final code with tests passing looks like(see change from let to let!):
require 'spec_helper'
describe "AuthenticationPages" do
subject{ page }
describe "signin page" do
before { visit signin_path }
it { should have_selector('h1',text: 'Sign in') }
it { should have_selector('title', text: full_title('Sign in')) }
end
describe "signin" do
before { visit signin_path }
#INVALID INFO
describe "with invalid information" do
before { click_button "Sign in"}
it{ should have_selector('title', text: 'Sign in')}
#it{ should have_selector('div.alert.alert-error', text: 'Invalid')}
it{ should have_error_message('Invalid')}
describe "after visiting another page" do
before { click_link "Home" }
#it{ should_not have_selector('div.alert.alert-error')}
it{ should_not have_error_message()}
#exercise 9.6-3
it{ should_not have_link('Profile')}
it{ should_not have_link('Settings')}
end
end
#VALID INFO
describe "with valid information" do
let(:user) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }
before{ valid_signin(user) }
it{ should have_selector('title', text: user.name)}
it{ should have_link('Users', href: users_path)}
it{ should have_link('Profile', href: user_path(user))}
it{should have_link('Settings', href: edit_user_path(user))}
it{ should have_link('Sign out', href: signout_path)}
it{ should_not have_selector('Sign in', href:signin_path)}
describe "followed by signout" do
before{click_link "Sign out"}
it{ should have_link('Sign in') }
end
#Exercise 9.6-6
describe "accessing new and create actions" do
describe "through website" do
before{visit signup_path}
it{ should_not have_selector('h1',text:"Sign up")}
it{ should_not have_button("Create my account")}
end
describe "through a POST request" do
before { post users_path}
specify { response.should redirect_to(root_path)}
end
end
end
end
describe "authorization" do
describe "as non-admin user" do
let(:admin) {FactoryGirl.create(:admin)}
let(:non_admin) {FactoryGirl.create(:user)}
before{valid_signin non_admin}
#Check that loggin to nonadmin works(debug ex.9.6-9)
describe "should render the non-admin profile page" do
it{ should have_selector('title', text: non_admin.name)}
end
describe "submitting a DELETE request to the Users#destroy action" do
before do
delete user_path(admin)
#puts response.message
#puts response.success?
end
specify{ response.should redirect_to(root_path) }
specify{ response.should_not be_success }
end
end
#Exercise 9.6-9 prevent admin from destroying himself
describe "as admin user" do
let!(:user){FactoryGirl.create(:user)}
let!(:admin){FactoryGirl.create(:admin)}
let!(:non_admin){FactoryGirl.create(:user)}
before{ valid_signin admin }
it "should be able to delete another user" do
expect { delete user_path(user) }.to change(User, :count).by(-1)
end
.
.
.
end