Why does this RSpec pass in one file and fail in another? - ruby-on-rails

Question

My Rails project's 'spec' folder contains the following:
1) a 'controllers' subfolder with:
a) a 'pages_controller' spec file (with corresponding "describe PagesController do" statement):
require 'spec_helper'
describe PagesController do
render_views
before(:each) do
#base_title = "Ruby on Rails Tutorial Sample App | "
end
describe "GET 'home'" do
it "should be successful" do
get 'home'
response.should be_success
end
it "should have the right title" do
get 'home'
response.should have_selector("title", content: #base_title+"Home")
end
end
describe "GET 'contact'" do
it "should be successful" do
get 'contact'
response.should be_success
end
it "should have the right title" do
get 'contact'
response.should have_selector("title", content: #base_title+"Contact")
end
end
describe "GET 'about'" do
it "should be successful" do
get 'about'
response.should be_success
end
it "should have the right title" do
get 'about'
response.should have_selector("title", content: #base_title+"About")
end
end
describe "GET 'help'" do
it "should be successful" do
get 'help'
response.should be_success
end
it "should contain the right title" do
get 'help'
response.should have_selector("title", content: #base_title+"Help")
end
end
end
b) a 'users_controller' spec file (with corresponding "describe UsersController do" statement):
require 'spec_helper'
describe UsersController do
render_views
describe "GET '/new'" do
it "should be successful" do
get 'new'
response.should be_success
end
it "should have the right title" do
get 'new'
response.should have_selector("title", content: "Sign up")
end
end
end
2) a 'requests' subfolder with the following 'layout_links' spec file:
require 'spec_helper'
describe "LayoutLinks" do
it "should have a Home page at '/'" do
get '/'
response.should have_selector('title', content: 'Home')
end
it "should have a Contact page at '/content'" do
get '/contact'
response.should have_selector('title', content: 'Contact')
end
it "should have an About page at '/about'" do
get '/about'
response.should have_selector('title', content: 'About')
end
it "should have a Help page at '/help'" do
get '/help'
response.should have_selector('title', content: 'Help')
end
it "should have a signup page at '/signup'" do
get '/signup'
response.should have_selector("title", content: "Sign up")
end
end
I initially added the following code to my "users_controller" file:
it "should have a signup page at '/signup'" do
get '/signup'
response.should have_selector("title", content: "Sign up")
end
The test failed when I ran it, but when I added it to the 'layout_links' spec file, it passed. This tells me that I am missing some fundamental aspect of RSpec and/or integration testing. Am happy to re-word this question to make it more universal, if necessary.

Answer 1

Your hunch is correct, there is some convention over configuration going on here.
Controller tests will work off the controller specified. So your PagesController test will work off...well, the PagesController. So the get 'home' line will try to get the home action in your Pages controller, the Pages controller is assume for all of those tests. Unless your Pages controller has a signup action it will error.
The requests type tests are for integration tests and don't assume a controller.