Validation failed: Password digest can't be blank - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have seen other threads with similar problems but they don't seem to fix my problem. I am following along with with the tutorial on http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ to get a basic user sign up and login or a different project then that sample one.
Basically when I run rspec I keep getting this error. I have run all my migrations and test prepare. Really stumped with this.
1) User should reject duplicate email addresses
Failure/Error: User.create!(#attr)
ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid:
Validation failed: Password digest can't be blank, Password can't be blank, Password is too short (minimum is 6 characters), Password confirmation can't be blank
# ./spec/models/user_spec.rb:60:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'
2) User should accept valid email addresses
Failure/Error: valid_email_user.should be_valid end
expected #<User id: nil, name: "Example User", email: "user#foo.com", created_at: nil, updated_at: nil, password_digest: nil> to be valid, but got errors: Password digest can't be blank, Password can't be blank, Password is too short (minimum is 6 characters), Password confirmation can't be blank
# ./spec/models/user_spec.rb:48:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'
# ./spec/models/user_spec.rb:46:in `each'
# ./spec/models/user_spec.rb:46:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'
3) User should create a new instance given valid attributes
Failure/Error: User.create!(#attr)
ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid:
Validation failed: Password digest can't be blank, Password can't be blank, Password is too short (minimum is 6 characters), Password confirmation can't be blank
# ./spec/models/user_spec.rb:25:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'
4) User should reject email addresses identical up to case
Failure/Error: User.create!(#attr.merge(:email => upcased_email))
ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid:
Validation failed: Password digest can't be blank, Password can't be blank, Password is too short (minimum is 6 characters), Password confirmation can't be blank
# ./spec/models/user_spec.rb:67:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'
Here is my user_spec
require 'spec_helper'
describe User do
before(:each) do
#attr = { :name => "Example User", :email => "user#example.com" }
end
before do
#user = User.new(name: "Example User", email: "user#example.com",
password: "foobar", password_confirmation: "foobar")
end
subject { #user }
it { should respond_to(:name) }
it { should respond_to(:email) }
it { should respond_to(:password_digest) }
it { should respond_to(:password) }
it { should respond_to(:password_confirmation) }
it { should respond_to(:authenticate) }
it { should be_valid }
it "should create a new instance given valid attributes" do
User.create!(#attr)
end
it "should require a name" do
no_name_user = User.new(#attr.merge(:name => ""))
no_name_user.should_not be_valid
end
it "should require an email address" do
no_email_user = User.new(#attr.merge(:email => ""))
no_email_user.should_not be_valid
end
it "should reject names that are too long" do
long_name = "a" * 51
long_name_user = User.new(#attr.merge(:name => long_name))
long_name_user.should_not be_valid
end
it "should accept valid email addresses" do
addresses = %w[user#foo.com THE_USER#foo.bar.org first.last#foo.jp]
addresses.each do |address|
valid_email_user = User.new(#attr.merge(:email => address))
valid_email_user.should be_valid end
end
it "should reject invalid email addresses" do
addresses = %w[user#foo,com user_at_foo.org example.user#foo.]
addresses.each do |address|
invalid_email_user = User.new(#attr.merge(:email => address))
invalid_email_user.should_not be_valid end
end
it "should reject duplicate email addresses" do
# Put a user with given email address into the database.
User.create!(#attr)
user_with_duplicate_email = User.new(#attr)
user_with_duplicate_email.should_not be_valid
end
it "should reject email addresses identical up to case" do
upcased_email = #attr[:email].upcase
User.create!(#attr.merge(:email => upcased_email))
user_with_duplicate_email = User.new(#attr)
user_with_duplicate_email.should_not be_valid
end
describe "when password is not present" do
before { #user.password = #user.password_confirmation = " " }
it { should_not be_valid }
end
describe "when password doesn't match confirmation" do
before { #user.password_confirmation = "mismatch" }
it { should_not be_valid }
end
describe "when password confirmation is nil" do
before { #user.password_confirmation = nil }
it { should_not be_valid }
end
describe "with a password that's too short" do
before { #user.password = #user.password_confirmation = "a" * 5 }
it { should be_invalid }
end
describe "return value of authenticate method" do
before { #user.save }
let(:found_user) { User.find_by_email(#user.email) }
describe "with valid password" do
it { should == found_user.authenticate(#user.password) }
end
describe "with invalid password" do
let(:user_for_invalid_password) { found_user.authenticate("invalid") }
it { should_not == user_for_invalid_password }
specify { user_for_invalid_password.should be_false }
end
end
end
here is my user model
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accessible :name, :email, :password, :password_confirmation
has_secure_password
before_save { |user| user.email = email.downcase }
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_confirmation, presence: true
end

Answer 1

your validation is broken too, a password and password_confirmation should be required if the user is created but not thereafter
validates :password, presence: true, length: { minimum: 6 }
validates :password_confirmation, presence: true
you will run into problems if you try to update the user later on, say changing its Name, because then it will check for both password and password_confirmation but the user already has a password set stored usually in the password_digist field encrypted by bcrypt but not stored along with password and confirmation in plain text.
I recommend this only to be validated for new records:
validates :password, presence: true, length: { minimum: 6 } if new?
validates :password_confirmation, presence: true if new?

Answer 2

In all the failing tests, you use #attr = { :name => "Example User", :email => "user#example.com" } to create a new user. But to create a new user, you MUST set password and password_confirmation. Add these attributes to the #attr hash. The password_digest field should then be set automatically and it should be possible to save the user.

Answer 3

delete this line
attr_accessible :name, :email, :password, :password_confirmation
It should work now.
This preventes the method rails method password= from being called. (also see secure_password.rb)