Rails Capybara Test has empty Instance Variable - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have a controller sending in a list of vendors to my controller, and on normal view it's working fine.
class VendorsController < ApplicationController
respond_to :html, :json
def index
#vendor_categories = VendorCategory.where(:is_top_level => true)
#vendors = Vendor.includes(:vendor_tier, :vendor_categorizations, :vendor_categories).order('vendor_tier_id DESC, name ASC')
respond_with #vendors
end
end
In my view I have the following two lines:
= debug #vendors
= debug current_user.user_vendor_choices
which, again, are working if I view it in the browser. However, if I test it with Capybara and RSpec, it's empty.
require 'spec_helper'
describe 'Vendors' do
before do
category = create(:vendor_category)
5.times do
vendor = create(:vendor)
vendor_categorization = create(:vendor_categorization, vendor: vendor, vendor_category: category)
p vendor
p category
p vendor_categorization
end
visit signup_path
#new_user = sign_up
end
before(:each) do
visit destroy_user_session_path
visit new_user_session_path
sign_in #new_user
visit vendors_path
end
it 'should save selected vendors', js: true do
p Vendor.includes(:vendor_tier, :vendor_categorizations, :vendor_categories).order('vendor_tier_id DESC, name ASC').count
end
end
Vendor.all and the above Vendor.includes... both return values, but for some reason in my test it's not showing anything... getting a Capybara::Element not found.
UPDATE
For testing purposes, I created the Vendors directly with the controller:
def index
#vendor_categories = VendorCategory.where(:is_top_level => true)
4.times do
Vendor.create({name: 'Test McTesterson', vendor_tier_id: 1})
end
#vendors = Vendor.includes(:vendor_tier, :vendor_categorizations, :vendor_categories).order('vendor_tier_id DESC, name ASC')
respond_with #vendors
end
Spec passes. What the--? This must be a FactoryGirl issue, or for some reason my records are deleted before it can run the test? Consoling the objects after I create them is showing a record with an ID, which I guess doesn't prove that it's putting them in the database...

Answer 1

Turns out my Database Cleaner activities defined in my spec_helper were a little too vigorous. I had:
RSpec.configure do |config|
config.use_transactional_fixtures = false
config.before(:suite) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
end
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.start
end
config.after(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
end
I had to get rid of the second chunk, so it now reads:
RSpec.configure do |config|
config.use_transactional_fixtures = false
config.before(:suite) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
end
end
And it works! Not really sure why... any ideas (aside from the obvious, before it was calling database cleaner before/after each test)?

Answer 2

Hi I cursorily glanced at this question, not sure you even need the help anymore, but I think the reason this is failing is a fundamental set up issue that your answer is just patching around.
When you're running a js: true spec (by the way, js: true should be on the describe line, not the it line), short version, Capybara works in different threads, so instance variables created in a before block, unlike with regular Rspec testing, are not available in the spec. To make them available, you have to use a truncation cleaning strategy.
RSpec.configure do |config|
config.use_transactional_fixtures = false
config.before(:each, js: true) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
end
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.start
end
config.after(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
end
TL;DR when running a js test, truncation is basically required (unless obviously you're running js tests that don't require any database interactions). When running all other tests, use transactions (because it's also much faster). I guess your answer replicated this to some extent =)