Rspec test failing when output indicates it should pass - ruby-on-rails

Question

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Edit/Update
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Ok, I fixed the tests that were failing to pass by appending a ".to_s" to each user.password_digest in the change blocks. I assume this is working because before user.password_digest was sort of like a pointer, and calling "to_s" forces the test to compare the string values. If anyone can explain why the test compares the pointer and not the value, please enlighten me.
After adding the .to_s calls (added everywhere I was expecting a user attribute to change), Failure #3 is still occurring (and a new failure, actually, but I'm sure it's caused by the same issue causing Failure #3). Any ideas why the test "correct user with correct password should change email" isn't catching the change action that happens correctly in the browser?
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I'm trying to validate behavior of a form to update a user's profile (change email and/or password). 3 of my tests are failing, and I can't figure out why. Take a look at the console output when I run the tests...
Failures:
1) User Pages Edit page correct user updates password with incorrect password should not change password
Failure/Error: expect { click_button "Save" }.not_to change{ user.password_digest }
result should not have changed, but did change from "$2a$10$Xrg1SHSyDmK5Of9HrjgYAuzkJzKk7HeaVjj4ZT9Ldz2R9BNji3D2S" to "$2a$10$Xrg1SHSyDmK5Of9HrjgYAuzkJzKk7HeaVjj4ZT9Ldz2R9BNji3D2S"
# ./spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb:135:in `block (6 levels) in <top (required)>'
2) User Pages Edit page correct user updates password with confirmation mismatch should not change password
Failure/Error: expect { click_button "Save" }.not_to change{ user.password_digest }
result should not have changed, but did change from "$2a$10$bm2viuIuNCRIEEWe/qYVAOVl0r0EW7Y/1CqalKUwgR.ht/wVtQ8Zi" to "$2a$10$bm2viuIuNCRIEEWe/qYVAOVl0r0EW7Y/1CqalKUwgR.ht/wVtQ8Zi"
# ./spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb:147:in `block (6 levels) in <top (required)>'
3) User Pages Edit page correct user updates email with correct password should change email
Failure/Error: expect { click_button "Save" }.to change{ user.email }.to(new_email)
result should have been changed to "new_email#example.com", but is now "person_7#example.com"
# ./spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb:121:in `block (6 levels) in <top (required)>'
Finished in 2.99 seconds
8 examples, 3 failures
Failures #1 & 2 should be passing, right? The before and after strings match, and they're expected not to change! What could be going on here?
Furthermore, I can't figure out why failure #3 is happening.
The code works as expected in the browser. Could it have something to do with AJAX? The update action the form is hitting doesn't redirect_to anything -- it just renders the page again with flash notices. I'm a Rails newbie so I'm probably missing something obvious.
The form:
<%= form_tag user_path(params[:id]), method: :put do %>
<%= label_tag :email %>
<%= text_field_tag :email, params[:email] || #user.email %>
<%= label_tag :new_password %>
<%= password_field_tag :new_password %>
<%= label_tag :new_password_confirmation, "Confirm new password" %>
<%= password_field_tag :new_password_confirmation %>
<%= label_tag :password %>
<%= password_field_tag :password %>
<%= submit_tag "Save", class: "btn btn-primary pull-down" %>
<% end %>
The tests spec (unrelated tests removed for clarity):
require 'spec_helper'
describe "User Pages" do
subject { page }
describe "Edit page" do
let(:user) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }
describe "correct user" do
before do
log_in user # helper method that logs the user in, a la Michael Hartl tutorial
visit edit_user_path(user)
end
it { current_path.should == edit_user_path(user) }
it { should have_selector('title', text: 'Edit') }
it { should_not have_content('not authorized') }
describe "updates email" do
let(:new_email) { "new_email#example.com" }
before { fill_in 'Email', with: new_email }
describe "with incorrect password" do
it "should not change email" do
expect { click_button "Save" }.not_to change{ user.email }
end
end
describe "with correct password" do
before { fill_in 'Password', with: user.password }
it "should change email" do
expect { click_button "Save" }.to change{ user.email }.to(new_email)
end
end
end
describe "updates password" do
describe "with incorrect password" do
before do
fill_in 'New password', with: 'newpassword'
fill_in 'Confirm new password', with: 'newpassword'
end
it "should not change password" do
expect { click_button "Save" }.not_to change{ user.password_digest }
end
end
describe "with confirmation mismatch" do
before do
fill_in 'New password', with: 'newpassword'
fill_in 'Confirm new password', with: 'password'
fill_in 'Password', with: user.password
end
it "should not change password" do
expect { click_button "Save" }.not_to change{ user.password_digest }
end
end
describe "with correct password" do
before do
fill_in 'New password', with: 'newpassword'
fill_in 'Confirm new password', with: 'newpassword'
fill_in 'Password', with: user.password
end
it "should change password" do
expect { click_button "Save" }.to change{ user.password_digest }
end
end
end
end
end
end
Relevant gem versions: Rails 3.2.9, Capybara 1.1.2, FactoryGirl 4.1.0