How to change an attribute value with rspec - ruby-on-rails

I'm newbie with rspec and I'm facing some problems with it. Could someone help me?
I have a controller action responsible for deactivate an user. I'm trying to cover it with rspec tests, but the result is not what I'm waiting for.
Controller:
def deactivate
#user = User.find(params[:id])
if !#user.nil?
#user.update_attribute(:active, false)
redirect_to users_url
end
end
Controller Spec
describe "PUT #deactivate" do
describe "with valid parameters" do
before (:each) do
#user = mock_model(User, :id => 100, :login => "login", :password => "password123",
:email => "email#gmail.com", :active => true)
User.should_receive(:find).with("100").and_return(#user)
end
it "should deactivate an user" do
#user.stub!(:update_attribute).with(:active, false).and_return(true)
put :deactivate, :id => "100"
#user.active.should eq false
end
end
end
The test result:
1) UsersController PUT #deactivate with valid parameters should deactivate an user
Failure/Error: #user.active.should eq false
expected: false
got: true
(compared using ==)
So, I don't understand why the active attribute stills true when it should be false. Any ideas ?
Thanks!

You appear to be stubbing the update_attribute method unnecessarily. Try removing that line and see what happens.

I look for this for a long time, update_column can always work no matter you use let or build

Your expectation is "wrong".
Let's see what happens when your spec it "should deactivate an user" is executed:
#user.stub!(:update_attribute).with(:active, false).and_return(true) modifies the existing mock model, so it has an update_attribute which, when called with arguments :active and false
will return true
will keep track that this call has happened (that's what mocks do)
(and, unlike a real User object, will do nothing else)
put :deactivate, :id => "100" calls the real deactivate in your Controller
Your Controller calls User.find. But you've mocked that class method, which will return the mock object #user instead of searching for the actual user with that id.
Your Controller calls #user.update_attribute. But because of step 3 above, #user here is the mock object, too. Its update_attributes method is the one from step 1. As we've seen above, it will return true, keep track that this call happened and do nothing else. Which means it will not change #user's active attribute, so that stays true.
Changing active when update_attribute is called is functionality of objects of the actual User class, but no such object came into play while running your spec. Because this functionality is inherited from ActiveRecord, you don't have to test it. Instead just test that the update_attribute has been received by the mock object:
it "should deactivate an user" do
#user.stub!(:update_attribute).with(:active, false).and_return(true)
put :deactivate, :id => "100"
#user.should have_received(:update_attribute).with(:active, false)
end
(I'm guessing about the old should syntax here, based on how it's done with the newer expect syntax.)
To mock or not?
If you do want to test the combined functionality of your controller with the actual User implementation, do not mock User or its objects. Instead test from the browser perspective with a request spec. (It might make sense to do that additionally, even if you want the isolated tests for only controller (with model mocked) and for only model (which probably won't require doubles, except maybe for other models).

Can you try this:
describe "should deactivate an user" do
before do
#user.stub!(:update_attribute).with(:active, false).and_return(true)
put :deactivate, :id => "100"
end
it { #user.active.should eq false }
end

when you are mocking the call to update_attribute, how is the model going to change?
if you are a beginner: DONT use stubs and mocks!
first get a general knowledge in testing, THEN expand your knowledge to mocks and stubs.

Related

FactoryGirl attribute set in after(:create) doesnt persist until referenced?

Sorry for the vague title, there are a lot of moving parts to this problem so I think it will only be clear after seeing my code. I'm fairly sure I know what's going on here and am looking for feedback on how to do it differently:
I have a User model that sets a uuid attr via an ActiveRecord callback (this is actually in a "SetsUuid" concern, but the effect is this):
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
before_validation :set_uuid, on: :create
validates :uuid, presence: true, uniqueness: true
private
def set_uuid
self.uuid = SecureRandom.uuid
end
end
I am writing a functional rspec controller test for a "foo/add_user" endpoint. The controller code looks like this (there's some other stuff like error-handling and #foo and #params being set by filters, but you get the point. I know this is all working.)
class FoosController < ApplicationController
def add_user
#foo.users << User.find_by_uuid!(#params[:user_id])
render json: {
status: 'awesome controller great job'
}
end
end
I am writing a functional rspec controller test for the case "foo/add_user adds user to foo". My test looks roughly this (again, leaving stuff out here, but the point should be obvious, and I know it's all working as intended. Also, just to preempt the comments: no, I'm not actually 'hardcoding' the "user-uuid" string value in the test, this is just for the example)
RSpec.describe FoosController, type: :controller do
describe '#add_user' do
it_behaves_like 'has #foo' do
it_behaves_like 'has #params', {user_id: 'user-uuid'} do
context 'user with uuid exists' do
let(:user) { create(:user_with_uuid, uuid: params[:user_id]) } # params is set by the 'has #params' shared_context
it 'adds user with uuid to #foo' do
route.call() # route is defined by a previous let that I truncated from this example code
expect(foo.users).to include(user) # foo is set by the 'has #foo' shared_context
end
end
end
end
end
end
And here is my user factory (I've tried setting the uuid in several different ways, but my problem (that I go into below) is always the same. I think this way (with traits) is the most elegant, so that's what I'm putting here):
FactoryGirl.define do
factory :user do
email { |n| "user-#{n}#example.com" }
first_name 'john'
last_name 'naglick'
phone '718-555-1234'
trait :with_uuid do
after(:create) do |user, eval|
user.update!(uuid: eval.uuid)
end
end
factory :user_with_uuid, traits: [:with_uuid]
end
end
Finally, The problem:
This only works if I reference user.uuid before route.call() in the spec.
As in, if I simply add the line "user.uuid" before route.call(), everything works as intended.
If I don't have that line, the spec fails because the user's uuid doesn't actually get updated by the after(:create) callback in the trait in the factory, and thus the User.find_by_uuid! line in the controller does not find the user.
And just to preempt another comment: I'm NOT asking how to re-write this spec so that it works like I want. I already know a myriad of ways to do this (the easiest and most obvious being to manually update user.uuid in the spec itself and forget about setting the uuid in the factory altogether). The thing I'm asking here is why is factorygirl behaving like this?
I know it has something to do with lazy-attributes (obvious by the fact it magically works if I have a line evaluating user.uuid), but why? And, even better: is there some way I can do what I want here (setting the uuid in the factory) and have everything work like I intend? I think it's a rather elegant looking use of rspec/factorygirl, so I'd really like it to work like this.
Thanks for reading my long question! Very much appreciate any insight
Your issue has less to do with FactoryGirl and more to do with let being lazily evaluated.
From the docs:
Use let to define a memoized helper method. The value will be cached across
multiple calls in the same example but not across examples.
Note that let is lazy-evaluated: it is not evaluated until the first time
the method it defines is invoked. You can use let! to force the method's
invocation before each example.
Since your test doesn't invoke the user object until the expectation there is nothing created. To force rspec to load object, you can use let!.
Instead of using the before_validation callback you should be using after_initialize. That way the callback is fired even before .valid? is called in the model lifecycle.
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
before_initialization :set_uuid!, on: :create, if: :set_uuid?
validates :uuid, presence: true, uniqueness: true
private
def set_uuid!
# we should also check that the UUID
# does not actually previously exist in the DB
begin
self.uuid = SecureRandom.uuid
end while User.where(uuid: self.uuid).any?
end
def set_uuid?
self.uuid.nil?
end
end
Although the chance of generating the same hash twice with SecureRandom.uuid is extremely slim it is possible due to the pigeonhole principle. If you maxed out in the bad luck lottery this would simply generate a new UUID.
Since the callback fires before validation occurs the actual logic here should be completely self contained in the model. Therefore there is no need to setup a callback in FactoryGirl.
Instead you would setup your spec like so:
let!(:user) { create(:user) }
it 'adds user with uuid to #foo' do
post :add_user, user_id: user.uuid, { baz: 3 }
end

RSpec: expect.to receive fails if object is not referenced directly

In my Rails application I have a User model:
class User
def self.foo
User.all.each{ |user| user.bar }
end
def bar
end
end
In my spec file I want to check that foo calls bar for every user, so far that's what I have:
describe '::foo' do
let!(:users) { Fabricate.times(5, :user) }
it 'calls bar for every user' do
users.each do |user|
expect(user).to receive(:bar)
end
User.foo
end
end
Although the method gets called (I debugged it, so I'm sure of that) the spec is red.
Also I tried to write this code to understand where the problem was:
let!(:user) { Fabricate(:user) }
it 'fails' do
expect(user).to receive(:bar)
User.first.bar
end
it 'pass' do
expect(user).to receive(:bar)
user.bar
end
It seems that if I reference my instance directly it works, if I obtain it from the DB the expectation doesn't work.
I use mongoid, not sure if this is relevant.
I believe it cannot be done due to how RSpec works: When you set an expectation, RSpec essentially 'wraps' the object so that it can keep track of the messages it receives.
But when the implementation code fetches records from the database, they are not wrapped, so RSpec isn't able to record their messages.
RSpec does have a method allow_any_instance_of which can help in some cases, but its use is discouraged, and don't think it would be suitable here.
In this situation, I would suggest stubbing User.all to return some doubles (two should be sufficient). You can then verify that bar is called on each one.

How to write a Klass.any_instance_with_id(id).expects(:method) in RSpec

When writing tests using RSpec, I regularly have the need to express something like
Klass.any_instance_with_id(id).expects(:method)
Main reason is that in my test, I often have the object that should receive that method call available, but due to the fact that ActiveRecord, when loading the object with that id from the database, will create a different instance, I can't put the "expects" on my own instance
Sometimes I can stub the find method to force ActiveRecord to load my instance, sometimes I can stub other methods, but having that "any_instance_with_id" would make life so much easier...
Can't image I'm the first having this problem... So if any of you found a "workaround", I'd be glad to find out!
Example illustrating the need:
controller spec:
describe 'an authorized email' do
let(:lead) { create(:lead, status: 'approved') }
it "should invoice its organisation in case the organisation exceeds its credit limit" do
lead.organisation.expects :invoice_leads
get :email
end
end
controller:
def email
leads = Lead.approved
leads.each do |lead|
lead.organisation.invoice_leads if lead.organisation.credit_limit_exceeded?
end
redirect_to root_path
end
It seems weird to me you need that for specs.
You should take the problem one level higher: when your app tries to retrieve the record.
Example:
#code
#user = User.find(session[:user_id])
# spec
let(:fake_user) { mock_model 'User', method: false }
it 'description' do
User.should_receive(:find).and_return fake_user
fake_user.expects(:method)
#...
end
Order/invoice example:
let(:order) { mock_model 'order', invoice: invoice }
let(:invoice) { mock_model 'Invoice', 'archive!' => false }

RSpec results and Rails Console behaving differently

Here is my Lesson model:
before_create :set_sequence
def set_sequence
maxseq = Lesson.where(:course_id => self.course_id).maximum("sequence")
if (maxseq.nil?)
maxseq = 0
end
self.sequence = maxseq + 1
end
when I run rspec the following test fails:
it "validate sequence is setup" do
lesson = Lesson.create(:title => "Testing", :description => "Testing", :course_id => 1)
lesson.sequence.should_not eql nil
end
However when T test this through rails console the Lesson object is created successfully and with the correct sequence. Any ideas why?
lesson.sequence.should_not be_nil is the correct way to test for nil, as far as I know. Have you tried that?
Any validations you've got on Lesson could be silently aborting the create before your callback gets called. Change it to create! in the spec to check it.
FactoryGirl first initializes object with no parameters, and then assigns parameters one by one. The callback in your model probably would not work in this case. So you can try to change FactoryGirl's behavior by adding
initialize_with { new(attributes) }
to the Lesson's factory. I'm not sure it will help though. Testing callback behavior in Rails is tricky.

Help understanding this RSpec test

I'm trying to firm up my understanding of why this actually works
My application is just the default scaffold for the purposes of this experiment.
it "creates a record and redirects with success notice" do
Project.any_instance.stubs(:valid?).returns(true) #ensure action behaves as if #project was valid
post :create, :format => :js
assigns(:project).errors.should be_empty #ensures that #project has no errors
flash[:notice].should_not be_nil #ensure a flash notice is set
response.should redirect_to(projects_path) #ensure appropriate redirection
end
end
In the controller the save method is called on #project. Here is where I become unsure. The object will save because the valid? method has been stubbed to return true, even if the object is not valid. But if the object is not valid how can the save be successful?
Rails is also calling your valid? stub internally before saving, so it proceeds with the save as normal because it thinks nothing is wrong.
On the other hand if you had, say, a UNIQUE index on a field in a MySQL database, a duplicate row there could still prevent the record from being saved, even though you stubbed valid?. Two possible layers of validation.

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