ActionMailer: Test failed but works in development environment - ruby-on-rails

Question

The ActionMailer in my Rails 3.1 project has an odd behavior, the ActionMailer::Base.deliveries is empty in test while I can actually receive the email by running the code in rails console. Anybody can points out what wrong it is?
# spec/mailers/user_mailer_spec.rb
require "spec_helper"
describe UserMailer do
describe ".reminding_email" do
subject { UserMailer.reminding_email(user).deliver }
let(:user) { create :confirmed_user_with_mass_tasks }
it "should be delivered" do
ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.should_not be_empty
end
its(:to) { should == [user.email] }
its(:subject) { should == "Task Reminding" }
end
end
# app/mailers/user_mailer.rb
class UserMailer < ActionMailer::Base
layout "email"
default from: Rails.env.production? ? "<production>#gmail.com" : "<test>#gmail.com"
def reminding_email(user)
#tasks = user.tasks.reminding_required
#current = Time.current
mail(to: user.email, subject: "Task Reminding")
end
end
Failures:
1) UserMailer.reminding_email should be delivered
Failure/Error: ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.should_not be_empty
expected empty? to return false, got true
# ./spec/mailers/user_mailer_spec.rb:8:in `block (3 levels) in '
Finished in 11.81 seconds
42 examples, 1 failure, 2 pending
# config/environments/test.rb
RemindersForMe::Application.configure do
# Settings specified here will take precedence over those in config/application.rb
# The test environment is used exclusively to run your application's
# test suite. You never need to work with it otherwise. Remember that
# your test database is "scratch space" for the test suite and is wiped
# and recreated between test runs. Don't rely on the data there!
config.cache_classes = true
# Configure static asset server for tests with Cache-Control for performance
config.serve_static_assets = true
config.static_cache_control = "public, max-age=3600"
# Log error messages when you accidentally call methods on nil
config.whiny_nils = true
# Show full error reports and disable caching
config.consider_all_requests_local = true
config.action_controller.perform_caching = false
# Raise exceptions instead of rendering exception templates
config.action_dispatch.show_exceptions = false
# Disable request forgery protection in test environment
config.action_controller.allow_forgery_protection = false
# Tell Action Mailer not to deliver emails to the real world.
# The :test delivery method accumulates sent emails in the
# ActionMailer::Base.deliveries array.
config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :test
# Use SQL instead of Active Record's schema dumper when creating the test database.
# This is necessary if your schema can't be completely dumped by the schema dumper,
# like if you have constraints or database-specific column types
# config.active_record.schema_format = :sql
# Print deprecation notices to the stderr
config.active_support.deprecation = :stderr
# Setup default URL options as devise needed
config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { :host => 'localhost:3000' }
end
Application:
# config/application.rb
require File.expand_path('../boot', __FILE__)
# Pick the frameworks you want:
require "active_record/railtie"
require "action_controller/railtie"
require "action_mailer/railtie"
require "active_resource/railtie"
require "sprockets/railtie"
# require "rails/test_unit/railtie"
if defined?(Bundler)
# If you precompile assets before deploying to production, use this line
# Bundler.require(*Rails.groups(:assets => %w(development test)))
Bundler.require *Rails.groups(:assets) if defined?(Bundler)
# If you want your assets lazily compiled in production, use this line
# Bundler.require(:default, :assets, Rails.env)
end
module RemindersForMe
class Application < Rails::Application
# Settings in config/environments/* take precedence over those specified here.
# Application configuration should go into files in config/initializers
# -- all .rb files in that directory are automatically loaded.
# Custom directories with classes and modules you want to be autoloadable.
# config.autoload_paths += %W(#{config.root}/extras)
# Only load the plugins named here, in the order given (default is alphabetical).
# :all can be used as a placeholder for all plugins not explicitly named.
# config.plugins = [ :exception_notification, :ssl_requirement, :all ]
# Activate observers that should always be running.
# config.active_record.observers = :cacher, :garbage_collector, :forum_observer
# Set Time.zone default to the specified zone and make Active Record auto-convert to this zone.
# Run "rake -D time" for a list of tasks for finding time zone names. Default is UTC.
# config.time_zone = 'Central Time (US & Canada)'
# The default locale is :en and all translations from config/locales/*.rb,yml are auto loaded.
# config.i18n.load_path += Dir[Rails.root.join('my', 'locales', '*.{rb,yml}').to_s]
# config.i18n.default_locale = :de
# Configure the default encoding used in templates for Ruby 1.9.
config.encoding = "utf-8"
# Configure sensitive parameters which will be filtered from the log file.
config.filter_parameters += [:password]
# Enable the asset pipeline
config.assets.enabled = true
# Version of your assets, change this if you want to expire all your assets
config.assets.version = '1.0'
# Set Rspec generator as default
config.generators do |g|
g.test_framework :rspec
end
# Set Mailer of Devise
config.to_prepare do
Devise::Mailer.layout "email"
end
end
end
Now change the spec as follow:
require "spec_helper"
describe UserMailer do
describe ".reminding_email" do
subject { UserMailer.reminding_email(user) }
let(:user) { create :confirmed_user_with_undue_tasks }
it { expect { subject.deliver }.to change { ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.length }.by(1) }
its(:to) { should == [user.email] }
its(:subject) { should == "Task Reminding" }
end
end
1) UserMailer.reminding_email
Failure/Error: it { expect { subject.deliver }.to change { ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.length }.by(1) }
result should have been changed by 1, but was changed by 2
# ./spec/mailers/user_mailer_spec.rb:7:in `block (3 levels) in '

Answer 1

I had a similar problem and it happened because I was testing Devise emails: Devise uses a separate mailer, so you'll need to access Devise.mailer.deliveries instead of ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.

Answer 2

You should test the separated properties of the mail:
describe UserMailer do
describe ".reminding_email" do
subject { UserMailer.reminding_email(user)}
let(:user) { create :confirmed_user_with_mass_tasks }
it{ expect{subject.deliver}.to change{ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.length}.by(1)}
its(:to) { should == [user.email] }
its(:subject) { should == "Task Reminding" }
end
end
Notice the change in the subject, because your mailer as it should returns the mail method result, which already initialized with to and subject.

Answer 3

By default Action Mailer does not send emails in the test environment. They are just added to the ActionMailer::Base.deliveries array. (See section 6 in http://guides.rubyonrails.org/action_mailer_basics.html)
What "by default" means is that you should not provide effective email_delivery settings for the test environment. If there are effective default email_delivery settings in "config/configuration.yml", you can override it with:
test:
email_delivery:
delivery_method: :test

Answer 4

How are you configuring ActionMailer? Is it within your config/application.rb file or within the specific environments/*.rb files?
Remember, anything you specify in the environments/*.rb files take precedence over the config/application.rb file.
So perhaps your problem is that when running in test mode the ActionMailer is using :smtp and not :test?