# Code runs in development but not in test **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 8, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/code-runs-in-development-but-not-in-test/167497 "2009-05-08T15:33:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/code-runs-in-development-but-not-in-test/167497/1 "2009-05-08T15:33:43Z")
I have some model code that runs fine in development environment but fails in the test environment. In test, the code always fails at the same point with: Mysql::Error: Duplicate entry ‘5-17’ for key ‘PRIMARY’: INSERT INTO `accessibilities_namespaces` (`accessibility_id`, `namespace_id`) VALUES (17, 5) [0m accessibilities\_namespaces is a join table for HABTM relationships. My logging suggests that ActiveRecord tries to insert the same record twice when run in test (but only in test!) which would explain the above error. I am sure that the code does not try to create the same record twice and in any case it runs fine in development mode. I have tried running the code using ‘script/console test’ and it fails here also. Though it does not fail when run in ‘script/console [development]’. I suspect the problem does not lie with MySQL or ActiveRecord, but something to do with the differences between running in development vs test. Any thoughts appreciated. I’m baffled by this. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/code-runs-in-development-but-not-in-test/167497/2 "2009-05-08T15:54:16Z")
Is it failing while running one of your tests (possibly an error in the test) or while preparing for the test (possibly a problem with your fixtures)? Colin 2009/5/8 Lee [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/code-runs-in-development-but-not-in-test/167497/3 "2009-05-08T16:03:39Z")
Lee - On 8-May-09, at 9:53 AM, Colin L. wrote: > Is it failing while running one of your tests (possibly an error in > the test) or while preparing for the test (possibly a problem with > your fixtures)? > > Colin to build on Colin’s comment about your fixtures, if you’re relying on the testing framework to wrap your tests in transactions, the database must support them - mysql myisam database tables do not - ie. if you’re using myisam, your tables will not be cleaned out after every test - and you’d see this behavior J ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/code-runs-in-development-but-not-in-test/167497/4 "2009-05-08T16:11:19Z")
Lee is using InnoDB. Chris. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/code-runs-in-development-but-not-in-test/167497/5 "2009-05-08T16:14:50Z")
Initially it was failing when running the code from within a Cucumber step definition. In this step definition, I am implementing a Given step (in part) by calling a method of a model. This method is throwing the error. In summary, the step definition is as follows: Given … do user = User.create!(…) member=Member.add\_member\_for\_user(user) \<----! error thrown by this method … end Having experienced the error within Cucumber, I then entered the same code into ‘script/console test’ i.e. > > user=User.create!(…) > > member=Member.add\_member\_for\_user etc… The code raised an error again. If however I run the code in development or by using the development console or as a standalone Ruby program which makes use of ActiveRecord and my models, it runs fine. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 8:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/code-runs-in-development-but-not-in-test/167497/6 "2009-05-09T08:42:55Z")
The actual error that I receive when run in ‘console test’ is a ‘Duplicate key’ error when trying to insert into one of the join (HABTM) tables. I stress this error is not raised when run in ‘console development’ so I know that my code is not trying to insert duplicate rows in this table. The underlying MySQL table for this join table has a composite PRIMARY KEY defined for the two foreign keys that make up the HABTM relationship. If I remove the PRIMARY KEY from the table definition, the code runs fine in ‘console test’. What does ‘console test’ do differently to ‘console development’ to cause this problem? ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/code-runs-in-development-but-not-in-test/167497/7 "2009-05-09T14:40:36Z")
When I remove the primary key from the join table the code runs without error using console test but does create two records for each pair of keys in the join table. The same code does not however create pairs of records when run using console development. So something strange is happening in the Rails test environment! My googling suggests it’s a bad idea to have composite primary keys on join tables. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 10:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/code-runs-in-development-but-not-in-test/167497/8 "2009-05-09T10:01:57Z")
The error would suggest there is already a record with that composite key in the database. Have you tried looking at the db just before the error occurs (or after it for that matter) to see if there is already such a record? 2009/5/9 Lee [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)