How to access controller's instance variables in integration

Rails
1

In my controller’s action I set instance variables like:

@last_action = xxx
@paid_with_card = xxx

Now, how do I access them in my integration tests? I tried Mike
Clark’s example(1):
assert_not_nil assigns(:paid_with_card)

But my test fails:
============start test output======
Started
…F…
Finished in 17.906 seconds.

  1. Failure:
    test_select_and_buy_pack(AllPagesTest)
    [./test/integration/all_pages_test.rb:27:in
    test_select_and_buy_pack' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/ action_controller/integration.rb:453:in run’]:
    expected to not be nil.

22 tests, 63 assertions, 2 failures, 0 errors
============end test output======

What can I do to access these variables? What do I get wrong here?
What am I missing? How do you actually read instance variables from
the controller in the integration tests???

Thanks in advance!
/Jesper Rønn-Jensen,
www.justaddwater.dk

PS I have also tried these that don’t seem to work either:
# controller.instance_variable_get(“@paid_with_card”)
# controller.assigns(:paid_with_card)
# controller.assigns[:paid_with_card]
# assigns[:paid_with_card]

(1) Mike C.'s example: http://clarkware.com/cgi/blosxom/2006/04/04

2

Jesper Rønn-Jensen wrote:

============start test output======
expected to not be nil.
Thanks in advance!
(1) Mike C.'s example: http://clarkware.com/cgi/blosxom/2006/04/04

Try

controller.instance_variable_get(:@paid_with_card)

Hope this helps,
Chris

–

Autopendium :: Stuff about old cars
http://autopendium.com

3

Try
controller.instance_variable_get(:@paid_with_card)
Hope this helps,
Chris
Thanks for your support Chris.
I finally managed to get it working, and inspired by your tip I made
an integration test to test off what works and whatnot. I have
included the non-working examples as well for later reference.

Kind regards,
Jesper Rønn-Jensen
http://justaddwater.dk/

PS. Actually I got it working with the first example I posted:
assert_not_nil assigns(:paid_with_card)
The catch was to put a

post_via_redirect :params
assert_not_nil assigns(:paid_with_card)
instead of
post :params
assert_redirected_to
follow_redirect
assert_not_nil assigns(:paid_with_card)

========file “/test/integration/test_of_assigns.rb” below============
require “#{File.dirname(FILE)}/…/test_helper”

This test requires a root route pointed to a controller for the

default action

controller#index responding to “/”

Index action must contain setting of the instance variable @sub

(value: anything but nil)

@sub

Run this file separately with

ruby test_of_assigns.rb

class AssignOperatorTest < ActionController::IntegrationTest
fixtures :whatever

def test_front_page_1_works
get “/”
assert_response :success
assert_not_nil assigns(:sub)
end

def test_front_page_2_works
get “/”
assert_not_nil controller.instance_variable_get(“@sub”)
end

def test_front_page_3_works
get “/”
assert_not_nil controller.instance_variable_get(:@sub)
end

def test_front_page_4_failure
get “/”
assert_not_nil controller.assigns[:sub]
end

def test_front_page_5_error
get “/”
assert_not_nil controller.instance_variable_get(:sub)
end

def test_front_page_6_error
get “/”
assert_not_nil controller.instance_variable_get[:sub]
end

def test_front_page_7_error
get “/”
assert_not_nil controller.assigns(“@sub”)
end

def test_front_page_8_error
get “/”
assert_not_nil controller.assigns(:sub)
end

end

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