# Oh no! I have a "Spec" model **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [January 27, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/oh-no-i-have-a-spec-model/182360 "2010-01-27T00:52:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Learn_by_D)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/oh-no-i-have-a-spec-model/182360/1 "2010-01-27T00:52:57Z")
I am trying to use cucumber but my application has a “Spec” model (I followed the RailsSpace book). So now I am getting an error when running cucumber (below). I think because cucumber does not like a model named “Spec.” But I have “Spec” and “spec(s)” everywhere in my application now. A universal text change is a huge pain. Some innocent text contains the string “spec”, e.g. “aspect”. So I have to look at each replacement. What can I do? Please help. Thanks. Spec is not a class (TypeError) /Volumes/Data/Beo/Documents/RailsSpace/app/models/spec.rb:1 /opt/local/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom\_require.rb:31:in `gem_original_require' /opt/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in`polyglot\_original\_require’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/polyglot-0.2.9/lib/polyglot.rb:70:in `require' /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/ active_support/dependencies.rb:158:in`require’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/ active\_support/dependencies.rb:265:in `require_or_load' /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/ active_support/dependencies.rb:224:in`depend\_on’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/ active\_support/dependencies.rb:136:in `require_dependency' /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/initializer.rb: 414:in`load\_application\_classes’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/initializer.rb: 413:in `each' /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/initializer.rb: 413:in`load\_application\_classes’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/initializer.rb: 411:in `each' /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/initializer.rb: 411:in`load\_application\_classes’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/initializer.rb: 197:in `process' /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/initializer.rb: 113:in`send’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/initializer.rb: 113:in `run' /Volumes/Data/Beo/Documents/OptiDev/config/environment.rb:9 /opt/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in`gem\_original\_require’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom\_require.rb:31:in `polyglot_original_require' /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/polyglot-0.2.9/lib/polyglot.rb:70:in`require’ /Volumes/Data/Beo/Documents/OptiDev/features/support/env.rb:8 /opt/local/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom\_require.rb:31:in `gem_original_require' /opt/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in`polyglot\_original\_require’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/polyglot-0.2.9/lib/polyglot.rb:70:in `require' /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.6.1/bin/../lib/cucumber/ rb_support/rb_language.rb:124:in`load\_code\_file’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.6.1/bin/…/lib/cucumber/ step\_mother.rb:84:in `load_code_file' /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.6.1/bin/../lib/cucumber/ step_mother.rb:76:in`load\_code\_files’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.6.1/bin/…/lib/cucumber/ step\_mother.rb:75:in `each' /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.6.1/bin/../lib/cucumber/ step_mother.rb:75:in`load\_code\_files’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.6.1/bin/…/lib/cucumber/ cli/main.rb:48:in `execute!' /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.6.1/bin/../lib/cucumber/ cli/main.rb:20:in`execute’ /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/cucumber-0.6.1/bin/cucumber:8 /opt/local/bin/cucumber:19:in `load’ /opt/local/bin/cucumber:19 ---
**Author:** ![Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Learn_by_D)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/oh-no-i-have-a-spec-model/182360/2 "2010-01-27T01:58:31Z")
On Jan 26, 6:51 pm, Vincent P [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I am trying to use cucumber but my application has a “Spec” model (I > followed the RailsSpace book). …which is quite out of date. > So now I am getting an error when > running cucumber (below). I think because cucumber does not like a > model named “Spec.” Actually, I think that would be more of a proble for RSpec. But I could be wrong. > But I have “Spec” and “spec(s)” everywhere in my > application now. A universal text change is a huge pain. Some > innocent text contains the string “spec”, e.g. “aspect”. So I have to > look at each replacement. Well, you should look at each replacement anyway. > What can I do? Please help. Try a regular expression search and replace, so that you don’t hit innocent words. > Thanks. ## Best, Marnen Laibow-Koser [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Learn_by_D)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/oh-no-i-have-a-spec-model/182360/3 "2010-01-27T02:10:49Z")
Thanks. So the problem is the “Spec” model name? There is no other way but to change “Spec” to something else? I started with RailsSpace as a starting point a while back but my application has evolved since. ---
**Author:** ![Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Learn_by_D)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/oh-no-i-have-a-spec-model/182360/4 "2010-01-27T03:43:14Z")
Learn by Doing wrote: > Thanks. So the problem is the “Spec” model name? Most likely. > There is no other > way but to change “Spec” to something else? Probably not. And this should not be difficult. > I started with RailsSpace as a starting point a while back but my > application has evolved since. ## Best, Marnen Laibow-Koser [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Learn_by_D)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 8:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/oh-no-i-have-a-spec-model/182360/5 "2010-01-27T08:07:09Z")
Learn by Doing wrote: > Thanks Marnen. I am trying to use regular expression to replace the > text “spec” in TextMate with “mug”. I am trying to avoid instances of > “spec” where it does not mean the name of the model, e.g. “aspect”. > So I use the following regular expression: [^a-zA-Z]spec . That > would catch “@spec” which is what I want. But if I tell TextMate to > replace that with “mug”, I lose the character before “spec”. TextMate > replaces “@spec” with “mug” . How can I make it replace @spec with > @mug ? Most regexp syntaxes support backreferences in the replace string, which is what you need. Check TextMate’s documentation to see how it implements backreferences. > Thanks. ## Best, Marnen Laibow-Koser [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Learn_by_D)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 9:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/oh-no-i-have-a-spec-model/182360/6 "2010-01-27T09:17:26Z")
Thanks Marnen! I will surely look into back references next time. Before I got your answer, I managed to do this manually by replacing “Spec” then “spec” when preceded with each of the special characters: @ : ’ " / - ! space. I downloaded and used “Name Mangler” to replace “spec” in file names. While tedious, you are right that it is not too difficult. Cucumber seems to work now. I am ready to dive into BDD. Thank you so much for your help. Vincent On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 11:07 PM, Marnen Laibow-Koser ---
**Author:** ![Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Learn_by_D)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/oh-no-i-have-a-spec-model/182360/7 "2010-01-29T21:53:39Z")
Marnen! Thank you so much for motivating me to use Cucumber. It makes functional and integration testing so easy! Vincent. ---
**Author:** ![Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Learn_by_D)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/oh-no-i-have-a-spec-model/182360/8 "2010-01-30T00:11:15Z")
Learn by Doing wrote: > Marnen! > > Thank you so much for motivating me to use Cucumber. It makes > functional and integration testing so easy! You’re most welcome. It’s amazing, isn’t it? > Vincent. ## Best, Marnen Laibow-Koser [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@Learn\_by\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Learn_by_D)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 6:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/oh-no-i-have-a-spec-model/182360/9 "2010-01-27T06:13:06Z")
Thanks Marnen. I am trying to use regular expression to replace the text “spec” in TextMate with “mug”. I am trying to avoid instances of “spec” where it does not mean the name of the model, e.g. “aspect”. So I use the following regular expression: [^a-zA-Z]spec . That would catch “@spec” which is what I want. But if I tell TextMate to replace that with “mug”, I lose the character before “spec”. TextMate replaces “@spec” with “mug” . How can I make it replace @spec with @mug ? Thanks.