RSpec: controller POST create

Rails
1

Rails 3.1.3
rspec-rails (2.11.4)
rspec 2.11.1

I am new to rspec. I don’t quite understand tests for POST create part.

I have generated scaffold, and simultaneously it generated
controller_spec.rb as well.

  it "assigns a newly created plan as @plan" do
    post :create,  {:plan => valid_attributes}, valid_session
    assigns(:plan).should be_a(Plan)
    assigns(:plan).should be_persisted
  end

is the default POST create test. It raises a failure, if I changed the
validations of Plan

 class Plan < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates :give_take, :presence => true
  validates :flight_name_id, :presence => true
  validates :day_departure, :presence => true
  validates :weight, :presence => true
end

The failure message is

  1. PlansController POST create with valid params assigns a newly
    created plan as @plan
    Failure/Error: assigns(:plan).should be_persisted
    expected persisted? to return true, got false

    ./spec/controllers/plans_controller_spec.rb:117:in `block (4

levels) in <top (required)>’

If my understanding is correct, be_persisted is testing if the newly
created model instance is properly stored in DB.

I understand that my way is rather opposite: building test methods after
setting actual codes. But first I need to understand RSpec.

I have also setup FactoryGirl

FactoryGirl.define do
factory :plan do
sequence(:give_take) { |n| [ 0, 1 ][n%2] }
sequence(:weight) { | n | n }
sequence(:check_in) { |c| [ true, false ][c%2] }
sequence(:flight_name_id) { |n| n }
day_departure Date.new(2012, 12, 1)
end
end

which does work.

Question:
Can you show me how to pass the object to create method WITH valid
attributes?

Thanks in advance

soichi

2

Where do you define valid attributes?

Have you tried post :plan => Factory(:plan)?
Am 12.11.2012 10:19 schrieb “Soichi I.” [email protected]:

3

Where do you define valid attributes?

You mean,

def valid_attributes
FactoryGirl.build(:plan).attributes
end

in plans_controller_spec.rb ? Even so, I am not sure if it’s a right
way.

soichi

4

On your controller, use create! to see what is preventing the save.

5

What he wants to say is that you should log or print the error-array of
your model and look what exactly doesn’t fit into your validations.
Am 12.11.2012 11:13 schrieb “Soichi I.” [email protected]:

6

On your controller, use create! to see what is preventing the save.

Sorry, I don’t quite understand what you mean.

my plans_controller.rb has

def create
@plan = Plan.new(params[:plan])

respond_to do |format|
  if @plan.save
    format.html { redirect_to @plan, notice: 'Plan was successfully

created.’ }
format.json { render json: @plan, status: :created, location:
@plan }
else
format.html { render action: “new” }
format.json { render json: @plan.errors, status:
:unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end

which scaffold generated by default.

7

You can temporarily do if @plan.save! to raise an error instead of
just
having it return false and not give you any feedback.

the same result including

describe "with invalid params" do
  ...

part failures.

Doing this is okay

In any case, try to
validate your factory first (if you plan to use
FactoryGirl.attributes_for) to prevent problems such as this.

I tried

def valid_attributes
{
:weight => 4,
:flight_name_id => 55,
:give_take => 0,
:day_departure => “2012-12-22”,
:check_in => true
}
end

In other words, running the test without FactoryGirl. But it returns

  1. PlansController POST create with valid params creates a new Plan
    Failure/Error: post :create, {:plan => valid_attributes},
    valid_session
    ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid:
    Validation failed: Give take can’t be blank, Flight name can’t be
    blank, Day departure can’t be blank, Weight can’t be blank

So it looks like attributes are passed properly at all.
I am completely lost here…

soichi

8

Hi Soichi,

You can temporarily do if @plan.save! to raise an error instead of
just
having it return false and not give you any feedback. Doing this is okay
because you should not bother testing your validations as far as the
controller is concerned (you do that on your model). In any case, try to
validate your factory first (if you plan to use
FactoryGirl.attributes_for) to prevent problems such as this.