# Rspec story - access session

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rspec-story-access-session/147114>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 28, 2008, 3:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rspec-story-access-session/147114 "2008-08-28T15:42:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![snitko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@snitko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/snitko)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 3:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rspec-story-access-session/147114/1 "2008-08-28T15:42:31Z")

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Very simple, but not googlable: how do I access ‘session’ in my story?  
In rspec controller specs I could just say session[:user] for example,  
but this doesn’t work here.

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**Author:** ![snitko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@snitko](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/snitko)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rspec-story-access-session/147114/2 "2008-09-11T00:43:09Z")

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On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 8:41 AM, snitko [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Very simple, but not googlable: how do I access ‘session’ in my story?  
> In rspec controller specs I could just say session[:user] for example,  
> but this doesn’t work here.

Hi,

There’s no support for what you are trying to do. RailsStory, the  
object that rspec/rails scenarios run in, is derived from  
ActionController::Integration::Session, which is what rails  
integration tests run in.

This is a bit confusing, but ActionController::Integration::Session is  
a metaphor for an interactive session between a user and the system,  
not the browser session object that you can access from your  
controllers.

ActionController::Integration::Session doesn’t provide access to the  
browser session as it is actually designed to let you run more than  
one browser session within one test.

Hope that makes sense.

Cheers,  
David

ps - feel free to post rspec questions to the rspec-users mailing list  
or google group:

[http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users](http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users)  
[http://groups.google.com/group/rspec](http://groups.google.com/group/rspec)