# Stubbing out ThinkingSphinx for Rspec

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stubbing-out-thinkingsphinx-for-rspec/146303>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 19, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stubbing-out-thinkingsphinx-for-rspec/146303 "2008-08-19T21:57:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chunkyslink)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stubbing-out-thinkingsphinx-for-rspec/146303/1 "2008-08-19T21:57:36Z")

</div>

Unless someone advises against it, I don’t want my Rspec suite to be  
dependent on having Thinking Sphinx running, as I can often imagine  
situations where anyone working on my app would want to run the spec  
without the the search engine being powered up. Is there anyway I can  
avoid errors like the following;

ThinkingSphinx::ConnectionError in ‘Admin::SitePagesController handling  
GET admin/site\_pages should render index template’  
Connection to Sphinx Daemon (searchd) failed.

Could I stub out the ThinkingSpinx::Connection in the required  
controller specs? If so, how do I do this? I’ve tried several methods  
but, being a newbie, I haven’t worked it out yet - for example;

controller.stub(ThinkingSphinx::ActiveRecord::Search).and\_return(true)

undefined method `to\_sym’ for  
ThinkingSphinx::ActiveRecord::Search:Module

Any suggestions?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chunkyslink)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 12:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stubbing-out-thinkingsphinx-for-rspec/146303/2 "2008-08-20T12:47:45Z")

</div>

in spec helper, overwrite the class that you want to stub  
(ThinkingSphinx::ActiveRecord::Search) and stub the method itself.

module ThinkingSphinx::ActiveRecord::Search

def stubbed\_method-name  
# do nothing  
end  
end

put it in the spec helper. as this file is loaded before any spec run  
(of any file or batch) it will have been the last one to be loaded and  
hence will do nothing, but still run your specs.

notice you cannot test any method that uses this module since you have  
overridden it completely. so it will help if you want to check the  
view renders or your controller does the right thing, but you will not  
be able to test the ThinkingSphinx functionallity at all.

On Aug 19, 8:57 pm, Neil C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chunkyslink)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stubbing-out-thinkingsphinx-for-rspec/146303/3 "2008-08-20T20:05:25Z")

</div>

Thanks Wolas!

Sorry if this seems like a newbie question, what am I supposed replace  
the stubbed\_method\_name with?

Also, I came across the only thread on the Interwebs which seems to  
cover this topic - it’s over a year old, but I think they have a  
solution which could work around the issues you pointed out. However, I  
couldn’t work out how to get their subbing approach to work with the way  
the ThinkingSphinx syntax looks right now…

Back in the day, they were doing this;

# Controller action:

term = “_#{params[:search]}_”  
ThinkingSphinx::Search(term, :with =\> { :searchable =\> 1 } })

# RSpec example:

it “should build query” do  
ThinkingSphinx::Search.should\_receive(:search) do |term,conditions|  
term.should eql(‘_keyword_’)  
conditions[:with][:searchable].should eql(1)  
end  
get :show, :search =\> ‘keyword’  
end

But I’m on the latest version of the plugin, and it looks like this;

# Controller action:

def index  
@site\_pages = SitePage.search params[:search]  
end

# RSpec example:

it “should build query” do  
ThinkingSphinx::Search.should\_receive(:search) do ?  
?  
end  
get :show, :search =\> ‘keyword’  
end

Any ideas?

[http://groups.google.com/group/thinking-sphinx/browse\_thread/thread/b879c24ecf06fb12/167f1a92e7d27a72?lnk=gst&q=rspec#167f1a92e7d27a72](http://groups.google.com/group/thinking-sphinx/browse_thread/thread/b879c24ecf06fb12/167f1a92e7d27a72?lnk=gst&q=rspec#167f1a92e7d27a72)

“Wolas!” wrote:

> in spec helper, overwrite the class that you want to stub  
> (ThinkingSphinx::ActiveRecord::Search) and stub the method itself.
> 
> module ThinkingSphinx::ActiveRecord::Search
> 
> def stubbed\_method-name  
> # do nothing  
> end  
> end
> 
> put it in the spec helper. as this file is loaded before any spec run  
> (of any file or batch) it will have been the last one to be loaded and  
> hence will do nothing, but still run your specs.
> 
> notice you cannot test any method that uses this module since you have  
> overridden it completely. so it will help if you want to check the  
> view renders or your controller does the right thing, but you will not  
> be able to test the ThinkingSphinx functionallity at all.
> 
> On Aug 19, 8:57�pm, Neil C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chunkyslink)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stubbing-out-thinkingsphinx-for-rspec/146303/4 "2008-08-21T12:54:28Z")

</div>

“Wolas!” wrote:

> The mocking infrastructure in Rspec-rails is very simple. there are  
> two ways to “stub” methods:
> 
> object.should\_receive(:method\_name).and\_return(whatever)
> 
> this is an assertion. it means that the method\_name methods HAS to be  
> called at least once for this test to pass. Also note that the method  
> itself is never called, so if youre having troubles, just put this  
> line with the ThinkingSphinx method that is giving you troubles (the  
> method name you had to replace on my first reply. an example
> 
> it ‘should look up the money in the account’ do  
> @account.should\_receive(:money).once # this is our test  
> @account.balance # here we call  
> the method that i am testing  
> end
> 
> ====  
> class Account  
> def balance  
> self.money.to\_f  
> end  
> end
> 
> in the above example, the “money” method will not actually be called.
> 
> the other way is to stub, which means that you are not testing for the  
> method call, you just want to control the method within a test:
> 
> it ‘should look up the money in the account’ do  
> @account.stub!(:money).and\_return(98) # money method will always  
> return 98  
> @account.balance.should eql(98) # the test which will  
> pass  
> end
> 
> in this example the money method is never being called, the testing  
> framework takes turn and runs its stub.
> 
> As a note, you can stub anything, classes instances, arrays, ,…  
> anything that is an object which in ruby is everything
> 
> maybe it doesnt help maybe it does…
> 
> good luck
> 
> On Aug 20, 7:05�pm, Neil C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

Thanks again. You’re too cool. I’m doing this (and it works for me and  
my standards);

def do\_get  
ThinkingSphinx::Search.stub!(:search).and\_return(users)  
get :index, :search =\> “bob”  
end

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@chunkyslink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chunkyslink)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 11:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stubbing-out-thinkingsphinx-for-rspec/146303/5 "2008-08-21T11:55:19Z")

</div>

The mocking infrastructure in Rspec-rails is very simple. there are  
two ways to “stub” methods:

object.should\_receive(:method\_name).and\_return(whatever)

this is an assertion. it means that the method\_name methods HAS to be  
called at least once for this test to pass. Also note that the method  
itself is never called, so if youre having troubles, just put this  
line with the ThinkingSphinx method that is giving you troubles (the  
method name you had to replace on my first reply. an example

it ‘should look up the money in the account’ do  
@account.should\_receive(:money).once # this is our test  
@account.balance # here we call  
the method that i am testing  
end

====  
class Account  
def balance  
self.money.to\_f  
end  
end

in the above example, the “money” method will not actually be called.

the other way is to stub, which means that you are not testing for the  
method call, you just want to control the method within a test:

it ‘should look up the money in the account’ do  
@account.stub!(:money).and\_return(98) # money method will always  
return 98  
@account.balance.should eql(98) # the test which will  
pass  
end

in this example the money method is never being called, the testing  
framework takes turn and runs its stub.

As a note, you can stub anything, classes instances, arrays, ,…  
anything that is an object which in ruby is everything

maybe it doesnt help maybe it does…

good luck

On Aug 20, 7:05 pm, Neil C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)