Unable to access flash from rails helper spec since upgrade to 1.1.4

Testing RSpec
1

Hi,

Many moons ago I wrote this blog entry…

http://blog.wolfman.com/articles/2007/07/14/using-rspec-to-test-haml-helpers

I just upgraded that rails project to use rspec 1.1.4 and associated
rspec_rails.

It seems that my helper when called from the helper specs no longer are
able to access flash,
controller etc as they did before.

I already prepended all helper calls with helper. so I fixed those
changes, but I have been unable
to figure out how to access flash etc…

Here is a simplified example…

in ApplicationHelper.rb

def test_flash
for name in [:notice, :warning, :error]
if flash[name]
return “#{flash[name]}”
end
end
nil
end

In my rails/spec/helpers/application_helper_spec.rb

require File.dirname(FILE) + ‘/…/spec_helper’

describe ApplicationHelper do

it “should test flash” do
for name in [:notice, :warning, :error]
flash[name]= “flash #{name.to_s} message”
helper.test_flash.should match(/.#{name}./)
flash[name]= nil
end
end

end

I get this error trace…
1)
NoMethodError in ‘ApplicationHelper should test flash’
You have a nil object when you didn’t expect it!
You might have expected an instance of Array.
The error occurred while evaluating nil.[]
/…/app/helpers/application_helper.rb:23:in `test_flash’
…

flash is nil, this used to work, so what is the new magic incantation to
get this to work again?

Thanks

2

On Jul 2, 2008, at 7:12 PM, Jim M. wrote:

are able to access flash, controller etc as they did before.
for name in [:notice, :warning, :error]

end
flash is nil, this used to work, so what is the new magic
incantation to get this to work again?

Hey Jim - I fixed this in

, so you can either grab the very latest from github or wait for the
1.1.5 release (coming in the next few days).

Cheers,
David

3

Hi David,

Thanks that worked, and fixed that problem.

Now I have run into another problem, from the same blog example (which
I’ll update once I get it all
to work).

Within the application helper I call haml_tag, which works fine when the
app runs. (used to be
called open).

However when I try to test that helper in my helper spec I get…

NoMethodError in ‘ApplicationHelper should display flash’
undefined method `haml_tag’ for
#Spec::Rails::Example::HelperExampleGroup::HelperObject:0xb71ced20

For some reason it doesn’t know anything about haml when run from the
spec.

I guess I need to inject a require haml or something into the
HelperObject? I just don’t know how to
do that.

I am using the latest version of HAML but I am still using rails 1.2.6

Any ideas?

Thanks
Jim

4

On Jul 3, 2008, at 1:29 AM, Jim M. wrote:

However when I try to test that helper in my helper spec I get…

NoMethodError in ‘ApplicationHelper should display flash’
undefined method `haml_tag’ for
#Spec::Rails::Example::HelperExampleGroup::HelperObject:0xb71ced20

For some reason it doesn’t know anything about haml when run from
the spec.

I guess I need to inject a require haml or something into the
HelperObject? I just don’t know how to do that.

Try this:

before(:each) do
helper.extend Haml::Helpers
end

it “should …” do
…
end

5

Ok, its messy but this works…

before :each do
init_haml_helpers
helper.extend Haml
helper.extend Haml::Helpers
helper.send :init_haml_helpers
end

it “should display flash” do
for name in [:notice, :warning, :error]
flash[name]= “flash #{name.to_s} message”
helper.capture_haml{
helper.display_flash
}.should match(/

\s*#{flash[name]}\s*</div>/)
flash[name]= nil
end
end

…

NOTE that the capture haml needs to be prepended by helper. otherwise
nothing gets returned.