Rails - Apr 2011 - [Rails 3] No route matches error using RSpec even though route DOES match

I''ve recently run into a really weird situation that I''m just
not sure
what''s going on here.  I''m trying to write a route that will
allow
searches to be done via GET requests (generally a good idea since it''s
just retrieving information, helps for links and SEO, etc.), and I
have the route properly set up and can access it in development mode
just fine, but when running the controller spec, it triggers an
ActionController::RoutingError stating that there isn''t such a route
that exists.

The route in question:
match ''/search/users/:name'', :to =>
''search#users'', :via => :get

The idea is that if a user goes to www.example.com/search/users/John+Doe
that the search controller passes the params: {:name => "John Doe"}
to
the "users" action.  Indeed, if I run this through my browser, it
works perfectly fine.

The problem is when using RSpec, it doesn''t work at all.  The
corresponding spec for this is:

require ''spec_helper''

describe SearchController do
  before :all do
    Codebase::Application.reload_routes!
    # a futile attempt to force new routes to be ready, still doesn''t
work
  end

  context "a GET to /users with a name" do
    it "should spit out a list of users with that name" do
      get :users, :name => URI.escape(User.make.name)
      response.should be_success
    end
  end
end

Instead of getting a success (which I should given that the action
itself is essentially blank - it exists, just nothing inside it, no
before_filters or anything, and a view for it exists), I get:
ActionController::RoutingError: No route matches {:name => "Foo
%20Bar", :controller => "search", :action =>
"users"}.

Even more insidious, my output from rake routes:
GET    /users/:name(.:format)
{:controller=>"search", :action=>"users"}

This could be understandable if I could duplicate the problem for
other controller tests, but they all work fine!  All my other
controllers are, so far, set up as REST-based resources, and they work
perfectly with standard things like get :index, or put :update, etc.
No routing errors there.

I don''t really see smushing this behavior into a resource set (with
URL-based parameters) as a good idea or a good way to solve this.  I''d
like to know how I can get RSpec to play nice with my routes the way
they''re supposed to.  Any ideas what''s going on here?

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All right, I think I figured part of this out, but it''s
really ...sloppy.

So apparently, Rails routes don''t like periods in their params.  The
test data I had created was created using the Faker gem, and the
particular "name" attribute it created had a title of Mrs. in it, and
that period is what threw it off.  If I hard-code it to something
like, "foo", it passes.

So now the problem is, how do I tell the router to ignore periods, and
just pass them as part of the parameter, for that specific route?

On Apr 6, 11:16 pm, Phoenix Rising
<polarisris...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> I''ve recently run into a really weird situation that I''m
just not sure
> what''s going on here.  I''m trying to write a route that
will allow
> searches to be done via GET requests (generally a good idea since
it''s
> just retrieving information, helps for links and SEO, etc.), and I
> have the route properly set up and can access it in development mode
> just fine, but when running the controller spec, it triggers an
> ActionController::RoutingError stating that there isn''t such a
route
> that exists.
>
> The route in question:
> match ''/search/users/:name'', :to =>
''search#users'', :via => :get
>
> The idea is that if a user goes towww.example.com/search/users/John+Doe
> that the search controller passes the params: {:name => "John
Doe"} to
> the "users" action.  Indeed, if I run this through my browser, it
> works perfectly fine.
>
> The problem is when using RSpec, it doesn''t work at all.  The
> corresponding spec for this is:
>
> require ''spec_helper''
>
> describe SearchController do
>   before :all do
>     Codebase::Application.reload_routes!
>     # a futile attempt to force new routes to be ready, still
doesn''t
> work
>   end
>
>   context "a GET to /users with a name" do
>     it "should spit out a list of users with that name" do
>       get :users, :name => URI.escape(User.make.name)
>       response.should be_success
>     end
>   end
> end
>
> Instead of getting a success (which I should given that the action
> itself is essentially blank - it exists, just nothing inside it, no
> before_filters or anything, and a view for it exists), I get:
> ActionController::RoutingError: No route matches {:name => "Foo
> %20Bar", :controller => "search", :action =>
"users"}.
>
> Even more insidious, my output from rake routes:
> GET    /users/:name(.:format)
> {:controller=>"search", :action=>"users"}
>
> This could be understandable if I could duplicate the problem for
> other controller tests, but they all work fine!  All my other
> controllers are, so far, set up as REST-based resources, and they work
> perfectly with standard things like get :index, or put :update, etc.
> No routing errors there.
>
> I don''t really see smushing this behavior into a resource set
(with
> URL-based parameters) as a good idea or a good way to solve this.
 I''d
> like to know how I can get RSpec to play nice with my routes the way
> they''re supposed to.  Any ideas what''s going on here?
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Success!  Cataloging here for future Googlers --

Section 3.2 of the Rails 3 guide to routing (http://
guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html) says,

  "By default dynamic segments don’t accept dots – this is because the
dot is used as a separator for formatted routes. If you need to use a
dot within a dynamic segment add a constraint which overrides this –
for example :id => /[^\/]/+ allows anything except a slash."

Although, I think their regex pattern has s typo in it - given that I
suck with regexes, can somebody verify that it isn''t supposed to be /[^
\/]+/ ?  I''m getting some syntax oddities in my editor with the one in
the documentation (only difference: swap the + and final /
characters).

This causes my tests to pass, but I''m starting to wonder if I should
allow this contingency or not.  Obviously Rails is using that dot for
some reason; what exactly do they mean by, "separator for formatted
routes" in the description above?  I''m guessing /path/to/some/
resource.json or .xml or .html or whatever, but I could be wrong.
Could some one enlighten me here?  Thanks! :)

On Apr 7, 5:15 am, Phoenix Rising
<polarisris...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> All right, I think I figured part of this out, but it''s
> really ...sloppy.
>
> So apparently, Rails routes don''t like periods in their params.
 The
> test data I had created was created using the Faker gem, and the
> particular "name" attribute it created had a title of Mrs. in it,
and
> that period is what threw it off.  If I hard-code it to something
> like, "foo", it passes.
>
> So now the problem is, how do I tell the router to ignore periods, and
> just pass them as part of the parameter, for that specific route?
>
> On Apr 6, 11:16 pm, Phoenix Rising
<polarisris...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > I''ve recently run into a really weird situation that
I''m just not sure
> > what''s going on here.  I''m trying to write a route
that will allow
> > searches to be done via GET requests (generally a good idea since
it''s
> > just retrieving information, helps for links and SEO, etc.), and I
> > have the route properly set up and can access it in development mode
> > just fine, but when running the controller spec, it triggers an
> > ActionController::RoutingError stating that there isn''t such
a route
> > that exists.
>
> > The route in question:
> > match ''/search/users/:name'', :to =>
''search#users'', :via => :get
>
> > The idea is that if a user goes
towww.example.com/search/users/John+Doe
> > that the search controller passes the params: {:name => "John
Doe"} to
> > the "users" action.  Indeed, if I run this through my
browser, it
> > works perfectly fine.
>
> > The problem is when using RSpec, it doesn''t work at all.  The
> > corresponding spec for this is:
>
> > require ''spec_helper''
>
> > describe SearchController do
> >   before :all do
> >     Codebase::Application.reload_routes!
> >     # a futile attempt to force new routes to be ready, still
doesn''t
> > work
> >   end
>
> >   context "a GET to /users with a name" do
> >     it "should spit out a list of users with that name" do
> >       get :users, :name => URI.escape(User.make.name)
> >       response.should be_success
> >     end
> >   end
> > end
>
> > Instead of getting a success (which I should given that the action
> > itself is essentially blank - it exists, just nothing inside it, no
> > before_filters or anything, and a view for it exists), I get:
> > ActionController::RoutingError: No route matches {:name =>
"Foo
> > %20Bar", :controller => "search", :action =>
"users"}.
>
> > Even more insidious, my output from rake routes:
> > GET    /users/:name(.:format)
> > {:controller=>"search", :action=>"users"}
>
> > This could be understandable if I could duplicate the problem for
> > other controller tests, but they all work fine!  All my other
> > controllers are, so far, set up as REST-based resources, and they work
> > perfectly with standard things like get :index, or put :update, etc.
> > No routing errors there.
>
> > I don''t really see smushing this behavior into a resource set
(with
> > URL-based parameters) as a good idea or a good way to solve this.
 I''d
> > like to know how I can get RSpec to play nice with my routes the way
> > they''re supposed to.  Any ideas what''s going on
here?
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On 7 Apr 2011, at 12:29, Phoenix Rising wrote:
> Success!  Cataloging here for future Googlers --
> 
> Section 3.2 of the Rails 3 guide to routing (http://
> guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html) says,
> 
>  "By default dynamic segments don’t accept dots – this is because the
> dot is used as a separator for formatted routes. If you need to use a
> dot within a dynamic segment add a constraint which overrides this –
> for example :id => /[^\/]/+ allows anything except a slash."
> 
> Although, I think their regex pattern has s typo in it - given that I
> suck with regexes, can somebody verify that it isn''t supposed to
be /[^
> \/]+/ ?  I''m getting some syntax oddities in my editor with the
one in
> the documentation (only difference: swap the + and final /
> characters).
Yes, I think you''re right. That ''+'' only makes sense
*inside* the regular expression, not outside it.

You can submit a fix here if you like; patches are readily accepted:

https://github.com/lifo/docrails
> This causes my tests to pass, but I''m starting to wonder if I
should
> allow this contingency or not.  Obviously Rails is using that dot for
> some reason; what exactly do they mean by, "separator for formatted
> routes" in the description above?  I''m guessing
/path/to/some/
> resource.json or .xml or .html or whatever, but I could be wrong.
> Could some one enlighten me here?  Thanks! :)
Yes, that''s correct. A ''formatted route'' is one that
has a ''.json'' or ''.xml'' or similar at the
end. You can see it in use in the ''rake routes'' output you
quoted below:

GET    /users/:name(.:format)
{:controller=>"search", :action=>"users"}

If you decide that you want to use formats for that particular route in future,
then you''ll likely run into some problems. But otherwise, you should be
fine.

I guess one alternative would be to pass the ''name'' parameter
in the querystring; then it has no chance of interfering with the route
recognition. Results in a less elegant URL, but then passing search parameters
in the querystring is a fairly common convention.

Chris
> On Apr 7, 5:15 am, Phoenix Rising
<polarisris...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> All right, I think I figured part of this out, but it''s
>> really ...sloppy.
>> 
>> So apparently, Rails routes don''t like periods in their
params.  The
>> test data I had created was created using the Faker gem, and the
>> particular "name" attribute it created had a title of Mrs. in
it, and
>> that period is what threw it off.  If I hard-code it to something
>> like, "foo", it passes.
>> 
>> So now the problem is, how do I tell the router to ignore periods, and
>> just pass them as part of the parameter, for that specific route?
>> 
>> On Apr 6, 11:16 pm, Phoenix Rising
<polarisris...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> I''ve recently run into a really weird situation that
I''m just not sure
>>> what''s going on here.  I''m trying to write a
route that will allow
>>> searches to be done via GET requests (generally a good idea since
it''s
>>> just retrieving information, helps for links and SEO, etc.), and I
>>> have the route properly set up and can access it in development
mode
>>> just fine, but when running the controller spec, it triggers an
>>> ActionController::RoutingError stating that there isn''t
such a route
>>> that exists.
>> 
>>> The route in question:
>>> match ''/search/users/:name'', :to =>
''search#users'', :via => :get
>> 
>>> The idea is that if a user goes
towww.example.com/search/users/John+Doe
>>> that the search controller passes the params: {:name =>
"John Doe"} to
>>> the "users" action.  Indeed, if I run this through my
browser, it
>>> works perfectly fine.
>> 
>>> The problem is when using RSpec, it doesn''t work at all. 
The
>>> corresponding spec for this is:
>> 
>>> require ''spec_helper''
>> 
>>> describe SearchController do
>>>   before :all do
>>>     Codebase::Application.reload_routes!
>>>     # a futile attempt to force new routes to be ready, still
doesn''t
>>> work
>>>   end
>> 
>>>   context "a GET to /users with a name" do
>>>     it "should spit out a list of users with that name"
do
>>>       get :users, :name => URI.escape(User.make.name)
>>>       response.should be_success
>>>     end
>>>   end
>>> end
>> 
>>> Instead of getting a success (which I should given that the action
>>> itself is essentially blank - it exists, just nothing inside it, no
>>> before_filters or anything, and a view for it exists), I get:
>>> ActionController::RoutingError: No route matches {:name =>
"Foo
>>> %20Bar", :controller => "search", :action =>
"users"}.
>> 
>>> Even more insidious, my output from rake routes:
>>> GET    /users/:name(.:format)
>>> {:controller=>"search", :action=>"users"}
>> 
>>> This could be understandable if I could duplicate the problem for
>>> other controller tests, but they all work fine!  All my other
>>> controllers are, so far, set up as REST-based resources, and they
work
>>> perfectly with standard things like get :index, or put :update,
etc.
>>> No routing errors there.
>> 
>>> I don''t really see smushing this behavior into a resource
set (with
>>> URL-based parameters) as a good idea or a good way to solve this. 
I''d
>>> like to know how I can get RSpec to play nice with my routes the
way
>>> they''re supposed to.  Any ideas what''s going on
here?
> 
> -- 
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> 
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