rspec users - May 2008 - Testing render :text without has_text

A controller I''m trying to test simply delivers a text string to the  
client, which then demarshalls it to retrieve some objects. I want to  
test that the returned string is correct.

I don''t want to compare the string character-by-character with  
response.has_text because that ties me to the implementation of the  
Marshall class. Instead, I just want to demarshall the string and  
compare that with the expected objects. To do this, I need RSpec to  
give me the complete text string that''s rendered by the controller.

Here''s the controller:

class StatsController < ApplicationController
  layout nil

  def query
    reports = StatisticsReporter.query params[:query_params]
    render :text => Marshal.dump(reports)
  end
end

And here''s the test:

describe StatsController do
   before :each do
      @query_params = { :foo => :bar }
   end

  it "should return a demarshallable string of the reports" do
    reports =  [
      StatisticsReport.new(:date => nil),
      StatisticsReport.new(:bytes_transferred => 0)
    ]
    StatisticsReporter.should_receive(:query).and_return reports

    get :query, :query_params => @query_params

     # PROBLEM CODE (the equality test needs tweaking, but you get the  
idea)
     Marshal.load(response.what_goes_here?).should == reports
  end
end

(This code may look familiar to one member of this list...:)

Can this be done?

adthanksvance,

///ark

On May 8, 2008, at 5:26 PM, Mark Wilden wrote:
> A controller I''m trying to test simply delivers a text string to
the
> client, which then demarshalls it to retrieve some objects. I want  
> to test that the returned string is correct.
>
> I don''t want to compare the string character-by-character with  
> response.has_text because that ties me to the implementation of the  
> Marshall class. Instead, I just want to demarshall the string and  
> compare that with the expected objects. To do this, I need RSpec to  
> give me the complete text string that''s rendered by the
controller.
>
> Here''s the controller:
>
> class StatsController < ApplicationController
> layout nil
>
> def query
>   reports = StatisticsReporter.query params[:query_params]
>   render :text => Marshal.dump(reports)
> end
> end
>
> And here''s the test:
>
> describe StatsController do
>  before :each do
>     @query_params = { :foo => :bar }
>  end
>
> it "should return a demarshallable string of the reports" do
>   reports =  [
>     StatisticsReport.new(:date => nil),
>     StatisticsReport.new(:bytes_transferred => 0)
>   ]
>   StatisticsReporter.should_receive(:query).and_return reports
>
>   get :query, :query_params => @query_params
>
>    # PROBLEM CODE (the equality test needs tweaking, but you get the  
> idea)
>    Marshal.load(response.what_goes_here?).should == reports
Try this:

Marshal.load(response.body).should == reports
>
> end
> end
>
> (This code may look familiar to one member of this list...:)
>
> Can this be done?
>
> adthanksvance,
>
> ///ark
>
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users

On May 8, 2008, at 3:38 PM, David Chelimsky wrote:
>> I need RSpec to give me the complete text string that''s
rendered by
>> the controller.
>>
>> Try this:
>
> Marshal.load(response.body).should == reports
Dang! I dumped response.methods and tried everything that looked  
likely, but I guess I missed that one. Thanks!

Just to preserve my sanity in the future, is there a place where this  
is documented?

///ark