rspec users - Sep 2007 - Strange error in StoryRunner (was: Mocks in StoryRunner)

Hi,
I''m posting this stack trace again because it keeps popping up,
seemingly as the ''default error'' when something is wrong with
my story
code; for instance, I got it when I referenced a variable in my
''Given'' that I had forgotten to pass into the block.

Now I''m getting it when I attempt to post to a login action:

    And ''user is logged in as'', ''jhughes'' do
|login|
      post ''/login'', :login => login, :password =>
''secret''
    end
#post calls reset!, leading to the errors on the top of the stack below.

This is still happening after updating to the latest rspec trunk about
5 minutes ago. Rails version is 1.2.3.

I''m sure this is something wrong with my code/setup, but I thought
I''d
bring it up again as it seems that StoryRunner should probably die
with a more informative error when something''s wrong.

thanks,
James



On 9/14/07, Pat Maddox <pergesu at gmail.com>
wrote:
> On 9/14/07, James Hughes <hughes.james at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I''m trying to get up and running with StoryRunner. I have a
story that
> > looks something like the following, but the call to mock_model
> > produces the exception listed below. Am I just misunderstanding the
> > concept? Are mocks not meant to be used in stories like this? Or is
> > this a bug? Changing @user to be an actual AR object makes things run
> > without error.
> >
> > ENV["RAILS_ENV"] = "test"
> > require File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) +
"/../config/environment")
> > require ''spec''
> > require ''spec/rails''
> > require ''spec/rails/story_adapter''
> >
> > Story ''Something happens'', %{
> >   As a user
> >   I want to do something
> >   So that something will happen.
> > }, :type => RailsStory do
> >
> >   Scenario ''User doing something for first time'' do
> >     Given ''a user'' do
> >       @user = mock_model(User)
> >     end
> >     When ''the user makes a request'' do
> >     end
> >     Then ''something should happen'' do
> >     end
> >   end
> > end
> >
> >
> > Here''s the stack trace:
> >
> > 1 scenarios: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 pending
> >
> > FAILURES:
> >   1) Something happens (User doing something for first time) FAILED
> >   NoMethodError: 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.each
> >  
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/action_controller/integration.rb:519:in
> > `open_session''
> >
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/action_controller/integration.rb:490:in
> > `reset!''
> >
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/action_controller/integration.rb:546:in
> > `method_missing''
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/matchers.rb:146:in
> > `method_missing''
> > stories/use_case_story.rb:38:in `a logged-in user''
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/simple_step.rb:13:in
> > `__send__''
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/simple_step.rb:13:in
> > `perform''
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/world.rb:58:in
> > `store_and_call''
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/world.rb:68:in
> > `Given''
> > stories/use_case_story.rb:36
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/scenario_runner.rb:13:in
> > `instance_eval''
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/scenario_runner.rb:13:in
> > `run''
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/story_runner.rb:48:in
> > `run_stories''
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/story_runner.rb:43:in
> > `each''
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/story_runner.rb:43:in
> > `run_stories''
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/story_runner.rb:39:in
> > `each''
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/story_runner.rb:39:in
> > `run_stories''
> >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner.rb:36:in
> > `register_exit_hook''
> > stories/use_case_story.rb:29
> > _______________________________________________
> > rspec-users mailing list
> > rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
> >
>
> No, you shouldn''t be calling mock_model in Story Runner.  The
whole
> point of stories is to exercise the full functionality of your app.
>
> Pat
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
>

On 9/19/07, James Hughes <hughes.james at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi,
> I''m posting this stack trace again because it keeps popping up,
> seemingly as the ''default error'' when something is wrong
with my story
> code; for instance, I got it when I referenced a variable in my
> ''Given'' that I had forgotten to pass into the block.
>
> Now I''m getting it when I attempt to post to a login action:
>
>     And ''user is logged in as'',
''jhughes'' do |login|
>       post ''/login'', :login => login, :password =>
''secret''
>     end
> #post calls reset!, leading to the errors on the top of the stack below.
>
> This is still happening after updating to the latest rspec trunk about
> 5 minutes ago. Rails version is 1.2.3.
>
> I''m sure this is something wrong with my code/setup, but I thought
I''d
> bring it up again as it seems that StoryRunner should probably die
> with a more informative error when something''s wrong.
>
> thanks,
> James
>
>
>
> On 9/14/07, Pat Maddox <pergesu at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 9/14/07, James Hughes <hughes.james at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I''m trying to get up and running with StoryRunner. I
have a story that
> > > looks something like the following, but the call to mock_model
> > > produces the exception listed below. Am I just misunderstanding
the
> > > concept? Are mocks not meant to be used in stories like this? Or
is
> > > this a bug? Changing @user to be an actual AR object makes things
run
> > > without error.
> > >
> > > ENV["RAILS_ENV"] = "test"
> > > require File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) +
"/../config/environment")
> > > require ''spec''
> > > require ''spec/rails''
> > > require ''spec/rails/story_adapter''
> > >
> > > Story ''Something happens'', %{
> > >   As a user
> > >   I want to do something
> > >   So that something will happen.
> > > }, :type => RailsStory do
> > >
> > >   Scenario ''User doing something for first
time'' do
> > >     Given ''a user'' do
> > >       @user = mock_model(User)
> > >     end
> > >     When ''the user makes a request'' do
> > >     end
> > >     Then ''something should happen'' do
> > >     end
> > >   end
> > > end
> > >
> > >
> > > Here''s the stack trace:
> > >
> > > 1 scenarios: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 pending
> > >
> > > FAILURES:
> > >   1) Something happens (User doing something for first time)
FAILED
> > >   NoMethodError: 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.each
> > >  
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/action_controller/integration.rb:519:in
> > > `open_session''
> > >
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/action_controller/integration.rb:490:in
> > > `reset!''
> > >
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/action_controller/integration.rb:546:in
> > > `method_missing''
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/matchers.rb:146:in
> > > `method_missing''
> > > stories/use_case_story.rb:38:in `a logged-in user''
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/simple_step.rb:13:in
> > > `__send__''
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/simple_step.rb:13:in
> > > `perform''
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/world.rb:58:in
> > > `store_and_call''
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/world.rb:68:in
> > > `Given''
> > > stories/use_case_story.rb:36
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/scenario_runner.rb:13:in
> > > `instance_eval''
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/scenario_runner.rb:13:in
> > > `run''
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/story_runner.rb:48:in
> > > `run_stories''
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/story_runner.rb:43:in
> > > `each''
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/story_runner.rb:43:in
> > > `run_stories''
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/story_runner.rb:39:in
> > > `each''
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner/story_runner.rb:39:in
> > > `run_stories''
> > >
/home/jhughes/dev/rj/csite/config/../vendor/plugins/rspec/lib/spec/story/runner.rb:36:in
> > > `register_exit_hook''
> > > stories/use_case_story.rb:29
I looked into this a bit more and I think the problem is caused by
running the story when there are no fixtures present. If anyone else
runs into this, adding "self.fixture_table_names = []" to
rspec_on_rails/lib/spec/rails/story_adapter.rb (after the
"self.use_transactional_fixtures = true" line) seems to fix the
problem.
James