rspec users - Sep 2007 - Testing record creation independently of implementation

Hi guys,

I just had a question on testing a method whose behaviour includes 
creating a record in the database.  How would one go about doing this?

At first, it seems okay to cheat and just make sure that create()  or 
new() is called with the correct parameters.  So,

@model.should_receive(:create).with(params) or,
@model.should_receive(:new).with(params)

But if I wanted to have it be implementation independent, then the only 
thing I can think of is to check the database at the end for the record 
I''m expecting, like,

@model = Model.find_last_created
@model.attributes.should be == params

There are some assumptions here, but at least it is focussed on the end 
result of the record, and not so much how it was created.

Any suggestions are really appreciated.  Thanks in advance!

Keith