rspec users - Oct 2008 - Checking that a controller created a separate model object

Hi everyone, RSpec newbie here.  I''m looking forward to interacting
with the
community as I learn more about TDD, RSpec, Rails, and... TDD through RSpec
in Rails.

Having watched the Peepcode screencasts and read a lot of documentation,
I''m
trying to write my first comprehensive applications using TDD from the
ground up.  I''m stuck writing a test for my controller, though.

This application is your basic crappy social network.  There are three
relevant models in play right now: User, Group, and Membership.  User and
Group have :has_many relationships with each other :through Membership;
Membership, in addition to having a user_id and a group_id, also has a
column called "rank", to which I write in either "officer"
or "member" as a
value.

Group also defines the following relationships just for convenience:

  has_many :memberships
  has_many :officers, :through => :memberships, :source => :user,
:conditions => "rank = ''officer''"
  has_many :members, :through => :memberships, :source => :user,
:conditions
=> "rank = ''member''"

I''m trying to test the CREATE functionality in my Group controller.
Unfortunately, this test is not working.

      it "should make the creating user an officer" do
        Group.stub!(:new).and_return(mock_group(:save => true))
        post :create, :group => {}
        assigns[:group].should have(1).officer
      end

The error message:
  Mock ''Group_1008'' received unexpected message :officer with
(no args)

If I understand this correctly, I am getting the error because
assigns[:group] isn''t really an ActiveRecord object, just a mock, and I
guess the relationships don''t carry over?  If this is the case,
what''s the
right way to test it, assuming that a Membership really is being created in
my controller''s create function?

Thanks,
O.
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On 2008-10-12, at 22:33, O. Frabjous-Dey wrote:
> Hi everyone, RSpec newbie here.  I''m looking forward to
interacting
> with the community as I learn more about TDD, RSpec, Rails, and...  
> TDD through RSpec in Rails.
>
> Having watched the Peepcode screencasts and read a lot of  
> documentation, I''m trying to write my first comprehensive  
> applications using TDD from the ground up.  I''m stuck writing a
test
> for my controller, though.
>
> This application is your basic crappy social network.  There are  
> three relevant models in play right now: User, Group, and  
> Membership.  User and Group have :has_many relationships with each  
> other :through Membership; Membership, in addition to having a  
> user_id and a group_id, also has a column called "rank", to which
I
> write in either "officer" or "member" as a value.
>
> Group also defines the following relationships just for convenience:
>
>   has_many :memberships
>   has_many :officers, :through => :memberships, :source  
> => :user, :conditions => "rank =
''officer''"
>   has_many :members, :through => :memberships, :source  
> => :user, :conditions => "rank =
''member''"
>
> I''m trying to test the CREATE functionality in my Group
controller.
> Unfortunately, this test is not working.
>
>       it "should make the creating user an officer" do
>         Group.stub!(:new).and_return(mock_group(:save => true))
>         post :create, :group => {}
>         assigns[:group].should have(1).officer
>       end
>
> The error message:
>   Mock ''Group_1008'' received unexpected message :officer
with (no
> args)
>
> If I understand this correctly, I am getting the error because  
> assigns[:group] isn''t really an ActiveRecord object, just a mock,
> and I guess the relationships don''t carry over?  If this is the  
> case, what''s the right way to test it, assuming that a Membership
> really is being created in my controller''s create function?
>
> Thanks,
> O.
Hi O. The Group that you''re creating is a Mock. Thus, it
doesn''t have
any of the methods (Eg: #officer) that a real Group has. Since  
#officer hasn''t been stubbed out on the mock Group, the error occurs.

As for how to spec that the relationships are being setup correctly,  
can you provide the code for the Group''s "new" action?

Cheers,
Nick

On 2008-10-12, at 23:49, O. Frabjous-Dey wrote:
> Hi Nick,
>
> The :new action comes straight from script/generate rspec_scaffold:
>
>   def new
>     @group = Group.new
>
>     respond_to do |format|
>       format.html
>     end
>   end
>
> I took out the XML rendering, but left in the respond_to block just  
> in case I wanted to add it or something else later.
> And here''s :create.
>
>   def create
>     @group = Group.new(params[:group])
>
>     respond_to do |format|
>       if @group.save
>         flash[:notice] = ''Group was successfully
created.''
>         # Make this user an officer of the group
>         Membership.create(:user_id => session[:user_id], :group_id  
> => @group.id, :rank => ''officer'')
>         format.html { redirect_to(@group) }
>       else
>         format.html { render :action => "new" }
>       end
>     end
>   end
>
> Thanks!
> O.
Hi again, O. In your spec, you''re stubbing Group#new and returning a  
mock. As a result, the "create" action uses that mock when creating  
the Membership object. I''ve never specced relationships, so
I''m not
sure what to suggest. Hopefully someone else can give some advice.

Cheers,
Nick

BTW, that last email of yours was sent directly to me, rather than to  
the mailing list. Let''s keep all of the messages on the list.

On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 1:47 PM, Nick Hoffman <nick at deadorange.com>
wrote:
> On 2008-10-12, at 23:49, O. Frabjous-Dey wrote:
>
>> Hi Nick,
>>
>> The :new action comes straight from script/generate rspec_scaffold:
>>
>>  def new
>>    @group = Group.new
>>
>>    respond_to do |format|
>>      format.html
>>    end
>>  end
>>
>> I took out the XML rendering, but left in the respond_to block just in
>> case I wanted to add it or something else later.
>> And here''s :create.
>>
>>  def create
>>    @group = Group.new(params[:group])
>>
>>    respond_to do |format|
>>      if @group.save
>>        flash[:notice] = ''Group was successfully
created.''
>>        # Make this user an officer of the group
>>        Membership.create(:user_id => session[:user_id], :group_id
=> @
>> group.id, :rank => ''officer'')
>>        format.html { redirect_to(@group) }
>>      else
>>        format.html { render :action => "new" }
>>      end
>>    end
>>  end
>>
>> Thanks!
>> O.
>>
>
> Hi again, O. In your spec, you''re stubbing Group#new and returning
a mock.
> As a result, the "create" action uses that mock when creating the
Membership
> object. I''ve never specced relationships, so I''m not sure
what to suggest.
> Hopefully someone else can give some advice.
>
> Cheers,
> Nick
>
> BTW, that last email of yours was sent directly to me, rather than to the
> mailing list. Let''s keep all of the messages on the list.
>
Whoops!  Sorry this was sent straight to you, Nick.  I should have hit
Reply-all.  (Also that the subject line isn''t formatted correctly; I
mistakenly thought that the listserv software would prepend [rspec-users] on
its own.)

I thought some more about the issue and I think I''m approaching the
problem
the wrong way to begin with.  As I understand it, part of the philosophy of
RSpec is that using mocks and stubs when testing controllers and views
instead of touching the database helps to keep each test context
self-contained.  So I really ought to be checking to see if
Membership.create or or Membership.new is being called instead of examining
the model object''s relationships themselves - not that I can anyway,
since
it''s a mock model.

Can anyone confirm if that sounds right?  If so, what method should I be
using?  #should_receive?  Thanks again in advance.
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On 2008-10-13, at 17:14, O. Frabjous-Dey wrote:
> I thought some more about the issue and I think I''m approaching
the
> problem the wrong way to begin with.  As I understand it, part of  
> the philosophy of RSpec is that using mocks and stubs when testing  
> controllers and views instead of touching the database helps to keep  
> each test context self-contained.  So I really ought to be checking  
> to see if Membership.create or or Membership.new is being called  
> instead of examining the model object''s relationships themselves -
> not that I can anyway, since it''s a mock model.
>
> Can anyone confirm if that sounds right?  If so, what method should  
> I be using?  #should_receive?  Thanks again in advance.
Hi O. You''re correct about using mocks and stubs to prevent hitting  
the database. More importantly though, they allow you to test discrete  
pieces of code without depending on the state of its surrounding code.

To spec the ''create'' action, just go through it one
"step" at a time.
Eg:

describe "create" do
   before :each do
     @group = mock_model Group, :save => true
     # somehow spec the assignment to flash[:notice]
     Membership.stub! :create
   end

   it "should create a new group"
   it "should respond to ..."
   it "should save the group"
   it "should assign the flash message"
   it "should create a new Membership"
   etc...
end

That doesn''t seem complete. What''d I miss?  =P

Cheers,
Nick