[rspec-users] fills_in NoMethodError

Mark Thomson
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:55:51 -0000

I have an RSpec story with an overall structure that looks something
like this -

----
Given the user is on the start page
When the user clicks the ''new'' button
Then the ''new record'' page should be displayed

When the user fills in the form
And the user submits the form
Then the updated form should be displayed

When the user fills in the updated form
And the user submits the form
Then a conformation message should be displayed
----

In the last When step, I have a fills_in call that is failing with the
following:

----
NoMethodError: You have a nil object when you didn''t expect it! You
might have expected an instance of ActiveRecord::Base. The error
occurred while evaluating nil.attributes.
----

I think the ActiveRecord thing is a red herring. Poking through the
Webrat source code, it seems like the problem is more likely a failure
to find any input fields. But I''m not sure why. Is there anything
inappropriate with the way I''ve organized the story, stringing together
multiple When-Then segments? One thing that seems curious is that I have
a completely identical fills_in call in the When step that precedes the
one that is failing and yet that one runs without any problem.

Does this ring any bells with anyone?

Mark.
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