rspec users - Aug 2009 - [Rails] How to mock/stub link_to from a Rails helper spec?

All,

In a Rails helper spec, how do I stub or mock the ''link_to''
method?
When i step into link_to, self.class is
Spec::Rails::Example::HelperExampleGroup::Subclass_1::Subclass_5::Subclass_1.

What I''m trying to do is stub link_to and check that its parameters
are correct--i.e., that a helper method is properly constructing the
parameters to link_to. The work-around (and what seems to me to be a
more awkward approach) is to grep the output of the helper method for
a link with a proper href property.

Thoughts?

Ed

On Aug 20, 3:02?pm, Mike Sassak <msas... at gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 3:00 PM, Ed Ruder <ed.ru... at gmail.com>
wrote:
> > All,
>
> > In a Rails helper spec, how do I stub or mock the
''link_to'' method?
> > When i step into link_to, self.class is
>
> >
Spec::Rails::Example::HelperExampleGroup::Subclass_1::Subclass_5::Subclass_ 1.
>
> > What I''m trying to do is stub link_to and check that its
parameters
> > are correct--i.e., that a helper method is properly constructing the
> > parameters to link_to. The work-around (and what seems to me to be a
> > more awkward approach) is to grep the output of the helper method for
> > a link with a proper href property.
>
> Hi Ed,
>
> Verifying the output of the helper method isn''t a work around at
all.
> Rather, it sounds like exactly what you should be doing in this case. Think
> of the helper method as a black box--you only care what comes out, not,
> necessarily, how it got there. Verifying output in this way rather than the
> implementation makes your specs more resilient in the face of changes,
(what
> would happen, for example, if the calling semantics of link_to changed in a
> newer versions of Rails?), and is one of the central tenets of
test/behavior
> driven development. RSpec already has lots of methods to verify HTML, too.
> See the Expectations section
athttp://rspec.info/rails/writing/views.htmlformore details.
>
> Mike
Mike,

Sounds OK. Thanks.

Ed