rspec users - Jul 2010 - Loading problem with engine extending ActionController::Base

I''m working on an engine that extends ActionController::Base like this

module MyEngine
  class Engine < Rails::Engine

    config.after_initialize do
      ActionController::Base.class_eval do
        include MyEngine::ControllerExtension
      end
    end
  end
end

This works in the development environment (rails server). It does not 
work for specs. No matter if I run rake spec or rspec spec/some_spec.rb.


rake spec indirectly loads the application through this line in Rakefile

require File.expand_path(''../config/application'', __FILE__)

in the normal course of rake initialization. During this, 
ActionController::Base is loaded and the #after_initialize callback of 
MyEngine is called.

Then, when a spec is loaded, that in turn loads spec/spec_helper.rb, 
containing this line

require File.dirname(__FILE__) + "/../config/environment" unless 
defined?(Rails)

Which causes, among other things, a reload of ActionController::Base, 
but this time the engine callback is *not* executed. Thus, the specs 
blow up as soon as they run into a method defined in the engine. But, 
wait, why is that require executed at all? Isn''t Rails defined at that 
point? Apparently it is not and I have no idea why.

rspec spec/some_spec.rb is slightly different. Here 
ActionController::Base is loaded just once, but the engine callback is 
not executed.

rspec and associated gems are 2.0.0.beta.15
rails is 3.0.0.beta4

I''m stumped.

Michael

-- 
Michael Schuerig
mailto:michael at schuerig.de
http://www.schuerig.de/michael/

On Jul 3, 2010, at 3:34 PM, Michael Schuerig wrote:
> I''m working on an engine that extends ActionController::Base like
this
> 
> module MyEngine
>  class Engine < Rails::Engine
> 
>    config.after_initialize do
>      ActionController::Base.class_eval do
>        include MyEngine::ControllerExtension
>      end
>    end
>  end
> end
> 
> This works in the development environment (rails server). It does not 
> work for specs. No matter if I run rake spec or rspec spec/some_spec.rb.
> 
> 
> rake spec indirectly loads the application through this line in Rakefile
> 
> require File.expand_path(''../config/application'',
__FILE__)
> 
> in the normal course of rake initialization. During this, 
> ActionController::Base is loaded and the #after_initialize callback of 
> MyEngine is called.
> 
> Then, when a spec is loaded, that in turn loads spec/spec_helper.rb, 
> containing this line
> 
> require File.dirname(__FILE__) + "/../config/environment" unless 
> defined?(Rails)
This is from an old version of the spec_helper. Be sure to follow the
post-install instructions (that''s what they''re there for) and
run "script/rails generate rspec:install".

The newer generated spec_helper uses File.expand_path for this require, so it
doesn''t load the file a second time. I believe that will fix this issue
for you.

HTH,
David
> 
> Which causes, among other things, a reload of ActionController::Base, 
> but this time the engine callback is *not* executed. Thus, the specs 
> blow up as soon as they run into a method defined in the engine. But, 
> wait, why is that require executed at all? Isn''t Rails defined at
that
> point? Apparently it is not and I have no idea why.
> 
> rspec spec/some_spec.rb is slightly different. Here 
> ActionController::Base is loaded just once, but the engine callback is 
> not executed.
> 
> rspec and associated gems are 2.0.0.beta.15
> rails is 3.0.0.beta4
> 
> I''m stumped.
> 
> Michael

On Saturday 03 July 2010, David Chelimsky wrote:
> On Jul 3, 2010, at 3:34 PM, Michael Schuerig wrote:
[double loading of Rails framework classes]
> > require File.dirname(__FILE__) + "/../config/environment"
unless
> > defined?(Rails)
> 
> This is from an old version of the spec_helper. Be sure to follow the
> post-install instructions (that''s what they''re there for)
and run
> "script/rails generate rspec:install".
Indeed, you''re right. I compared old and new visually (only) and
didn''t
notice the difference. As I have some stuff in spec_helper.rb, I don''t 
like to overwrite it.
> The newer generated spec_helper uses File.expand_path for this
> require, so it doesn''t load the file a second time. I believe that
> will fix this issue for you.
Unfortunately and surprisingly not. I''m using

ruby 1.8.7 (2010-06-23 patchlevel 299) [x86_64-linux]

in case that makes a difference.

I can work around this by including the required extension explicitly in 
ApplicationController, of course.

Michael

-- 
Michael Schuerig
mailto:michael at schuerig.de
http://www.schuerig.de/michael/

On Jul 3, 2010, at 4:40 PM, Michael Schuerig wrote:
> On Saturday 03 July 2010, David Chelimsky wrote:
>> On Jul 3, 2010, at 3:34 PM, Michael Schuerig wrote:
> 
> [double loading of Rails framework classes]
>>> require File.dirname(__FILE__) + "/../config/environment"
unless
>>> defined?(Rails)
>> 
>> This is from an old version of the spec_helper. Be sure to follow the
>> post-install instructions (that''s what they''re there
for) and run
>> "script/rails generate rspec:install".
> 
> Indeed, you''re right. I compared old and new visually (only) and
didn''t
> notice the difference. As I have some stuff in spec_helper.rb, I
don''t
> like to overwrite it.
> 
>> The newer generated spec_helper uses File.expand_path for this
>> require, so it doesn''t load the file a second time. I believe
that
>> will fix this issue for you.
> 
> Unfortunately and surprisingly not.
Did you try both ''rake spec'' and ''bundle exec rspec
spec''?
> I''m using
> 
> ruby 1.8.7 (2010-06-23 patchlevel 299) [x86_64-linux]
> 
> in case that makes a difference.
> 
> I can work around this by including the required extension explicitly in 
> ApplicationController, of course.
Yeah, but who wants to do that!  Would you do me a favor and raise this as an
issue in http://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails/issues? I won''t be able to
address this for a bit, and that''s the best way to ensure it stays on
the radar.

Cheers,
David

On Monday 05 July 2010, David Chelimsky wrote:
> On Jul 3, 2010, at 4:40 PM, Michael Schuerig wrote:
> > On Saturday 03 July 2010, David Chelimsky wrote:
> >> On Jul 3, 2010, at 3:34 PM, Michael Schuerig wrote:
> > [double loading of Rails framework classes]
> > 
> >>> require File.dirname(__FILE__) +
"/../config/environment" unless
> >>> defined?(Rails)
> >> 
> >> This is from an old version of the spec_helper. Be sure to follow
> >> the post-install instructions (that''s what
they''re there for) and
> >> run "script/rails generate rspec:install".
> > 
> > Indeed, you''re right. I compared old and new visually (only)
and
> > didn''t notice the difference. As I have some stuff in
> > spec_helper.rb, I don''t like to overwrite it.
> > 
> >> The newer generated spec_helper uses File.expand_path for this
> >> require, so it doesn''t load the file a second time. I
believe that
> >> will fix this issue for you.
> > 
> > Unfortunately and surprisingly not.
> 
> Did you try both ''rake spec'' and ''bundle exec
rspec spec''?
bundle exec rspec spec

does not make a difference.
> Would you do me a favor and raise
> this as an issue in http://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails/issues? I
> won''t be able to address this for a bit, and that''s the
best way to
> ensure it stays on the radar.
There you go:

  http://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails/issues/#issue/118

Michael

-- 
Michael Schuerig
mailto:michael at schuerig.de
http://www.schuerig.de/michael/