rspec users - Mar 2011 - How to test a Rails 3 metal controller?

Hi!

I could not find an easy solution to this question: how can I properly
test an Rails controller action?

We were trying to run the following test:

    get :show, :id => ''hello''
    response.should redirect_to("http://www.google.com")

But we got:

 undefined method `formats='' for
#<LinksController:0x00000104000b40>

After reading a couple of blog posts, we tried this work-around:

class LinksController
  include ActionController::UrlFor
  include ActionController::Testing
  include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers
  include AbstractController::ViewPaths
end

It works only partially, we''re now stuck with the limits of our monkey-
patching and get the following error:

undefined method `protected_instance_variables'' for
LinksController:Class

Well - is there a clean way to test our a Rails metal with RSpec?

Thanks for your support!

-- Thibaut

On Mar 22, 2011, at 7:50 AM, Thibaut Barr?re <thibaut.barrere at
gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I could not find an easy solution to this question: how can I properly
> test an Rails controller action?
> 
> We were trying to run the following test:
> 
>    get :show, :id => ''hello''
>    response.should redirect_to("http://www.google.com")
> 
> But we got:
> 
> undefined method `formats='' for
#<LinksController:0x00000104000b40>
> 
> After reading a couple of blog posts, we tried this work-around:
> 
> class LinksController
>  include ActionController::UrlFor
>  include ActionController::Testing
>  include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers
>  include AbstractController::ViewPaths
> end
> 
> It works only partially, we''re now stuck with the limits of our
monkey-
> patching and get the following error:
> 
> undefined method `protected_instance_variables'' for
> LinksController:Class
> 
> Well - is there a clean way to test our a Rails metal with RSpec?
Use a request spec (in spec/requests) instead of a controller
spec.
> 
> Thanks for your support!
> 
> -- Thibaut
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users

Hello David,
> Use a request spec (in spec/requests) instead of a controller spec.
Thanks, it worked perfectly!

I only encountered a "stack level too deep" error, which was solved by
upgrading rspec from 2.0.1 to 2.5.0, if it helps someone.

Thanks again!

-- Thibaut