Rails rspec控制器操作对象方法存根

Question

I'm trying to test my controller #merge_with action. I want to test that @article is not nil, and gets assigned the article found in the database. Not sure why the test is failing, because the action seems to work just fine in the browser.

The controller #merge_with action.

def merge_with 
  unless current_user.admin?
    flash[:error] = _("You are not allowed to perform a merge action")
    redirect_to :action => :index
    return
  end
  @article = Article.find_by_id(params[:id])
  if @article.merge_with(params[:merge_with])
    flash[:notice] = _("Articles successfully merged!")
    redirect_to :action => :index
  else
    flash[:notice] = _("Articles couldn't be merged")
    redirect_to :action => :edit, :id => params[:id]
  end
end

My RSpec test of the redirect is failing due to the merge_with called on the @article object.

context "when user is admin" do
  before :each do
    @admin_user = Factory(:user, :profile => Factory(:profile_admin))
    @article = Factory(:article, :user => @user)
    request.session = {:user => @admin_user.id}
  end

  it "should merge articles" do
    Article.should_receive(:find_by_id).with(@article.id).and_return(@article)
    post :merge_with, id: @article.id
    assigns(:article).should == @article
  end
end

The Error Message

expected: #<Article id: 1, type: "Article", title: "A big article", author: nil, body: "A content with several data", extended: "extended content for fun", excerpt: nil, created_at: "2013-11-22 21:19:38", updated_at: "2013-11-22 21:19:36", user_id: nil, permalink: "a-big-article", guid: "deadbeef2", text_filter_id: nil, whiteboard: nil, name: nil, published: true, allow_pings: true, allow_comments: true, published_at: "2005-01-01 02:00:00", state: "published", parent_id: nil, settings: {}, post_type: "read">
        got: nil (using ==)

Answer 1

I would check a few things:

• Do you have any before filter that may be interfering? Do "puts response.body.inspect" and check if the output of the method is not some redirect for example (actually, your "unless current_user.admin?" redirect should be a before filter, so you can reuse it for other actions that require an admin)

• You can also check what's happening inside the method with some debugging, I mean, is current_user a valid admin? Do "puts current_user.inspect" before the unless, if it's valid do a "puts @article.inspect" before find_by_id, what happens if @article is not found with @article = Article.find_by_id(params[:id])? you have some bug there if the id is invalid cause you are calling merge_with on nil.

Debug that and you will end up with the answer to your error, I'm guessing its just "unless current_user.admin?" redirecting you, so @article is never assigned.