Rails ActiveRecord serialize method doesn't work in test environment

Question

I've got a problem with deserialization of ActiveRecord serialize method in my tests.
It just gives me pure String instead of my data Array.

Example:

User > ActiveRecord::Base
   serialize :roles, Array
end

Console:

u = User.new
u.roles = ["admin", "support"]
u.save
# => true

User.first.roles
# => ["admin", "support"]

In test environment:

User.first.roles
# => "--- \n- admin\n- support\n"

it is a String. It seems that YAML serialize is not working there but I have no idea what to do to get it working.

I was already trying to figure it out with this , this , this and this , but with no luck.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Martin

Answer 1

After all to bypass this I needed to call the data in database directly without involvement of "serialize" AR method.

YAML::load(User.first.roles_before_type_cast)

And now test environment also directly parses the data and give me correct roles Array.

Answer 2

I dont know if it solves your problem, but you can always get back the array from the string using

YAML::load("--- \n- admin\n- support\n")
# => ["admin", "support"]

So, in your test environment, you should do

YAML::load(User.first.roles)