How to write rspec for blank field? [Rails3.1]

Question

I use rails 3.1 + rspec and factory girl.

My validation of required field (validates_presence_of) is working. How do I get the test to use that fact as a 'success' rather than a 'failure'
The spec is:

describe "Add an industry with no name" do
  context "Unable to create a record when the name is blank" do
    subject do
      ind = Factory.create(:industry_name_blank)
    end
    it { should be_invalid }
  end
end

but I get a failure:

Failures:

  1) Add an industry with no name Unable to create a record when the name is blank 
     Failure/Error: ind = Factory.create(:industry_name_blank)
     ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid:
       Validation failed: Name can't be blank
     # ./spec/models/industry_spec.rb:45:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'
     # ./spec/models/industry_spec.rb:47:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'

Finished in 0.20855 seconds
8 examples, 1 failure

Model Code:

class Industry < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates_presence_of :name
  validates_uniqueness_of :name
end

Factory Code:

Factory.define :industry_name_blank, :class => 'industry' do |industry|
  industry.name   { nil }
end

Answer 1

Here's an example... subject gets populated with "Industry.new" by convention

describe Industry do

  it "should have an error on name when blank" do
    subject.name.should be_blank
    subject.valid?
    subject.should have(1).error_on(:name)
    #subject.errors.on(:name).should == "is required"
  end

end

The last is a little more brittle, but you could do it

More on the syntax: http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/rspec/

Answer 2

Factory.build(:industry_name_blank) generates the object while Factory.create(:industry_name_blank) generates and saves the created object. In your case it can't save the object, because it is invalid due to lacking name , which is why you get the validation error.

So instead of using create use build to avoid hitting the validation errors: Factory.build(:industry_name_blank) . Then you should be able to spec it out like Jesse suggests:

subject.should_not be_valid
subject.should have(1).error_on(:name)