Rails uninitialized constant RelationshipController (NameError)

Question

I am following the ruby.railstutorial.org with some slight modifications to my app. I am trying to run the relationships_controller_spec but I keep getting the following error:

$ bundle exec rspec spec/controllers/relationships_controller_spec.rb
Exception encountered: #<NameError: uninitialized constant RelationshipsController>
backtrace:
/Users/JP2/Documents/Development/Ruby/rails_projects/iPray/spec/controllers/relationships_controller_spec.rb:3:in `<top (required)>'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/configuration.rb:419:in `block in load_spec_files'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/configuration.rb:419:in `map'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/configuration.rb:419:in `load_spec_files'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/command_line.rb:18:in `run'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/monkey/spork/test_framework/rspec.rb:5:in `run_tests'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/spork-0.9.0.rc8/lib/spork/run_strategy/forking.rb:13:in `block in run'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/spork-0.9.0.rc8/lib/spork/forker.rb:21:in `block in initialize'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/spork-0.9.0.rc8/lib/spork/forker.rb:18:in `fork'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/spork-0.9.0.rc8/lib/spork/forker.rb:18:in `initialize'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/spork-0.9.0.rc8/lib/spork/run_strategy/forking.rb:9:in `new'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/spork-0.9.0.rc8/lib/spork/run_strategy/forking.rb:9:in `run'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/spork-0.9.0.rc8/lib/spork/server.rb:48:in `run'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1558:in `perform_without_block'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1518:in `perform'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1592:in `block (2 levels) in main_loop'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1588:in `loop'
/Users/JP2/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1588:in `block in main_loop'

I just found out that if I try the test while spork is NOT running, then the test passes, but if spork is running, I get the error above.

Here is my spec_helper.rb file:

    require 'rubygems'
require 'spork'

Spork.prefork do
  # Loading more in this block will cause your tests to run faster. However, 
  # if you change any configuration or code from libraries loaded here, you'll
  # need to restart spork for it take effect.
  ENV["RAILS_ENV"] ||= 'test'
  require File.expand_path("../../config/environment", __FILE__)
  require 'rspec/rails'

  # Requires supporting files with custom matchers and macros, etc,
  # in ./support/ and its subdirectories.
  Dir[Rails.root.join("spec/support/**/*.rb")].each {|f| require f}

  RSpec.configure do |config|
    # == Mock Framework
    #
    # If you prefer to use mocha, flexmock or RR, uncomment the appropriate line:
    #
    # config.mock_with :mocha
    # config.mock_with :flexmock
    # config.mock_with :rr
    config.mock_with :rspec

    config.fixture_path = "#{::Rails.root}/spec/fixtures"

    # If you're not using ActiveRecord, or you'd prefer not to run each of your
    # examples within a transaction, comment the following line or assign false
    # instead of true.
    config.use_transactional_fixtures = true

    def test_sign_in(user)
      controller.sign_in(user)
    end
  end
end

Spork.each_run do
end

Here is my relationships_controller.rb file:

    class RelationshipsController < ApplicationController
  before_filter :authenticate

  def create
    @user = User.find(params[:relationship][:followed_id])
    current_user.follow!(@user)
    redirect_to @user
    end
  end

  def destroy
    @user = Relationship.find(params[:id]).followed
    current_user.unfollow!(@user)
    redirect_to @user
    end
  end
end

And here is my relationships_controller_spec.rb file:

    require 'spec_helper'

describe RelationshipsController do

  describe "access control" do

    it "should require signin for create" do
      post :create
      response.should redirect_to(signin_path)
    end

    it "should require signin for destroy" do
      delete :destroy, :id => 1
      response.should redirect_to(signin_path)
    end
  end

  describe "POST 'create'" do

    before(:each) do
      @user = test_sign_in(Factory(:user))
      @followed = Factory(:user, :email => Factory.next(:email))
    end

    it "should create a relationship" do
      lambda do
        post :create, :relationship => { :followed_id => @followed }
        response.should be_redirect
      end.should change(Relationship, :count).by(1)
    end
  end

  describe "DELETE 'destroy'" do

    before(:each) do
      @user = test_sign_in(Factory(:user))
      @followed = Factory(:user, :email => Factory.next(:email))
      @user.follow!(@followed)
      @relationship = @user.relationships.find_by_followed_id(@followed)
    end

    it "should destroy a relationship" do
      lambda do
        delete :destroy, :id => @relationship
        response.should be_redirect
      end.should change(Relationship, :count).by(-1)
    end
  end
end

I also added 'follow' and 'unfollow' buttons to create and delete relationships. As mentioned above, the relationships_controller_spec.rb passes if spork is not running. But, the browser gives me the same 'uninitialized constant RelationshipsController' error when I click the followed button in the browser.

Answer 1

I had the same issue with my test running fine w/o spork but failing with spork giving the error:

NameError: uninitialized constant.....

The issue was the the filename of one of the classes in my model did not exactly match the model name. Are you sure your User class and Relationship class are named user.rb and relationship.rb respectively?