`load_missing_constant': uninitialized constant AuthenticatedTestHelper (NameError)

Question

I have an old rails project I need to make changes to and perhaps even update.

My gem list looks like this:

*** LOCAL GEMS ***

actionmailer (2.3.14, 2.3.11, 2.3.8, 2.3.5, 2.3.2)
actionpack (2.3.14, 2.3.11, 2.3.8, 2.3.5, 2.3.2)
activerecord (2.3.14, 2.3.11, 2.3.8, 2.3.5, 2.3.2)
activeresource (2.3.14, 2.3.11, 2.3.8, 2.3.5, 2.3.2)
activesupport (3.2.9, 2.3.14, 2.3.11, 2.3.8, 2.3.5, 2.3.2)
addressable (2.3.2)
BlueCloth (1.0.1)
bourne (1.1.2)
bundler (1.2.3)
childprocess (0.3.6)
ffi (1.2.0)
i18n (0.6.1)
json (1.7.5)
libwebsocket (0.1.7.1)
metaclass (0.0.1)
mocha (0.10.5)
multi_json (1.5.0)
mysql (2.8.1)
paperclip (2.3.1.1)
rack (1.1.3, 1.0.1)
rails (2.3.14, 2.3.2)
rake (0.8.7)
rdoc (3.12)
restful_authentication (1.1.6)
rspec (1.3.1)
ruby-net-ldap (0.0.4)
rubygems-bundler (1.1.0)
rubyzip (0.9.9)
rvm (1.11.3.5)
selenium-client (1.2.18)
selenium-webdriver (2.27.2)
shoulda (2.11.3)
shoulda-context (1.0.2)
shoulda-matchers (1.4.2)
thoughtbot-shoulda (2.11.1)
websocket (1.0.6)

When I run rake test I get:

/Users/noah/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p371@website/gems/activesupport-2.3.14/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:469:in `load_missing_constant': uninitialized constant AuthenticatedTestHelper (NameError)
    from /Users/noah/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p371@website/gems/activesupport-2.3.14/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:106:in `const_missing'
    from /Users/noah/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p371@website/gems/activesupport-2.3.14/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:118:in `const_missing'
    from ./test/test_helper.rb:4
    from ./test/functional/admin/articles_controller_test.rb:1:in `require'
    from ./test/functional/admin/articles_controller_test.rb:1
    from /Users/noah/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p371@website/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake/rake_test_loader.rb:5:in `load'
    from /Users/noah/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p371@website/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake/rake_test_loader.rb:5
    from /Users/noah/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p371@website/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake/rake_test_loader.rb:5:in `each'
    from /Users/noah/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p371@website/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake/rake_test_loader.rb:5
/Users/noah/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p371/bin/ruby -I"lib:test" "/Users/noah/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p371@website/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake/rake_test_loader.rb"  
Errors running test:units and test:functionals!

Here is the first part my test helper:

ENV["RAILS_ENV"] = "test"
require File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) + "/../config/environment")
require 'test_help'
include AuthenticatedTestHelper

Anywhere where include AuthenticatedTestHelper is included it fails. Any ideas on why this maybe?

Updates:

I believe my problem is that restful_authentication is failing to generate the file that would provide AuthenticatedTestHelper.

Inside of dependencies, I have the following:

qualified_name = qualified_name_for from_mod, const_name
      path_suffix = qualified_name.underscore
      name_error = NameError.new("uninitialized constant #{qualified_name}")

      file_path = search_for_file(path_suffix)
      if file_path && ! loaded.include?(File.expand_path(file_path)) # We found a matching file to load
        require_or_load file_path
        raise LoadError, "Expected #{file_path} to define #{qualified_name}" unless uninherited_const_defined?(from_mod, const_name)
        return from_mod.const_get(const_name)
      elsif mod = autoload_module!(from_mod, const_name, qualified_name, path_suffix)
        return mod
      elsif (parent = from_mod.parent) && parent != from_mod &&
            ! from_mod.parents.any? { |p| uninherited_const_defined?(p, const_name) }
        # If our parents do not have a constant named +const_name+ then we are free
        # to attempt to load upwards. If they do have such a constant, then this
        # const_missing must be due to from_mod::const_name, which should not
        # return constants from from_mod's parents.
        begin
          return parent.const_missing(const_name)
        rescue NameError => e
          raise unless e.missing_name? qualified_name_for(parent, const_name)
          raise name_error
        end
      else
        puts file_path #added this line
        raise name_error
      end
    end

and I've added the line puts file_path and this is nil, so again rails has no idea where this file is. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Normally this module shoud be in lib/authenticated_test_helper.rb

If you can't find it or get it elsewhere you could simply create an empty module in that file and then gradually implement or stub it.

But if you are planning to upgrade to Rails 3 you have to choose another authentication framework anyway (Authlogic, Devise), since restful_authentication doesn't seem to work with Rails 3.

PS: The code from dependencies.rb doesn't help you. It just contains the code to derive the file name from the constant (= module in your case) It simply fails because you have no file named authenticated_test_helper in your load paths.