[rspec-users] I'm really bad at controllers, help please.

[Jonathan Linowes]

I'm nearly as new at this as you are I'm I'm just figuring things out  
myself too.

I think your problem is method :messages is being called on an  
instance of User, not the class, so you need

@user.stub!(:messages).and_return([@message])

here's some clues to how I've gotten similar things working
To diagnose problems with my examples, I
- watch the test.log file. You could use 'tail' or on mac use the  
'console' utility
- use the -e option in spec to run one example at a time. I copy/ 
paste the test name from the terminal window to avoid a lot of typing
- sometimes I comment out code in my app methods to limit what its  
actually doing and then add one line at a time to "re-develop" the  
method
- similarly I may create an extra test method in my controller or  
model to isolate things I dont understand between the spec and the code.

I also tend to use should_receive rather than stubs, it provides more  
details (although seems to make the tests more brittle)

thus,

# separate for reuse with multiple describe cases
def setup_messages do
   @user = mock_model(User)
   @message = mock_model(Message)
   @messages = [@message]
end

def before(:each) do
   setup_messages
   User.should_receive(:find).with("1").and_return(@user)
   @user.should_receive(:messages).and_return(@messages)
end

def do_get
   get :index, :user_id => 1
end

it "should find all messages" do
   do_get
   assigns[:messages].should == @messages
end

I think this is right. Please let me know
:)


On Jun 2, 2007, at 4:27 AM, Fischer, Daniel wrote:

> Hey,
>
> Sorry for so many questions - I'm really bad at this right now.
>
> I'm trying to cover the following code w/ rspec
>
>   def index
>     if params[:user_id]
>       @user = User.find(params[:user_id])
>       @messages = @user.messages
>     end
>   end
>
> So basically what I'm doing is listing all the messages for a user,
> provided there is an id parameter.
>
> describe MessagesController, " handling GET /messages for a user" do
>
>   before do
>     @message = mock_model(Message)
>     @message.stub!(:user_id).and_return(1)
>     @user = mock_model(User)
>     @user.stub!(:id).and_return(1)
>     User.stub!(:messages).and_return([@message])
>     User.stub!(:find).and_return([@user])
>   end
>
>   def do_get
>     get :index, :user_id => 1
>   end
>
>   it "should be successful" do
>     do_get
>     response.should be_success
>   end
>
>   it "should render index template" do
>     do_get
>     response.should render_template('index')
>   end
>
>   it "should find all messages" do
>     User.should_receive(:messages).and_return([@message])
>     do_get
>   end
>
>   it "should assign the found messages for the view" do
>     do_get
>     assigns[:messages].should == [@message]
>   end
> end
>
>
> I'm trying to use the basic scaffold spec, but I'm absolutely clueless
> on what the proper way to handle this is, I'm not even sure the proper
> way I should mock the messages method, so it'll return a "stub?" of a
> collection, or whatever the proper term is.
>
> I'm sorry you have to deal with a newb, but if you could really help
> me out I'd appreciate it a ton, thanks!
> -- 
> -Daniel Fischer
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users