[rspec-users] Rails matcher render_template is wrong when using GetText, looking for flexible solution

[Daniel Sandbecker]

I have a problem with a mismatch between RSpec Rails and the actual
behavior when using GetText, and would be glad for suggestions how to
best solve this.

When using GetText a failure is reported for the following simplified
specification:

describe SamplesController, "when requesting /samples" do
  it "should render index " do
    get 'index'
    response.should render_template("index")
  end
end

The result is:

SamplesController when requesting /samples
- should render index (FAILED - 1)

1)
'SamplesController when requesting /samples should render index' FAILED
expected "index", got "index_en"

When I run the application, the template index.rhtml do get rendered
(I don't have any "index_en.rhtml").

The source of this mismatch is that GetText overrides
ActionView::Base.render_file, testing each possible localized template
path and passes the first existing path to the original render_file
method :

return render_file_without_locale(localized_path, use_full_path,
local_assigns) if file_exists? localized_path

This line always evaluates to true in RSpec context, but to false in
the application.

After a lot of digging  I found out that RspecOnRails overrides
file_exists? with a stub when integrate_views is not set
(lib/spec/rails/dsl/behaviour/controller.rb:57):

@template.stub!(:file_exists?).and_return(true)



Now I'm not sure what would be the best solution.

Since I know about this, I could simply add the same extension as
GetText does to the expected rendered view path:

response.should render_template("index" + "_" + GetText.locale.to_general)

But adding this to every check would be ugly and not very DRY.

I've tried to override the render_template matcher in my SpecHelper
with a method doing the addition before passing it on to the matcher.

module Spec::Rails::Matchers
  alias render_template_without_gettext_fix render_template
  def render_template(path)
	path += "_" + GetText.locale.to_general
	render_template_without_gettext_fix(path)
  end
end

But that breaks any spec that calls integrate_views. And I can't see
how I can check the status of integrate_views in this override, since
it doesn't have access to a controller instance. (My Ruby skills are
not very advanced. And the code I've read hunting this problem down
has made me dizzy.)

What I (think I) would like to achieve is some kind of check on each
Controller instance before the specs are run, and overriding
render_template if necessary. Is this possible/reasonable?

Maybe I'm just stupid. Should I care about this error, or simply not
use "render_template" in isolated controller tests?

I'm thankful for any advice!

/Daniel

RSpec 1.0.2
Spec::Rails 1.0.2
Rails 1.2.2
Ruby-GetText 1.9.0 (MsWin)