[rspec-users] Persisting Logins and Sessions across scenarios

[David Chelimsky]

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 10:45 AM, James Byrne <lists at ruby-forum.com> wrote:
> I have an authentication filter on my application controller. I have the
> following feature statements:
>
>
>  Scenario: I should be logged in to do any of this
>    Given we have a user named "myuser"
>      And the user named "myuser" logs in
>    When they visit the "entities" page
>    Then they should see the "entities" page
>
>
>  Scenario: Entity should have essential identification information
>
>    Given I do not have any entities
>      And I am on the add a new entity page
>    When I enter "My Business Relation" in the "Common Name" field
>      And I enter "My B.R. Legal Name" in the "Legal Name" field
>      And I choose "Corporation" as the "Legal Form"
>      And I press "Create"
>    Then I should save the entity information successfully
>
> In scenario 1, the user is logged in successfully and the response body
> after the 'see the "entities" page' is indeed the entities/index page.
>
> When /should see the "(entities)" page/ do |resource|
>  response.body.should =~ /All Entities/m
> end
>
> When /on the add a new entity page/ do
>  visits new_entity_path
>  response.body.should =~ /Add a New Entity/m
> end
>
>
> However, in Scenario 2, I am assuming that a.) the same user (myuser)
> and their associated login session is employed.  Since the response body
> from this is the login page then evidently this assumption is wrong and
> something else is going on.  Can some inform me as to how test logins
> are managed/maintained/reused within cucumber/webrat?

Each scenario operates in a new session.

I usually have a step that aggregates the login process:

Given /^I am logged in as "(.*)"/ do |role|
  #create a user whose name and role are based on the role
  #log in that user
end

This lets me say:

Given I am logged in as "admin"
When I visit the super-secret page
Then I see it and learn about all its mystery

HTH,
David