[rspec-users] should_receive break the method chain?

[David Chelimsky]

On Jul 29, 2010, at 7:46 AM, Zhenning Guan wrote:

> class A
> def process
>  @b.calculate
> end
> end
> 
> 
> it 'should change b calculate value' do
>  @b.should_receive(:calculate)
>  @a.process
> 
>  @b.calculae_value.should == 'after_calculae'
> end
> 
> it will fail, if I comment out #@b.should_receive(:calculate), the test
> pass,
> or if comment out #@b.calculae_value.should == 'after_calculae', also
> pass.
> 
> so my colleague said maybe should_receive break the mehod chain and
> return.
> thing is really going this way?

Your colleague is correct. Any time you use object.stub(:method) or object.should_receive(:method) on a real object, the method is replaced by the mock framework. This is true with all of the popular ruby mock/test double frameworks. The one way to get around that is to use RR's[1] proxy.

HTH,
David

[1] http://github.com/btakita/rr