Can't stub attr_accessor

[dvlscm]

I'm new to Ruby and Mocha, so what I'm about to report could be user error. If so, please let me know.

I'm using minitest. Stubbing an attr_accessor for any_instances appears to have no effect at all. A small, contrived example:

class Order
  attr_accessor :shipping_period

  def shipping_delay
    return 5 + @shipping_period
  end
end

require 'minitest/autorun'
require 'mocha/mini_test'

class TestOrder < Minitest::Test
  def test_shipping_delay
    order = Order.new
    Order.any_instance.stubs(:shipping_period).returns(7)
    assert_equal 12, order.shipping_delay
  end
end

That gives me this result:

1. Error:
   TestOrder#test_shipping_delay:
   TypeError: nil can't be coerced into Fixnum
   tester.rb:60:in +' tester.rb:60:inshipping_delay'
   tester.rb:71:in `test_shipping_delay'

Apparently the stub didn't actually set things up such that @shipping_period has the value 7. The Partial Mocking example on the main page for Mocha shows something similar with stubbing an attr_accessor (the last test), so it doesn't seem like I'm doing something technically out of bounds.

I'm sure there are reasons why stubbing an attr_accessor could be considered wrong, or unadvisable, or not ideal. Setting those aside, am I doing something technically wrong to stub an attr_accessor, or is this an issue in Mocha?

Roy

[floehopper]

I'm sorry for the slow response - I've only just seen this, because my GitHub email notifications for this repo stopped working for some reason. I'll try to take a look at this as soon as I can. Cheers, James.

[floehopper]

The problem in your example is that Order#shipping_delay is using the @shipping_period instance variable directly i.e. it is not calling the accessor "getter" method Order#shipping_period. If you remove the @ sign, I think your test will pass.

I'm going to close this issue for now, but feel free to re-open it if I haven't answered your question. If you have more questions about how to use Mocha, it might be better to use the mailing list.

[dvlscm]

Thanks, James. I believe you're right. Silly mistake on my part there. I'll try your suggestion. Odds are good it'll be a-okay. And thanks for the mailing list pointer. I'll ask future usage questions over there.