Stub controller helper method on rspec rails 3

[bolshakov]

Before Rspec 3 I've stubbed controller helper method this way:

before do 
   expect(view).to receive(:current_customer).and_return(FactoryGirl.build(:customer)
end

Now, i'm getting error: #<#<Class:0x007fc72addeea8>:0x007fc72add56f0 .... >does not implement: current_customer

Thats right. There is no method current_customer on rendered view. So I can't stub it.

There is no such method on anonymous controller too.

So how should I stub controller helpers while testing view?

[cupakromer]

You should have access to a controller object instance in the spec:

allow(controller).to receive(:thing).and_return('123')

You could turn off the verify partial doubles option, but that's generally not a good idea. As a general principle, it's not a good idea to stub the object under test.

[bolshakov]

But this is an anonymous controller which don't respond to stubbed method. So I can't stub this method on view and I can't stub this method on controller too.

[bolshakov]

As a workaround I found following solution

def view.current_customer
  FactoryGirl.build(:customer)
end

[cupakromer]

@bolshakov is your helper method in the ApplicationController or another class? I'm looking into some options, but it would help a lot if you could share your setup.

[myronmarston]

Prior discussion, FWIW: rspec/rspec-mocks#633

[bolshakov]

@cupakromer my helper is in the Controller inherited from ApplicationController.

[cupakromer]

Thanks for the link @myronmarston. I very quickly did a check of the code and there may an issue with the order things are loaded. I will need to look into it later.

@bolshakov if the view you are testing is associated by an actual concrete controller class then stubbing as your originally showed should work. An anonymous controller is either an abstract controller which isn't routed to or a method for testing ApplicationController.

Here is my local test which shows a normal controller view specs allows stubbing:

# app/controllers/orders_controller.rb
class OrdersController < ApplicationController
  respond_to :html

  def new
    render :new
  end

  def check_helper
    "it's working just fine"
  end
  helper_method :check_helper
end

# app/views/orders/new.html.slim
p #{check_helper}

# spec/views/orders/new.html.slim_spec.rb
require 'spec_helper'

describe "orders/new", type: :view do
  it do
    allow(view).to receive(:check_helper).and_return("stubbed")
    expect{ render }.to change{ rendered }.to include "stubbed"
  end
end

[bolshakov]

@cupakromer do you have enabled mocks.verify_partial_doubles = true

In this configuration I failed to stub method on view:

# app/controllers/current_customer.rb
module CurrentCustomer
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern

  included do
    helper_method :current_customer
  end

  def current_customer
    'real customer'
  end
end

# app/controllers/test_controller.rb
class TestController < ApplicationController
  include CurrentCustomer
  def index
    render :index
  end
end

# app/views/test/index.html.erb
<p><%= current_customer %></p>

# spec/views/test/index.html.erb_spec.rb
require 'rails_helper'

RSpec.describe "test/index", :type => :view do
  before do
    expect(view).to receive(:current_customer).and_return('stubbed customer')
  end

  it 'to call stubbed method' do
    expect { render }.to change { rendered }.to include 'stubbed customer'
  end
end

it fails with #<#<Class:0x00000104230690>:0x000001059b9f00 ... > does not implement: current_customer

I created repo with this bug:

git clone https://github.com/bolshakov/rspec-rails-issue
cd rspec-rails-issue
bundle install
bundle exec spec spec

[bolshakov]

Actually it still fails if I move current_customer method from module to TestController

[JonRowe]

Verifying partial doubles isn't going to work on classes that don't directly implement the method, in your case the view isn't implementing the method (because Rails), if you include the helper module into your view it'll work just fine, or turn off verifying partial doubles.

[bolshakov]

I don't thing that turning off verified doubles is a good idea.
Should view spec infer contoller name by spec name and provide right contoller? It looks like it provides anonymous controller instead

[JonRowe]

I don't thing that turning off verified doubles is a good idea.

It's a new feature that doesn't work for your use case, (by design), like I said, if you include the module into your view manually yourself it'll work just fine.

[cupakromer]

@bolshakov I agree with Jon. Right now verify partial doubles is still fairly new. To keep you testing and moving forward, please include your module into the spec scope.

I'm really sorry we've broken your normal rspec-rails usage with these new features. This is an issue with the inner details of how we set things up. I think there is some work that can be done to improve this. Thank you very much for reporting it.

[bolshakov]

I realized that keeping helpers in a controller is not a good idea. If I move my helpers to the ApplicationHelper module or to my controller's helper module it would be loaded automatically by rspec-rails

[bbugh]

I am trying to figure this out also for the standard current_user helper in a view spec. This used to work in rspec-2.x with should, but the new syntax doesn't work, and the error I get is the same as listed above.

before do 
  allow(view).to receive(:current_user).and_return(user)
end

fails with an #<#<Class:0x007fa71c2e1b28>:0x007fa71c1c2d78 ...>> does not implement: current_user

This is very surprising behavior considering it used to work and this is a very common use case. In our case, it needs to be different for every context, so a generic extend as mentioned above isn't going to work.

I ended up used the def view.current_user hack mentioned above but it's so gross. 😞 Hopefully you fantastic people who do amazing work with rspec will come up with something brilliant to fix this!