On Nov 2, 2009, at 3:35 AM, Amit Kulkarni wrote:

Following is the scenario.

describe BbPostsController, "POST Create" do
 context "Admin" do
   fixtures :users, :bb_posts, :user_channels, :channels,
:channel_features
     it "should save post" do
       login_as(:amit)
       # Added to pass before filters in controller
       controller.stub!(:validate_channel).and_return(true)
       controller.stub!(:is_feature_active).and_return(Blog)
       controller.stub!(:load_categories).and_return(1)
       @post = mock_model( BbPost, :body => "test_description", :title
=> "test123", :abstract => "test_abstract", :channel_feature_id => "v1",
:published => "1", :bb_post_category_id => "1" )
       BbPost.stub!(:new).and_return @post
       @post.should_receive( :save )
       post :create, {:bb_post => {:title => 'test123'}}
       response.should redirect_to( blog_bb_posts_url(:channel =>
@channel.brand_name) )
     end

Following is the controller code:
class BbPostsController < ApplicationController
 before_filter :login_required
 before_filter :validate_channel
 before_filter :manager_access_required
 before_filter :is_feature_active
 before_filter :load_categories, :only => [ :new, :edit, :create,
:update ]

 # BEFORE FILTER : Feature must active
 def is_feature_active
   @feature = @channel.channel_features.by_name( BLOG ).active.first
   unless @feature
      flash[ :notice ] = 'Blog feature was not active.'
      redirect_to requests_features_path
   end
 end

 # BEFORE FILTER : Load blog categories
 def load_categories
   # manager blog will not have admin specific categories
   @categories = ( params[ :channel ].camelize == ADMIN_CHANNEL ) ?
BbPostCategory.visible : BbPostCategory.visible.without_admin
 end

def create
   params[ :bb_post ][ :brand_list ] = ADMIN_CHANNEL if params[
:bb_post ][ :brand_list ].blank?
   p params
   @bb_post = @feature.posts.new( params[ :bb_post ] )
   @bb_post.user = current_user
   # CREATE Channel Blog post
   respond_to do |format|
     if @bb_post.save
       flash[ :notice ] = 'Blog post was successfully created.'
       format.html { redirect_to( blog_bb_posts_url ) }
       format.xml { render :xml => @bb_post, :status => :created,
:location => @bb_post }
     else
load_featured_posts if @bb_post.editorial?
       format.html { render :action => "new" }
       format.xml { render :xml => @bb_post.errors, :status =>
:unprocessable_entity }
     end
   end
 end

Now if i run my specs,i get an error which says

NoMethodError in 'BbPostsController POST Crete dmin should sve post'
You hve nil object when you didn't expect it!
The error occurred while evluting nil.posts
Error comes at "@bb_post = @feature.posts.new( params[ :bb_post ] )"

This tells you that @feature is nil. This is because filter that declares @feature and assigns it a value is being stubbed. Although very common, using filters to set instance variables makes it difficult to test in isolation.

I recommend pushing the model concerns to the model, and use filters for application flow control concerns (like authentication/ authorization) in the controller. In this case, that would mean eliminating the validate_channel, is_feature_active, and load_categories filters and simply passing the params to the model. I'm not sure of the models and relationships, but I'm imagining something like:

def create
@bb_post = BbPost.new( params[ :bb_post ].merge(:user => current_user) )
  respond_to do |format|
    if @bb_post.save
      ...

All of the logic in the filters and before the assignment of @bb_post can be managed in the BbPost model, where it is far easier to spec in my experience.

If you don't want to follow that recommendation, you'll have to either set up all the state you need in the database for each example, or do more invasive setup like this:

  controller.instance_eval { @feature = mock('feature') }

Just above that line i tried to print params and i get following values:
#<BbPost:0x44d1cd8 @nme="BbPost_1001">
{"ction"=>"crete", "controller"=>"bb_posts",
"bb_post"=>{"brnd_list"=>"BrndPotio
n", "title"=>"test123"}}

Can somebody help me with this
Also by using controller.stub!(:validate_channel).and_return(true) can
somebody tell me actually,what exactly happens here.How does it handle
before filters.

Filters are just methods that get called implicitly by the controller. RSpec's mocking framework doesn't handle them in any special way (nor does any test double frameowrk that I'm aware of). Stubs return values. They do not set state on the object in question, which is why if you stub is_feature_active, for example, that needs to be coupled with code that sets the value of @feature on the controller (per above).

HTH,
David
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