On 9 August 2010 20:14, Jim Burgess <li...@ruby-forum.com> wrote: > In a book I'm reading the author tries to do the following from within > his controller test file: > > class PagesControllerTest < ActionController::TestCase > def test_create_link_in_index > get :index > assert_select "a[href=?]", url_for(:action => :new), :text => 'Neue > Seite' > end > end > > However the method 'url_for' is unknown within the class > PagesControllerTest, as it is defined in ActionController::Base. > > To get around this he writes (although this is not the final solution): > > assert_select "a[href=?]", @controller.url_for(:action => :new, > :only_path => true), :text => 'Neue Seite' > > How is he able to reference a method defined in another class, simply by > prefixing the method call with '@controller' > > Could someone explain what is '@controller' in this context? > > I tried Googling it, but as Google ignores the '@' I couldn't get very > far.
'@controller' is an instance variable in ActionController::TestCase. ActionController::TestCase sets up this variable to contain an instance of the controller class you are testing (in this case, PagesController). In other words, ActionController::TestCase does something like this: @controller = PagesController.new which is why you're able to call PagesController methods on @controller. (The '@' symbol before a variable in Ruby just means that it is an instance variable, as opposed to an ordinary local variable.) Chris -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-t...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en.
