Question

I have a profile model like so;

class Profile < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :first_name, :last_name
  belongs_to :user
  validates :user, presence: true
  validates :first_name, presence: true, on: :update
  validates :last_name, presence: true, on: :update
end

I am wanting to write some rspec tests to test the validation of first_name and last_name but I cannot see how to run profile.should_not be_valid only on update in a model test. Something like;

it "should be invalid without a first name on update" do
  profile = FactoryGirl.build :profile
  profile.first_name = nil
  profile_should_not be_valid
end

doesn’t differentiate between an update or create action and I can’t see anything in the rspec documentation about this. Surely it’s a fairly common thing to test.

Answer 1

be_valid in rspec just calls valid? on the model.

profile = FactoryGirl.build :profile

This builds a new model instance for Profile, but does not commit it to the database. You would use this profile for your create test. Setting :first_name to nil should and calling profile.should be_valid should pass.

profile = FactoryGirl.create :profile

This builds and inserts the model instance for Profile into the database. You would use this profile for your update test. Setting :first_name to nil should and calling profile.should be_valid should fail.