Question

I have this in my controller spec file

it "should raise 404" do
      business = FactoryGirl.build(:business)
      expect{get :edit, :id => business}.to raise_error(ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound)
    end

if I am right, build does not save to the database, so business should not exist, and my test should pass, but it does not.

I also tried a string as a value of “id”, but it still fails.

I have tried with this controller action:

def edit
    if params[:id].to_i == 0
      name = params[:id].to_s.titleize
      @business = Business.find_by_name!(name)
    else
      @business = Business.find(params[:id])
    end
    respond_with(@business)
  end

an ID that does not exist, and it does indeed show a 404.

If you ask why a condition like that, I also make this action respond to a string for the “id” param.

Any ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound is received by this code in the application controller:

rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, :with => :record_not_found

  private
    def record_not_found
      render :text => "404 Not Found Baby!", :status => 404
    end

why is my test for a 404 not passing?

Answer 1

Your controller does not raise ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound exception, it rescues from it in ApplicationController. So try to test for response code or text, something like

  it "should respond with a 404" do
    business = FactoryGirl.build(:business)
    get :edit, :id => business
    response.response_code.should == 404
  end