Question

I’m having trouble getting my test to pass. In my application, a User can have many Meetings that they request (sent_meetings) and those that are requested of them (received_meetings).

First, my (simplified) user.rb model:

user.rb

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :name, :email, :password, :password_confirmation
  has_secure_password

  has_many :sent_meetings, :foreign_key => "requestor_id", :class_name => "Meeting"
  has_many :received_meetings, :foreign_key => "requestee_id", :class_name => "Meeting"
end

And my meeting.rb model:

meeting.rb

class Meeting < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :intro, :proposed_date, :proposed_location

  belongs_to :requestor, class_name: "User"
  belongs_to :requestee, class_name: "User"
end

And my test:

meeting_spec.rb

require 'spec_helper'

describe Meeting do

  let(:requestee) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }
  let(:requestor) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }

  before { @received_meeting = requestee.received_meetings.build(intro: "Lorem ipsum") }
  before { @sent_meeting = requestor.sent_meetings.build(intro: "Lorem ipsum") }

  subject { @sent_meeting }
      it { should respond_to(:intro) }
      it { should respond_to(:requestor_id) }
      it { should respond_to(:requestor) }
      its(:requestor) { should == requestor }
      # it { should be_valid }

  subject { @received_meeting }
    it { should respond_to(:intro) }
    it { should respond_to(:requestee_id) }
    it { should respond_to(:requestee) }
    its(:requestee) { should == requestee }
    # it { should be_valid }

end

There seems to be a conflict between the two “subject” lines in my spec file (@sent_meeting and @received_meeting), and that one is overriding the other. Here is my failed test message:

Failures:

1) Meeting requestor
Failure/Error: its(:requestor) { should == requestor }
expected: #
got: nil (using ==)
# ./spec/models/meeting_spec.rb:15:in `block (2 levels) in ‘

Finished in 0.67458 seconds
36 examples, 1 failure

Failed examples:

rspec ./spec/models/meeting_spec.rb:15 # Meeting requestor

I found it interesting that I was getting this error only for either requestor OR requestee (obviously there is a conflict). The ordering of the two subject code chunks matters, and when I do switch them, I get the same error as above but in regard to ‘requestee’ instead of ‘requestor’.

How can I get the test to pass? Thank you!

Answer 1

You cant do this. You must do this :

require 'spec_helper'

describe Meeting do

  let(:requestee) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }
  let(:requestor) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }

  before { @received_meeting = requestee.received_meetings.build(intro: "Lorem ipsum") }
  before { @sent_meeting = requestor.sent_meetings.build(intro: "Lorem ipsum") }

  describe "sent meetings" do
    subject { @sent_meeting }
    it { should respond_to(:intro) }
    it { should respond_to(:requestor_id) }
    it { should respond_to(:requestor) }
    its(:requestor) { should == requestor }
    it { should be_valid }
  end

  describe "received meetings" do

    subject { @received_meeting }
    it { should respond_to(:intro) }
    it { should respond_to(:requestee_id) }
    it { should respond_to(:requestee) }
    its(:requestee) { should == requestee }
    # it { should be_valid }
  end

end

You can also use let instead before like this :

require 'spec_helper'

describe Meeting do

  let(:requestee) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }
  let(:requestor) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }
  let(:received_meeting) { requestee.received_meetings.build(intro: "Lorem ipsum") }
  let(:sent_meeting) { requestor.sent_meetings.build(intro: "Lorem ipsum") }

  describe "sent meetings" do
    subject { sent_meeting }
    it { should respond_to(:intro) }
    it { should respond_to(:requestor_id) }
    it { should respond_to(:requestor) }
    its(:requestor) { should == requestor }
    it { should be_valid }
  end

  describe "received meetings" do
    subject { received_meeting }
    it { should respond_to(:intro) }
    it { should respond_to(:requestee_id) }
    it { should respond_to(:requestee) }
    its(:requestee) { should == requestee }
    it { should be_valid }
  end

end

It will be faster.