Question

I’ve been trying to do the RSpec Book, the cucumber simulated browser part. The problem is that it keeps throwing undefined method for any object, meaning it can’t test the application.

The test

    When /^I create a movie Caddyshack in the Comedy genre$/ do
      visit movies_path
      click_link "Add Movie"
      click_button "Save"
    end

The problem is that it won’t render the form with the view, throwing undefined error for ActiveRecord objects.

The view

    <%= form_for(@movie) do |f| %>
      <table>
        <tr>
          <th><%= f.label :name %></th>
          <td><%= f.text_field :name, :id => "title" %></td>
        </tr>
      </table>

      <div class="actions">
        <%= f.submit %>
      </div>
    <% end %>

The controller

    def index
      @movies = Movie.all

      respond_to do |format|
        format.html # index.html.erb
        format.json { render json: @movies }
      end
    end

    def new
      @movie = Movie.new

      respond_to do |format|
        format.html # new.html.erb
        format.json { render json: @movie }
      end
    end

The Model

    class Movie < ActiveRecord::Base
      attr_accessible :showtime_date, :showtime_time, :name
      has_many :genres

      def showtime
        "#{formatted_date} (#{formatted_time})"
      end

      def formatted_date
        showtime_date.strftime("%B %d, %Y")
      end

      def formatted_time
        format_string = showtime_time.min.zero? ? "%l%p" : "%l:%M%p"
        showtime_time.strftime(format_string).strip.downcase
      end
    end

My Gemfile

    source 'https://rubygems.org'

    gem 'rails', '3.2.8'

    gem 'sqlite3'
    gem 'awesome_print'

    group :assets do
      gem 'sass-rails',   '~> 3.2.3'
      gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 3.2.1'
      gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.0.3'
    end

    gem 'jquery-rails'

    group :development, :test do
      gem "rspec-rails", ">= 2.0.0"
    end

    group :test do
      gem 'database_cleaner'
      gem "cucumber-rails", ">= 0.3.2"
    end

Finally, the error that capybara keeps telling me

    When I create a movie Caddyshack in the Comedy genre # features/step_definitions/genre_steps.rb:6
      undefined method `name' for #<Movie:0x00000102e36590> (ActionView::Template::Error)
      /Users/Dono/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activemodel-3.2.8/lib/active_model/attribute_methods.rb:407:in `method_missing'
      /Users/Dono/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/activerecord-3.2.8/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb:149:in `method_missing'
      /Users/Dono/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/actionpack-3.2.8/lib/action_view/helpers/form_helper.rb:1161:in `value_before_type_cast'
      /Users/Dono/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/actionpack-3.2.8/lib/action_view/helpers/form_helper.rb:1149:in `value_before_type_cast'
      /Users/Dono/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/actionpack-3.2.8/lib/action_view/helpers/form_helper.rb:1043:in `block in to_input_field_tag'
      /Users/Dono/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/actionpack-3.2.8/lib/action_view/helpers/form_helper.rb:1043:in `fetch'
      /Users/Dono/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/actionpack-3.2.8/lib/action_view/helpers/form_helper.rb:1043:in `to_input_field_tag'
      /Users/Dono/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/actionpack-3.2.8/lib/action_view/helpers/form_helper.rb:692:in `text_field'
      /Users/Dono/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/actionpack-3.2.8/lib/action_view/helpers/form_helper.rb:1284:in `text_field'
      ./app/views/movies/_form.html.erb:5:in `block in _app_views_movies__form_html_erb___3270649907202408240_2157451180'

My features/support/env.rb

    require 'cucumber/rails'
    require 'rspec'

    Capybara.default_selector = :css

    ActionController::Base.allow_rescue = false

    begin
      DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
    rescue NameError
      raise "You need to add database_cleaner to your Gemfile (in the :test group) if you wish to use it."
    end
    Cucumber::Rails::Database.javascript_strategy = :truncation

Yet the name method is defined and the page renders fine in my browser. Any idea on what might be going wrong?

Answer 1

As stated by RobertH in the comments, I wasn’t setting the test database. All I needed to do was to run

    rake db:test:prepare