Question

This is my action:

def my_action
  str = ... # get json str somehow  
  render :json => str
end

This is my test:

test "my test" do 
  post(:my_action, {'param' => "value"}    
  assert_response :success
end

I want to add another assertion that the emitted JSON contains some value. How can I do it in a controller unit-test, not via parsing the view result?

Answer 1

Just like people commented above, this would be a functional test.

The best way would probably be making a request, parsing the JSON response body, and matching it to the expected result.

If I have companies_controller in Rspec using FactoryGirl:

describe "GET 'show'" do

  before(:each) do
    @company = Factory(:company)
    get 'show', :format => :json, :id => @company.id
  end

  it "should be successful" do
     response.should be_success
  end

  it "should return the correct company when correct id is passed" do
    body = JSON.parse(response.body)
    body["id"].should == @company.id
  end

end

You can test other attributes the same way. Also, I normally have invalid context where I would try to pass invalid parameters.