Here are some RSpec examples on how I like to test Ruby on Rails controllers

I’ll be adding more soon

How I use controller tests

In my opinion controller specs should touch multiple layers of functionality and serve as an integration tests. Test like this go hand in hand with testing with primitives philosophy

I agree that sometimes you need to do mocks and stubs but overkill will come kick you or your teammates in the nuts one day.

unit-test

Reason why I don’t use request specs for this is that’s is bit harder to debug why the tests failed.

So in nutshell:

  • I use Controller tests as pragmatic integration tests of multiple layers taht can cover 70% - 90% of the application
  • I use request tests as more robust integration tests for functionality that “must work no matter what” like bank transactions.

Many collegues may disagree with this approach and that’s fine. Whatever works for your team don’t just blindly follow what some idiot writes on internet :)

I have 10 years of experience with RoR seen many approaches many opinions, many fails and many victories. Only thing that matters when it comes to testing is if the team is happy and project works in 5 years time

Test if Form was rendered

# app/controllers/books_controller.rb
class BooksController < ApplicationController
  def review
    @book = Book.find(params[:id])
    # ...
    render :review
  end

  def submit_review
    # ...
  end
end

# config/routes.rb
resources :books, only: [] do
  get  :review, on: :member  # /books/123/review
  post :submit_review, on: :member  # /books/123/submit_review
end

# app/views/books/review.html.slim
= form_with(model: @book, url: submit_review_book_path(@book), method: :post) do |f|
  .input-field
    = f.label :description, for: "review_description"
    = f.text_field :description, id: "review_description", placeholder: 'totaly sux'


# spec/controllers/books_controller_spec.rb
require 'rails_helper'
RSpec.describe BooksController, type: :controller do

  describe '#review' do
    let(:book) { Book.create title: 'Whatever' }

    def trigger
      get :review, params: { id: book.id , format: format  }
    end

    context 'when html' do
      render_views # this is important it tels rails to render the views

      let(:format) { 'html' }

      it do
        trigger

        expect(response.code).to eq '200'

        assert_select "form[action='/books/#{book.id}/submit_review'][method='post']" do
          assert_select "input[type='text'][name='description'][id='review_description']"     # this means inside the form there is input
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

Notes:

render_views tels RSpec to render the view in costroller

assert_select is native Rails test thing and RSpec has has_tag but I like how dynamic assert_select feels. You can do stuff like this:

assert_select 'div#tags .card-content small', "This pic has no tags"

assert_select "form:match('action', ?):match('method', ?)", "/books/#{book.id}/submit_review", 'post'
assert_select 'div.card-panel.red', "Cupon Expired"