Controller specs throwing up undefined method

Question

I'm really struggling with Rspec DSL! I read a lot on SO and across the internet, so I'm posting my particular issue because my feeble mind can't get to the solution.

Have a post method in my controller that updates a user's email. Works fine, but I'm struggling with the spec because all I'm getting are undefined methods for NilClass (even though I've tried stubbing every object and method, etc).

users_controller.rb

def update_user_email @user = User.find_by_id(params[:id]) new_email = params[:user][:new_email].downcase.strip user_check = User.find_by_email('new_email') if user_check.blank? @user.email = new_email @user.save flash[:notice] = "Email updated to #{new_email}" else flash[:alert] = "This email is already being used by someone else!" end respond_with @user do |format| format.html { redirect_to admin_user_path(@user) } format.json { head :no_content } end end

Here's the spec I'm trying to write. What test should I be writing, if not this, and what can I do to prevent undefined method on NilClass errors!

users_controller_spec.rb

describe Admin::UsersController do let!(:user) { FactoryGirl.create(:user, password: 'oldpass', email: '[email protected]') } ... describe "admin actions for each user" do it "resets user email" do post :update_user_email, {user: {new_email: '[email protected]'} } response.status.should == 200 end end ... end

And the error:

Admin::UsersController admin actions for each user resets user email Failure/Error: post :update_user_email, {user: {new_email: '[email protected]'} } NoMethodError: undefined method `email=' for nil:NilClass

tomciopp · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-11 00:46:49Z

The line that is failing is:

@user = User.find_by_id(params[:id)

Since you are not passing the id in during your test the user is not being found, and therefore you are trying to call email= on nil. Here is how you can clean up your controller and test.

class YourController < ApplicationController before_filter :find_user, only: [:update_user_email] def update_user_email new_email = params[:user][:new_email].downcase.strip user_check = User.where(email: new_email) if user_check.blank? @user.email = new_email @user.save flash[:notice] = "Email updated to #{new_email}" else flash[:alert] = "This email is already being used by someone else!" end respond_with @user do |format| format.html { redirect_to admin_user_path(@user) } format.json { head :no_content } end end def find_user @user = User.find(params[:id]) rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound flash[:error] = "It looks like that user does not exist" # redirect or render end end # your test describe "admin actions for each user" do it "resets user email" do post :update_user_email, id: user.id, user: {new_email: '[email protected]'} response.status.should == 200 end end

You may also want to consider moving the logic out of the controller and into a service object. That controller method is getting a little long.

theTRON · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-11 00:45:49Z

The issue is that you also need to pass the id of the User you're wanting to update. The line which is failing is @user.email = new_email, since @user is nil.

To get your test to pass now, you'll need to change your post method to:

post :update_user_email, {id:'[email protected]', user: {new_email: '[email protected]'} }

As an aside, it is possible to say that it may be better for you to actually be doing this in the UsersController#update method, in order to maintain RESTful routes. And as for enforcing unique email address - it might be better to do this in the User class with validations.

SteveTurczyn · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-11 00:45:28Z

In your post :update_user_email you're not passing :id... so @user = User.find_by_id... is not finding a user so @user is a nil object.

post :update_user_email, id: user.id, {user: {new_email: '[email protected]'} }

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