Can we force rspec stub_model to populate created_at column to Time:now

Question

Am using twitter bootstrap gem to generate the views which displays the created_at column in the index page. The rspec tests which are generated along with the scaffolds use stub_model to test the index view. These test fails because created_at column in nil.

Just as stub_model generates as dummy id, can it also set the created_at column as Time.now. can that be done via config. or do we need to specify it each time while creating a stub.

Answer 1

Judging from the source code, this doesn't seem to be possible by default. This leaves you with a few options:

1. Specify the created_at value each time you create a model stub:

m = stub_model(MyModel, :created_at => Time.now)

2. Create your own helper method which sets the created_at attribute after initializing the stub:

module Helpers
  def stub_model_with_timestamp(model_class, stubs={})
    stub_model(model_class, { :created_at => Time.now }.merge(stubs))
  end
end

Then just include the module in spec_helper.rb so it is available in all specs:

RSpec.configure do |config|
  include Helpers
  ...
end

3. If you really want to use stub_method as-is, you could monkey-patch rspec-rails to make it work the way you want by re-opening the module and aliasing the original method:

module RSpec::Rails::Mocks
  def stub_model_with_timestamp(model_class, stubs={})
    stub_model_without_timestamp(model_class, { :created_at => Time.now }.merge(stubs))
  end

  alias_method_chain :stub_model, :timestamp
end 

Put this in a file in spec/support/ and it will load automatically, so when you stub a model it will automatically set the created_at timestamp.

As a final note, I think this is useful functionality that others might also want to use, so you might consider actually making a pull request to rspec-rails that adds the default setting as a config option. (I think if you do, you'd probably want to also set updated_at as well, for completeness.)

Hope that helps!