Where are the hooks in RSpec for mocking various aspects of a request?

Question

I am very new to RSpec. I'm writing a test for a REST API that we're making in Rails. The API consists of one action with the following specification for the requests it will accept:

A request will only be accepted if:

• It is made using HTTPS
• It is sent as a POST request
• It is sent with the following parameters: value_name, value, item_id

For example, a valid request is:

POST /new_api/action HTTPS/1.0
snip
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 52

value_name=Contract+Id&value=abcdef123456&item_id=38

The specification states that if a request is sent that meets these requirements, the server will respond with a 200 code. If a request is sent that doesn't meet these requirements, the server will respond with a 400 code.

With these requirements, I would like to write RSpec tests that ensure the action responds with the proper code depending on whether the request:

• is sent using HTTP/SSL
• is sent using POST or a different request type
• has the correct parameters

This is psuedo-Ruby for one of the tests I want to write:

describe 'New REST API' do
  it 'should accept valid requests'
    request = mock a request that
      uses HTTPS
      has these parameters: {:value_name => "name",\
        :value => 1, :item_id => 2}
    end

    post name_of_new_action using request
    response.status.should be(200)
  end
end

What are the proper hooks in RSpec to:

1. Mock a request
2. Indicate that the request should or should not be "sent" over HTTPS/SSL
3. Indicate which parameters should be sent to the server
4. Simulate sending the request via POST
5. Check what the server's response code is

We're using Rails 3.2.13 and Ruby 1.8.7 (this is an older app that we're maintaining). Our Gemfile has

gem 'rspec-rails', '~> 2.11.0'
gem 'guard-rspec', '~> 1.2.1'
gem 'capybara', '~> 1.1.2'
gem 'database_cleaner', '~> 1.1.1'
gem 'factory_girl_rails', '~> 1.7.0

Answer 1

Everything you need is native in Rails integration test lib, even no need Rspec.

• It is made using HTTPS

  get test_path, nil, {'HTTPS'=>'on'}
  

• It is sent as a POST request

  post test_path, {foo: 'bar', fff: 'bbb'}
  

• It is sent with the following parameters: value_name, value, item_id, in HTTPS.

  post test_path, {value_name: 'abc', value: 'foo', item_id: 'bar'}, {'HTTPS'=>'on'}
  

Check response need Rspec

expect(response).to be_success
expect(response.status).to eq(200)
expect(response.body).to match(/some string in body/)