Rspec - RuntimeError: Called id for nil, which would mistakenly be 4

Question

I'm now making Rspec test for create action of ItemsController, however I'm in trouble about the error. (There are models as Item, Auction, Bid, User)

The create method is as follow

 # POST /items
 # POST /items.json
 def create
   @item = Item.new(params[:item])
   @item.user_id = current_user.id

   respond_to do |format|
     if @item.save
       format.html { redirect_to @item, notice: 'Item was successfully created.' }
       format.json { render json: @item, status: :created, location: @item }
     else
       format.html { render action: "new" }
       format.json { render json: @item.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
     end
   end
   @elapsed_seconds =(((params[:item][:days].to_i * 24)+params[:item][:hours].to_i)*60+params[:item][:minutes].to_i)*60
   @auction = Auction.create(:item_id => @item.id, :highest_bid_id => 0, :exp_time =>             
   @item.created_at+ @elapsed_seconds.seconds, :suspend => 0, :user_id => @current_user.id, :extend_bit => 0 )
   @item.update_attributes(:auction_id => @auction.id)
   @item_id = @item.id
   @auction_id = @auction.id
   @t1 = Thread.new{
     @timer = Timers.new
     @bid_timer = @timer.after(@elapsed_seconds){
       if Auction.find_by_id(@auction_id).suspend != 1
          buy
       end
     }
   @timer.wait
   }

end

def buy
  if Auction.find_by_id(@auction_id).extend_bit == 1
    extendtimer
  else
    if Auction.find_by_id(@auction_id).highest_bid_id != 0
      Item.find_by_auction_id(@auction_id).update_attributes(:sold => 1, :sold_to => Bid.find_by_id(Auction.find_by_id(@auction_id).highest_bid_id).user_id )
      MyMailer.auction_winner_email(Auction.find_by_id(@auction_id)).deliver
    else
      Item.find_by_auction_id(@auction_id).update_attributes(:sold => 0, :sold_to => 0 )
      MyMailer.no_bids_email(Auction.find_by_id(@auction_id)).deliver
    end
    @t1.join
  end
end

def extendtimer
    Auction.find_by_id(@auction_id).update_attributes(:extend_bit => 0)
    @exp = Auction.find_by_id(@auction_id).exp_time + 2.minutes
    Auction.find_by_id(@auction_id).update_attributes(:exp_time => @exp)
    @min = Item.find_by_id(@item_id).minutes + 2
    Item.find_by_id(@item_id).update_attributes(:minutes => @min)
    @timer2 = Timers.new
    @extend_timer = @timer2.after(120){ buy }
    @timer2.wait
end

And my Rspec is as follow. This test intends that at first objects were made to use (such as current_user, auction, "item). Then also stubs are declared. (such asAuction.stub(:find_by_id).and_return(auction)`)

require 'spec_helper'

describe ItemsController do

  let(:valid_session) { {} }

  describe "POST create" do
    it "" do
      #declare the objects and stubs
      current_user = User.new(id:'1')
      current_user.save
      auction = Auction.new(id:'1',highest_bid_id:'1', extend_bit:'1')
      auction.save
      Auction.stub(:find_by_id).and_return(auction)
      bid = Bid.new(auction_id:'1',amount:'150.0')
      bid.save
      Bid.stub(:find_by_id).and_return(bid)
      item = Item.new(id:'1',auction_id:'1',min_bid_price:'100.0')
      item.save
      Item.stub(:find_by_id).and_return(item)

      #POST create 
      post :create, {:item => {'id' => '2','days'=>'1','hours'=>'1','minutes'=>'1'}}

      response.should redirect_to(@item)
      flash[:notice].should eql("Item was successfully created.")


    end
  end
end

Unfortunately I ran Rspec, I got the error as follow. I think @item in controller could not be successfully created by @item = Item.new(params[:item]), so this error might be happen. However I couldn't find how to fix. I already used many hours for this. I would like to have someone's help.

Failures:

1) ItemsController POST create
 Failure/Error: post :create, {:item => {'id' => '2','days'=>'1','hours'=>'1','minutes'=>'1'}}
 RuntimeError:
   Called id for nil, which would mistakenly be 4 -- if you really wanted the id of nil, use object_id
 # ./app/controllers/items_controller.rb:72:in `create'
 # ./spec/controllers/items_controller_spec.rb:19:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'

 Finished in 0.637 seconds 1 example, 1 failure

 Failed examples:

  rspec ./spec/controllers/items_controller_spec.rb:11 # ItemsController POST create

  Randomized with seed 33483  

Answer 1

Since no one is logged in, current_user method returns nil. Setting local variable current_user in spec won't help for that. Instead, you could define ApplicationController#current_user= method:

def current_user=(user)
  @current_user ||= user
end

and call it in your specs:

controller.current_user = current_user