rspec / Devise / current_user - wrong user instance (controller spec)

Question

I am using RSpec to test my nested controllers. I've signed in current_user (member in my case) and it is returning a different instance. Please see below:

Spec snippet:

before :each do
    @request.env["devise.mapping"] = Devise.mappings[:member]
    @member = create(:member)
    sign_in @member
    @calendar = @member.calendars.create!({"name" => "test"}, Calendars::Native)
end

it "creates a new Event" do
    puts "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
    puts @member
    puts @calendar
    puts @calendar.events.count
    puts "->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->-"

    post :create, {:native_id => @calendar.id, :event => valid_attributes}, valid_session

    puts "<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<"
    puts @member
    puts @calendar
    puts @calendar.events.count
    puts "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

    expect {
      post :create, {:native_id => @calendar.to_param, :event => valid_attributes}, valid_session
    }.to change(@calendar.events, :count).by(1)  #Event, :count).by(1)
end

Controller Snippet

def create
    set_calendar
    @event = @calendar.events.build(event_params) 
    respond_to do |format|
        if @event.save
            puts "DID SAVE"
            puts @member
            puts @calendar
            puts @event

            format.html { redirect_to native_event_url(:native_id => @calendar.id, :id => @event.id), notice: 'Event was successfully created.' }
            format.json { render action: 'show', status: :created, location: @event }
        else
            format.html { render action: 'new' }
            format.json { render json: @event.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
       end
    end
  end

  def set_calendar
       @member = current_member
       @calendar = @member.calendars.find(params[:native_id])
  end

Console output:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
#<Member:0x007fb5a6e4fda0>
#<Calendars::Native:0x007fb5a495bf58>
0
->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->-
DID SAVE
#<Member:0x007fb5a49a1aa8>
#<Calendars::Native:0x007fb5a49a0810>
#<Event:0x007fb5a49b3eb0>
<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<
#<Member:0x007fb5a6e4fda0>
#<Calendars::Native:0x007fb5a495bf58>
0
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As you can see... Member objectId is different, which results in Rspec failing test because count doesn't change.

Any good suggestion? What's going on?

Thanks!!

Answer 1

This is fine. You're just getting a bit confused.

When you first create @member, it gets stored in memory. It has object ID X. Then, in your actual controller, data is grabbed from the current_user method, and even though it's the same underlying data as @member, it's actually a different object in memory, so it has object ID Y. Your test is holding on to one object, your code on to another.

Instead of doing puts @member, try doing puts @member.inspect, or as a short cut, p @member. This will show you more information. You will probably get output like this instead:

XXXXXXXXXXX
#<Member id: 1, :name "John Doe">
->->->->->->
DID SAVE
#<Member id: 1, :name "John Doe">
<-<-<-<-<-<-
#<Member id: 1, :name "John Doe">
XXXXXXXXXXXX

You'll see that the information about the user is the same. The fact that they are not the exact same object instance in memory doesn't matter.