'can not touch on a new record object' error in specs

Question

When you upgrade rails 3.2 -> 4.0. Do not pass the tests, and the error is the following:

Failure/Error: post :create, :user => user_params
  ActiveRecord::ActiveRecordError:
    can not touch on a new record object

As this problem can be solved?

describe "POST create" do
  def do_post
    User.should_receive(:new).with(HashWithIndifferentAccess.new(user_params)).and_return(user)
    binding.pry
    post :create, :user => user_params
  end

  let(:profile_params) { {:first_name => "John", :last_name => "Bobson", :country => "US"} }
  let(:user_params) { {:vid => "12345", :username => "johnbobson", :email => "[email protected]", :user_profile_attributes => profile_params} }
  let(:user) { User.new(user_params) }

  context "user" do
    subject { do_post; user }
    its(:invited_at) { should == Date.today.to_time.utc }
    its(:invitation_code) { should_not be_nil }
  end
end

The reason for this method.

def update_last_active_at
  current_user.touch(:last_active_at) if current_user
end

Answer 1

That error is coming about most likely because current_user has not been saved in the database. Rails cannot touch a record that hasn't been saved yet.

To verify this, just check if the current user is a new record before trying to touch it.

def update_last_active_at
  if !current_user.new_record?
    current_user.touch(:last_active_at) if current_user
  end
end