How to stub a model with a validation from external service

Question

Here we have a Customer model with multiple validations, and one of the validation access an external service to validate if the person exists.

And here we test all validations:

describe Customer do

   it 'is not valid without a name' do
      customer = build_stubbed(:customer, name: nil)
      customer.valid?
      asserts...
   end

   it 'is not valid without a full name' do
      customer = build_stubbed(:customer, name: 'Test')
      customer.valid?
      asserts...
   end

   if 'should check if user really exists' do
      customer = build_stubbed(:customer, doc_id: '00000000')
      customer.valid?
      asserts....
   end

   other tests...

The last item test the external service validation using doc_id to check if the person exists, but here every test runs all validations so should i stub_request the service request with before or stub it within each test?

Answer 1

You should use a context to specify which test uses the stup and which does not. That's advised here for example. This way you will be able to have a context where the method is stubbed and to test the validation with external service in an other context.