[rspec-users] Looking for help on two issues with Rails 2.1 and RSpec 1.14

[Ben Mabey]

Steve Downey wrote:
> I have specs that ran fine in Rails 2.02/RSpec 1.13 that are failing 
> on Rails 2.1/RSpec 1.14.
>
> There is one problem and one issue:
>
> problem: sometimes (but not always) I get a NoMethodError referencing 
> a has_many association
>
> issue: in helper specs, instance variables don't get set unless the 
> HelperModule is included.  Using the preferred helper.<method> I can't 
> seem to find a way to check that an instance variable is set:
>
> I have several specs that used to look like:
>
>   it "page_title should assign @browser_title" do
>     page_title("foo")
>     @browser_title.should == "foo"
>   end
>
>
> Now changed to:
>
>   it "page_title should assign @browser_title" do
>     helper.page_title("foo")
>     helper.assigns[:browser_title].should == "foo"
>     # also tried: assigns[:browser_title].should == "foo"
>   end
>
> The output is:
>
> expected: "foo",
>      got: nil (using ==)
>
>
> Any help appreciated.
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>
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Steve,
You are basically testing state here... With that said you can get 
around this a number of ways.  You can forgoe the suggested way of using 
helper and just include the module directly.  You can then verify that 
your expectation of that variable has been set. Like so:

include YourHelper
it "page_title should assign @browser_title" do
    page_title("foo")
    @browser_title.should == "foo"
  end

You could also reach in and pull the variable out of the helper:

  it "page_title should assign @browser_title" do
    helper.page_title("foo")
    helper.instance_variable_get("@browser_title").should == "foo"
  end

This way smells bad.  In fact, both ways send off warning signals.  
Depending on what you are doing this may be needed though, so I hope one 
of these ways works for you.

-Ben