Rails, Devise, Rspec: Undefined method 'sign_in'

Question

I am trying to write Rspec tests in Rails, using Devise helper methods for signing in and out. The sign_in method is not working. However, it had been working earlier, before a slew of changes to the app.

Things I have tried:

• I am including the test helpers in Rspec.configure.
• Using Warden's login_as
• Clearing the Rails cache.
• Getting rid of Capybara to see if that were causing the issue
• I am not setting the session explicitly in my controller specs (e.g. no valid_session)

So far, no dice. What do I need to do differently to test my controllers with a signed-in user?

Error message:

 OrderItemsController GET #index renders the :index view
 Failure/Error: sign_in :admin
 NoMethodError:
      undefined method `sign_in' for #  <RSpec::ExampleGroups::OrderItemsController_2::GETIndex:0x00000102c002d0>
 # ./spec/controllers/order_items_controller_spec.rb:6:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'

Controller Spec

require 'spec_helper'

describe OrderItemsController do
    before (:each) do
        admin = create(:admin)
        sign_in :admin
    end

    describe "GET #index" do
        it "renders the :index view" do
            get :index
            expect( response ).to render_template :index
        end
    end
end

spec_helper.rb

require 'rspec/rails'
require 'capybara/rspec'

RSpec.configure do |config|

  config.include ApplicationHelper
  config.include ControllersHelper
  config.include UsersHelper
  config.include Devise::TestHelpers, type: :controller
  config.include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods

end

Gemfile

group :development, :test do
    gem 'rspec-rails', '~> 3.0.0.beta'
    gem 'capybara'
    gem 'factory_girl_rails'
    gem 'faker'
    gem 'dotenv-rails'
    gem 'guard'
    gem 'guard-annotate'
    gem 'guard-rspec', require: false
    gem 'guard-livereload', require: false
    gem 'foreman'
end

factories/user.rb

FactoryGirl.define do

    factory :user do
        first                   { Faker::Name.first_name }
        last                    { Faker::Name.last_name }
        email                   { Faker::Internet.email }
        admin                   false
        password                "secrets1"
        password_confirmation   "secrets1"
        confirmed_at            Date.today

        factory :admin do
            admin               true
        end
    end
end

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Did you recently upgrade to RSpec 3 like I did? This is from the RSpec 3 documentation:

Automatically Adding Metadata RSpec versions before 3.0.0 automatically added metadata to specs based on their location on the filesystem. This was both confusing to new users and not desirable for some veteran users.

In RSpec 3, this behavior must be explicitly enabled:

​# spec/rails_helper.rb
RSpec.configure do |config|
    config.infer_spec_type_from_file_location!
end

Since this assumed behavior is so prevalent in tutorials, the default configuration generated by rails generate rspec:install enables this.

If you follow the above listed canonical directory structure and have configured infer_spec_type_from_file_location!, RSpec will automatically include the correct support functions for each type.

After I add that configuration snippet, I no longer have to specify the spec type (e.g. type: :controller).

Answer 2

I figured out a solution. I explicitly defined the controller's Describe block as a controller type.

describe OrderItemsController, :type => :controller do

I still don't understand why this code worked earlier but now needs this (seemingly redundant) explicit declaration. Regardless, I'd appreciate learning what happened here. Thanks!

Answer 3

I can provide you an example (works for me - rspec / capybara / simplecov etc..)

spec/spec_helper.rb

 require 'capybara/rspec'
 require 'capybara/rails'

 RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.use_transactional_fixtures = true

  config.infer_base_class_for_anonymous_controllers = false

  config.include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
  config.include Devise::TestHelpers, type: :controller
  config.include Capybara::DSL
  config.include Warden::Test::Helpers
  config.include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers
end

spec/integration/user_flow_spec.rb

require 'spec_helper'

feature 'Verify contract' do
  # Create employee
  let(:employee) { create(:employee) }
  let (:book) { create(:book) }

  # Sign in employee before each test!
  before :each do
    login_as employee, scope: :user
  end

  scenario 'create book' do
    # Visit Index and click to create
    visit employee_books_path
    click_link 'Create'
    expect(current_path).to eq(employee_books_path)
  end
end

I hope it will be ok :) I think your problem is missing Warden test helpers...

Answer 4

You can use the Devise helper in the file spec/spec_helper.rb:

RSpec.configure do |config|
   config.include Devise::TestHelpers, type: :controller
end

Answer 5

For Rails 5 and Rspec 3 you need to add this into your spec_helper.rb

config.include Devise::Test::ControllerHelpers, type: :controller

Answer 6

If you need the sign_in method in a request spec file, then you should include this:

config.include Devise::Test::IntegrationHelpers, type: :request

Answer 7

You can use login_as method instead like this:

# rails_helper.rb
RSpec.configure do |config|
   config.include Warden::Test::Helpers
end

In your spec file use:

#spec/integration/user_flow_spec.rb
before :each do
    employee = create(:employee)
    login_as employee, scope: :user
end