Writing specs for CanCan Permissions

Question

I'm new to rpsec w Rails 3.... I just added CanCan for permissions in my Rails 3 app. I want to add test cases w rspec but I'm not 100% sure where they should live.

If I want to write tests to check the permissions. Should these be in the controller? The model? Some where else?

Something like:

@user1 = belongs to @group
@user2 does not


@user1.should be_able_to(:destroy, @group.new(:user => user))
@user2. should_not be_able_to(:destroy, @group.new(:user => user))

Thanks

Fabio Fabio · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-28T01:34:00

Nice question, I think they should live in the model specs folder or even added as a describe block for the model you're testing. Something like

# in user_spec.rb
describe "user abilities" do
  let(:group) { Factory(:group) }
  let(:user) { Factory(:user, :group => group) }

  it "should be able to destroy his group" do
    user.should be_able_to(:destroy, group)
  end

  it "should not be able to destroy other groups" do
    Factory(:user).should_not be_able_to(:destroy, group)
  end

  # if be_able_to macro define its error message
  # you could also do this kind of specs with
  # automatic failure message and spec descriptions
  subject { Factory(:user) }

  it { should be_able_to(:destroy, subject.group) }

end

Since you're spec'ing user abilities I think user_spec.rb is the best place where to store them.

Writing specs for CanCan Permissions

2 Answers