RSpec: Stub chains with arguments?

Question

Just wondering if/how arguments can be passed in rspec stub chains. To give an example, suppose I have the following action:

def index
  @payments = Payment.order(:updated_at).where(:paid => true)
  @bad_payments = Payment.order(:some_other_field).where(:paid => false)
end

In my controller spec, I'd like to be able to stub out both methods and return different results. If only the @payments field were in the action I'd use something like

Payment.stub_chain(:order, :where) { return_this }

But of course, that will return the same value for @bad_payments.

So - in short, how do I include the :updated_at and :paid => true as stub conditions?

Answer 1

You can use this:

Payment.stub_chain(:order, :where).with(:updated_at).with(:paid => true) { return_this }

Answer 2

You can use nested stub block. The block can accept arguments, and the return value is used as function return value.

I use tap because stub does not returns the callee. The mock created by double is returned as the result of method order, which where method is stub again.

Payment.stub(:order) { |order|
  double('ordered_payments').tap { |proxy|
    proxy.stub(:where) { |where|
      [order, where]
    }
  }
}

Payment.order(:updated_at).where(:paid => true)
# => returns [:updated_at, {:paid => true}]

Answer 3

With rspec > 3 use this syntax:

expect(Converter).to receive_message_chain("new.update_value").with('test').with(no_args)

instead of stub_chain.

Read more about message chains in the documenation. And here is the argument matchers documentation.