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How I test Ruby on Rails with RSpec and Cucumber

Posted on November 19, 2009 by Michael

In any non-trivial application, I end up with several things in common.

  • Generic pages which anyone can see. (I usually make this the About controller)
  • Users
  • Things (DNS Zones, pictures, etc)
  • Access restrictions to those users and things
  • Tests to ensure access control to those users and things

When to use RSpec, and when to use Cucumber

I use RSpec for unit tests, and some low-level controller tests. I specifically do not use RSpec for “user experience” or multiple-step testing, so no views are tested using RSpec.

Cucumber is used for all things “user experience.” It will test that a user cannot access other’s pages, etc. but it doesn’t do anything that can’t easily be done by filling in forms or changing the URL.

Types of users

In my world, there are three kinds of users which appear over and over again.

  • Guests. These guys can look at anything in the About controller.
  • Logged-in users. These can look at anything they own and some things that they do not. They can edit anything they own (with security restrictions on some fields.)
  • Administrators. These are the ones who can look at and modify anything. I usually have an admin rights on/off toggle, and try hard to make what they see close to what users would see.

User tests

  • Tests to ensure that the public cannot do things.
  • Tests to ensure that a logged-in user cannot poke around in someone else’s business using usual page contents.
  • Tests to ensure the the public or a logged in user cannot use specially crafted requests to break things.
  • Tests to ensure that a user can change their own stuff.
  • Tests to ensure that an admin can do pretty much everything.

Most of these tests are a combination of RSpec and Cucumber. The “hack” type tests (like directly fiddling around with assignments which my normal forms may limit to only items the logged in user has access to) are best done with RSpec.

Examples

No blog post can possibly be useful without examples. They use Factory Girl to generate a user, which has an email, password, and an admin flag.

spec/spec_helper.rb snippit

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def login_user(options = {})
  @logged_in_user = Factory.create(:user, options)
  @controller.stub!(:current_user).and_return(@logged_in_user)
  @logged_in_user
end

def login_admin(options = {})
  options[:admin] = true
  @logged_in_user = Factory.create(:user, options)
  @controller.stub!(:current_user).and_return(@logged_in_user)
  @logged_in_user
end

def logout_user
  @logged_in_user = nil
  @controller.stub!(:current_user).and_return(@logged_in_user)
  @logged_in_user
end

My complete spec/controllers/userscontrollerspec.rb file

Sorry for the length of this part.

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require 'spec_helper'

describe UsersController do
  setup :activate_authlogic

  before(:each) do
    logout_user
    @other_user = Factory.create(:user)
  end

  def mock_user(stubs={})
    @mock_user ||= mock_model(User, stubs)
  end

  def make_users
    users = [ @other_user ]
    users << @logged_in_user if @logged_in_user
    4.times do
      users << Factory.create(:user)
    end
    users  
  end

  describe "GET index" do
    it "assigns all users as @users (admin)" do
      login_admin
      users = make_users
      get :index
      assigns[:users].sort.should == users.sort
    end

    it "tells me to bugger off (not admin)" do
      login_user
      users = make_users
      get :index
      flash[:error].should match "You must be an administrator to access this page."
      response.should redirect_to(root_path)
    end

    it "tells me to bugger off (not logged in)" do
      users = make_users
      get :index
      flash[:error].should match "You must be an administrator to access this page."
      response.should redirect_to(root_path)
    end
  end

  describe "GET show" do
    it "assigns myself as @user (admin)" do
      login_admin
      get :show, :id => @logged_in_user.id
      assigns[:user].should == @logged_in_user
    end

    it "assigns me as @user (my data)" do
      login_user
      get :show, :id => @logged_in_user.id
      assigns[:user].should == @logged_in_user
    end

    it "assigns the requested user as @user (admin)" do
      login_admin
      get :show, :id => @other_user.id
      assigns[:user].should == @other_user
    end

    it "tells me to bugger off (not admin)" do
      login_user
      get :show, :id => @other_user.id
      flash[:error].should match "You must be an administrator to access this page."
    end

    it "redirects to root (not admin)" do
      login_user
      get :show, :id => @other_user.id
      response.should redirect_to(root_path)
    end

    it "tells me to log in (not logged in)" do
      get :show, :id => @other_user.id
      flash[:error].should match "Please log in to access this page."
    end

    it "redirects to root (not logged in)" do
      get :show, :id => @other_user.id
      response.should redirect_to(login_path)
    end
  end

  describe "GET new" do
    it "assigns a new user as @user (not logged in)" do
      User.stub!(:new).and_return(mock_user)
      get :new
      assigns[:user].should equal(mock_user)
    end
  end

  describe "GET edit" do
    it "assigns me as @user (admin)" do
      login_admin
      get :edit, :id => @logged_in_user.id
      assigns[:user].should == @logged_in_user
    end

    it "assigns the requested user as @user (admin)" do
      login_admin
      get :edit, :id => @logged_in_user.id
      assigns[:user].should == @logged_in_user
    end

    it "assigns me as @user (my data)" do
      login_user
      get :edit, :id => @logged_in_user.id
      assigns[:user].should == @logged_in_user
    end

    it "tells me to bugger off (not admin)" do
      login_user
      get :edit, :id => @other_user.id
      flash[:error].should match "You must be an administrator to access this page."
      end

    it "redirects to root (not admin)" do
      login_user
      get :edit, :id => @other_user.id
      response.should redirect_to(root_path)
    end

    it "tells me to log in (not logged in)" do
      get :edit, :id => @other_user.id
      flash[:error].should match "Please log in to access this page."
    end

    it "redirects to login (not logged in)" do
      get :edit, :id => @other_user.id
      response.should redirect_to(login_path)
    end
  end

  describe "PUT update" do
    describe "with valid params" do
      it "assigns me as @user (my data)" do
        login_user
        put :update, :id => @logged_in_user.id
        assigns[:user].should == @logged_in_user
      end

      it "tells me to bugger off (not admin)" do
        login_user
        put :update, :id => @other_user.id
        flash[:error].should match "You must be an administrator to access this page."
      end

      it "tells me to log in (not logged in)" do
        get :edit, :id => @other_user.id
        flash[:error].should match "Please log in to access this page."
      end

      it "assigns the requested user as @user (admin)" do
        login_admin
        put :update, :id => @logged_in_user.id
        assigns[:user].should == @logged_in_user
      end

      it "redirects to the user (admin)" do
        login_admin
        put :update, :id => @logged_in_user.id
        response.should redirect_to(user_url(@logged_in_user))
      end

      it "redirects to me (my data)" do
        login_user
        put :update, :id => @logged_in_user.id
        response.should redirect_to(user_url(@logged_in_user))
      end

      it "redirects to root (not admin)" do
        login_user
        put :update, :id => @other_user.id
        response.should redirect_to(root_path)
      end

      it "redirects to login (not logged in)" do
        put :update, :id => @other_user.id
        response.should redirect_to(login_path)
      end

      it "can edit anyone's data (admin)" do
        login_admin
        put :update, :id => @other_user.id, :user => { :email => "new_email@example.com"}
        response.should redirect_to(user_url(@other_user))
        assigns[:user].email.should == "new_email@example.com"
      end

      it "can edit my own data (not admin)" do
        login_user
        put :update, :id => @logged_in_user.id, :user => { :email => "new_email@example.com"}
        response.should redirect_to(user_url(@logged_in_user))
        assigns[:user].email.should == "new_email@example.com"
      end
    end

    describe "with invalid params" do
      it "updates the requested user (admin)" do
        login_admin
        User.should_receive(:find).with("37").and_return(mock_user)
        mock_user.should_receive(:update_attributes).with({'these' => 'params'})
        put :update, :id => "37", :user => {:these => 'params'}
      end

      it "assigns the user as @user (admin)" do
        login_admin
        User.stub!(:find).and_return(mock_user(:update_attributes => false))
        put :update, :id => "1"
        assigns[:user].should equal(mock_user)
      end

      it "re-renders the 'edit' template (admin)" do
        login_admin
        User.stub!(:find).and_return(mock_user(:update_attributes => false))
        put :update, :id => "1"
        response.should render_template('edit')
      end
    end

  end

  describe "DELETE destroy" do
    it "destroys the requested user (admin)" do
      login_admin
      User.should_receive(:find).with("37").and_return(mock_user)
      mock_user.should_receive(:destroy)
      delete :destroy, :id => "37"
    end

    it "redirects to the users list (admin)" do
      login_admin
      User.stub!(:find).and_return(mock_user(:destroy => true))
      delete :destroy, :id => "1"
      response.should redirect_to(users_url)
    end

    it "destroys me (my data)" do
      login_user
      delete :destroy, :id => @logged_in_user.id
    end

    it "tells me to bugger off (not admin)" do
      login_user
      delete :destroy, :id => @other_user.id
      flash[:error].should match "You must be an administrator to access this page."
    end

    it "tells me to log in (not logged in)" do
      delete :destroy, :id => @other_user.id
      flash[:error].should match "Please log in to access this page."
    end

    it "redirects to root (not admin)" do
      login_user
      delete :destroy, :id => @other_user.id
      response.should redirect_to(root_path)
    end

    it "redirects to login (not logged in)" do
      delete :destroy, :id => @other_user.id
      response.should redirect_to(login_path)
    end
  end
end

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