Using Rspec, how do I test the JSON format of my controller in Rails 3.0.11?
I've scoured the web, but, alas, I just can't seem to get Rspec to correctly send content-type so I can test my JSON API. I'm using the RABL gem for templates, Rails 3.0.11, and Ruby 1.9.2-p180.
My curl output, which works fine (should be a 401, I know):
mrsnuggles:tmp gaahrdner$ curl -i -H "Accept: application/json" -X POST -d @bleh http://localhost:3000/applications
HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Cache-Control: no-cache
X-Ua-Compatible: IE=Edge
X-Runtime: 0.561638
Server: WEBrick/1.3.1 (Ruby/1.9.2/2011-02-18)
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:10:51 GMT
Content-Length: 74
Connection: Keep-Alive
Set-Cookie: _session_id=8e8b73b5a6e5c95447aab13dafd59993; path=/; HttpOnly
{"status":"error","message":"You are not authorized to access this page."}
Sample from one of my test cases:
describe ApplicationsController do
render_views
disconnect_sunspot
let(:application) { Factory.create(:application) }
subject { application }
context "JSON" do
describe "creating a new application" do
context "when not authorized" do
before do
json = { :application => { :name => "foo", :description => "bar" } }
request.env['CONTENT_TYPE'] = 'application/json'
request.env['RAW_POST_DATA'] = json
post :create
end
it "should not allow creation of an application" do
Application.count.should == 0
end
it "should respond with a 403" do
response.status.should eq(403)
end
it "should have a status and message key in the hash" do
JSON.parse(response.body)["status"] == "error"
JSON.parse(response.body)["message"] =~ /authorized/
end
end
context "authorized" do
end
end
end
end
These tests never pass though, I always get redirected and my content-type is always text/html, regardless of how I seem to specify the type in my before block:
# nope
before do
post :create, {}, { :format => :json }
end
# nada
before do
post :create, :format => Mime::JSON
end
# nuh uh
before do
request.env['ACCEPT'] = 'application/json'
post :create, { :foo => :bar }
end
Here is the rspec output:
Failures:
1) ApplicationsController JSON creating a new application when not authorized should respond with a 403
Failure/Error: response.status.should eq(403)
expected 403
got 302
(compared using ==)
# ./spec/controllers/applications_controller_spec.rb:31:in `block (5 levels) in <top (required)>'
2) ApplicationsController JSON creating a new application when not authorized should have a status and message key in the hash
Failure/Error: JSON.parse(response.body)["status"] == "errors"
JSON::ParserError:
756: unexpected token at '<html><body>You are being <a href="http://test.host/">redirected</a>.</body></html>'
# ./spec/controllers/applications_controller_spec.rb:35:in `block (5 levels) in <top (required)>'
As you can see I'm getting the 302 redirect for the HTML format, even though I'm trying to specify 'application/json'.
Here is my application_controller.rb, with the rescue_from bit:
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, :with => :not_found
protect_from_forgery
helper_method :current_user
helper_method :remove_dns_record
rescue_from CanCan::AccessDenied do |exception|
flash[:alert] = exception.message
respond_to do |format|
h = { :status => "error", :message => exception.message }
format.html { redirect_to root_url }
format.json { render :json => h, :status => :forbidden }
format.xml { render :xml => h, :status => :forbidden }
end
end
private
def not_found(exception)
respond_to do |format|
h = { :status => "error", :message => exception.message }
format.html { render :file => "#{RAILS_ROOT}/public/404.html", :status => :not_found }
format.json { render :json => h, :status => :not_found }
format.xml { render :xml => h, :status => :not_found }
end
end
end
And also applications_controller.rb, specifically the 'create' action which is what I'm trying to test. It's fairly ugly at the moment because I'm using state_machine and overriding the delete method.
def create
# this needs to be cleaned up and use accepts_attributes_for
@application = Application.new(params[:application])
@environments = params[:application][:environment_ids]
@application.environment_ids<<@environments unless @environments.blank?
if params[:site_bindings] == "new"
@site = Site.new(:name => params[:application][:name])
@environments.each do |e|
@site.siteenvs << Siteenv.new(:environment_id => e)
end
end
if @site
@application.sites << @site
end
if @application.save
if @site
@site.siteenvs.each do |se|
appenv = @application.appenvs.select {|e| e.environment_id == se.environment_id }
se.appenv = appenv.first
se.save
end
end
flash[:success] = "New application created."
respond_with(@application, :location => @application)
else
render 'new'
end
# super stinky :(
@application.change_servers_on_appenvs(params[:servers]) unless params[:servers].blank?
@application.save
end
I've looked at the source code here: https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/responder.rb, and it seems it should respond correctly, as well as a number of questions on stack overflow that seem to have similar issues and possible solutions, but none work for me.
What am I doing wrong?
Answer
I realize that setting :format => :json is one solution (as noted above). However, I wanted to test the same conditions that the clients to my API would use. My clients would not be setting the :format parameter, instead they would be setting the Accept HTTP header. If you are interested in this solution, here is what I used:
# api/v1/test_controller_spec.rb
require 'spec_helper.rb'
describe Api::V1::TestController do
render_views
context "when request sets accept => application/json" do
it "should return successful response" do
request.accept = "application/json"
get :test
response.should be_success
end
end
end