Mocking authlogic from shoulda with mocha

Question

Hi,

I am having trouble mocking authlogic from shoulda.

I have the following test fixture:

class HomeControllerTest < ActionController::TestCase
  context "on GET to index" do
    setup do
      activate_authlogic
      UserSession.stubs(:current_user).returns( user_session )
      get :index
    end

    should respond_with :success
  end

  def user_session
    @user_session.stubs(:user).returns(Factory.build(:user))
    @user_session.stubs(:record)
    @user_session
  end
end

The problem is that the require_user method in ApplicationController is still not getting a current_user.

def current_user
  puts "#{defined?(@current_user)}"
  return @current_user if defined?(@current_user)
  @current_user = current_user_session && current_user_session.record
end

def require_user
  unless current_user
    store_location
    flash[:notice] = "You must be logged in to access this page"
    redirect_to login_url
    return false
  end
end

Can anyone see what is wrong?

Cheers

Paul

Answer 1

I think the problem may be something in the final line in your current_user method.

You might want to split it down into a few lines to make it more readable and easier to diagnose which of the parts of that statement are not as you'd expect in your test.

E.g.

@current_user = current_user_session
@current_user.record if @current_user
return @current_user

Answer 2

It looks like your mock is a little confused; It's mocking a User object (but the instance variable you're using is called @user_session), and then stubbing a #record method on that user.

Also, you're mocking the current_user method on the UserSession controller, when it's actually defined on ApplicationController.

What you're trying to assert in your test is that a user must be logged in to access the Home#index page. In this test, you shouldn't focus on the UserSession object -- it's not as important. What is important is that if the system recognizes a user object has been retrieved and identified as the "current_user", they should be allowed to access the page.

The following spec might work out for you:

class HomeControllerTest < ActionController::TestCase
  context "on GET to index" do
    setup do
      activate_authlogic
      @user = Factory.build(:user)
      login_as_user(@user)

      @controller.should_receive(:current_user).and_return(@user)

      get :index
    end

    should respond_with :success
  end

  def login_as_user(user = Factory.build(:user))
    @controller.stubs(:current_user).returns(user)
  end
end

I'm using the @controller variable that ActionController::TestCase makes available to you. It represents the instance of the current controller being tested.

An important thing to note here is that -- with the exception of line 4 -- this test now doesn't care what you're using to provide authentication functionality. So long as your application defines a current_user method that returns a User object or nil, you could be using AuthLogic, Devise or any other solution, and your test will continue to work as you might expect.