Testing AuthLogic with RSpec and Mock Helpers

Note: This all concerns Rails 2.3.x and recent versions of AuthLogic

Testing AuthLogic with RSpec is still a puzzle with several parts that can be difficult to fit together. Very helpful is a sample project on github that demonstrates several testing options with RSpec.

A series of mock helper methods that you can stuff in your spec_helper.rb can ease testing, letting you call

login

or

current_user

anywhere in your specs.

If you get errors such as

Mock "UserSession_1002" received unexpected message :record with (no args)

when mocking, the issue might be that current_user_session.record (or the underlying method which is hard to find) which is likely called in your ApplicationController is deprecated in favour of current_user_session.user

This deprecated code is still in the authlogic sample project as well as Ryan Bates' Railscast 160, so it might be confusing. Alternatively you can mock the :record call as well as some have accomplished as posted in the comments of the original post.

Posted: 26 November 2010