How Do I Use Factory Girl To Generate A Paperclip Attachment?

Question

You can use fixture_file_upload

include ActionDispatch::TestProcess in your test helper, here is an example factory:

include ActionDispatch::TestProcess

FactoryBot.define do
  factory :user do
    avatar { fixture_file_upload(Rails.root.join('spec', 'photos', 'test.png'), 'image/png') }
  end
end

In the above example, spec/photos/test.png needs to exist in your application's root directory before running your tests.

Note, that FactoryBot is a new name for FactoryGirl.

Newer FG syntax and no includes necessary

factory :user do
  avatar { File.new(Rails.root.join('app', 'assets', 'images', 'rails.png')) }
end

or, better yet,

factory :user do
  avatar { File.new("#{Rails.root}/spec/support/fixtures/image.jpg") } 
end

Desmond Bowe over at Pivotal Labs suggests avoiding fixture_file_upload due to memory leak problems. Instead, you should set the paperclip fields directly in your factory:

factory :attachment do
  supporting_documentation_file_name { 'test.pdf' }
  supporting_documentation_content_type { 'application/pdf' }
  supporting_documentation_file_size { 1024 }
  # ...
end

I've been using the code in the gist below:

Rails 2

http://gist.github.com/162881

Rails 3

https://gist.github.com/313121