How test the send_data method in Rails?

Question

How can I test the send_data method in Rails?

Answer 1

First of all look at the source of the send_data method http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionController/DataStreaming.html#method-i-send_data

According to that, send_data simply put everything to render :text => '...' with additional options.

I think you can do it in this way:

response.body.should eql data
response.header['Content-Type'].should eql 'image/png'

Answer 2

You shouldn't need to test the behaviour of send_data itself, mainly because that's covered by Rails' own tests. Also, it will make your tests run slowly (eventually). What you should do (from my perspective) is to stub the send_data method, something like:

controller.expects(:send_data).with("foo").returns(:success)

Hope it helps.