NoMethodError: undefined method `belong_to' for #<RSpec::Core::ExampleGroup::Nested_4:0xa05d2a0>

Question

So this is kind of baffling me as I can't quite figure out why it's happening. This only happens on my laptop (Ubuntu 11.04), and not elsewhere. I just seem to have something weird with the setup on this one computer.

I keep getting the following error when I run my specs:

be rake spec

Gives me:

NoMethodError: undefined method `belong_to' for #<RSpec::Core::ExampleGroup::Nested_4:0xb4eb2e4>
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-expectations-2.6.0/lib/rspec/matchers/method_missing.rb:9:in `method_missing'
/home/tom/work/ruby/litdistco-sales/spec/models/sales_item_spec.rb:5:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:48:in `instance_eval'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:48:in `block in run'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:107:in `with_around_hooks'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:45:in `run'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:294:in `block in run_examples'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:290:in `map'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:290:in `run_examples'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:262:in `run'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/command_line.rb:24:in `block (2 levels) in run'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/command_line.rb:24:in `map'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/command_line.rb:24:in `block in run'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/reporter.rb:12:in `report'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/command_line.rb:21:in `run'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:80:in `run_in_process'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:69:in `run'
/home/tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290@litdistco/gems/rspec-core-2.6.4/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:11:in `block in autorun'

Here are the relevant lines from my spec file that generates the complaint:

describe SalesItem do
  it { should belong_to(:publisher) }
  it { should belong_to(:invoice) }

I'm running Rails 3.1.0. Here is ruby -v:

ruby 1.9.2p290 (2011-07-09 revision 32553) [i686-linux]

Any tips /thoughts/ideas recommendations greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Try adding this in your rails_helper.rb

Shoulda::Matchers.configure do |config|
  config.integrate do |with|
    with.test_framework :rspec
    with.library :rails
  end
end

Answer 2

RSpec core does not have such matcher. It looks like shoulda-matchers. Just make sure that it's installed and loaded in your spec_helper

Answer 3

I was having a hard time with this for awhile and then changed my spec from:

describe ModelName do
  it { should belong_to(:model)}
end

to:

RSpec.describe ModelName, type: :model do
  it { should belong_to(:model)}
end

and it suddenly worked