rspec & devise test helpers

Question

According to this from the devise wiki I should be able to use a login_user helper method in my controller tests. Accordingly I have the following within the spec directory:

#spec_helper.rb
...
Dir[Rails.root.join("spec/support/**/*.rb")].each {|f| require f}

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include Devise::TestHelpers, :type => :controller
  config.extend ControllerMacros, :type => :controller
...

and

#support/controller_macros.rb
module ControllerMacros    
  def login_user
    before(:each) do
      @request.env["devise.mapping"] = Devise.mappings[:user]
      @user = Factory.create(:user)
      sign_in @user
    end
  end
end

however calling the helper doesn't work:

#requests/some_spec.rb
require 'spec_helper'
describe "GET /guides/edit" do
  login_user     
end

Can someone point toward where I'm going wrong. The test suite works about from this. I get a undefined local variable or method message so I guess the module isn't being included.

Rails 3.0.7 rspec 2.6.0 devise 1.3.4

backtrace

Answer 1

I imagine there are a couple of problems with this approach. First is that you're using request specs, not controller specs, so the login_user method is not made available by config.extend ControllerMacros, :type => :controller. Second, even if you are able to include the method it most likely won't work anyway, since the Devise test helpers are specifically written for controller/view tests, not integration tests.

Take a look at David Chelimsky's answer to this SO question, which may be of help.