Rspec: How to assign instance variable in controller spec

Question

class TestController < AplicationController   #....    private    def some_method     unless @my_variable.nil?       #...       return true     end   end end 

I want to test some_method directly in controller spec:

require 'spec_helper'  describe TestController do   it "test some_method"     phone = Phone.new(...)     controller.assign(:my_variable,phone) #does not work     controller.send(:some_method).should be_true   end end 

How I can set TestController instance variable @my_variable from controller spec?

Answer 1

When testing private methods in controllers, rather than use send, I tend to use an anonymous controller due to not wanting to call the private method directly, but the interface to the private method (or, in the test below, effectively stubbing that interface). So, in your case, perhaps something like:

require 'spec_helper'  describe TestController do   controller do     def test_some_method       some_method     end   end    describe "a phone test with some_method" do      subject { controller.test_some_method }      context "when my_variable is not nil" do       before { controller.instance_variable_set(:@my_variable, Phone.new(...)) }       it { should be_true }     end      context "when my_variable is nil" do       before { controller.instance_variable_set(:@my_variable, nil) }        it { should_not be_true } # or should be_false or whatever     end        end end 

There's some good discussion on the issue of directly testing private methods in this StackOverflow Q&A, which swayed me towards using anonymous controllers, but your opinion may differ.