Testing after_create hooks with rspec

Question

I have code in my model (RoR 3.0.x) that is more or less like this:

class Message

    after_create :notify

    protected

    def notify
        if visible?
            Notifier.message_from_portfolio( user, self ).deliver
        else
            Notifier.invisible_message_from_portfolio( user, self ).deliver
        end
    end

end

And I'm using the latest rspec gem to test it. The problem is that I'm not able to test the notify method: if I test it directly I can't because it's protected, if I create a message and set expectations it doesn't work because apparently even though rspec runs the notify metod I'm not able to catch the calls in time.

My spec is:

describe :notification do
    it "should send the whole message by email when visible" do
        u = Factory.create( :user, :account_type => 1 )
        message = u.messages.build( :body => "Whatever", :author => "Nobody", :email => "[email protected]" )
        Notifier.should_receive( :message_from_portfolio )
        message.save
    end
end

The object Notifier never receives message_from_portfolio. What am I doing wrong? Suggestions?

Answer 1

Factory.create has already saved message, so it is not being created, just saved. Substitute it with Factory.build and all should be fine.