Testing entire Rspec suite fails

Question

I have an odd situation whereby if I run an individual rspec model spec file all examples are green, if I test my entire spec/models folder all my examples are green. If I test the controllers they all pass green. If I test the entire suite (via rspec spec) then I get failures - If I remove the controller tests entirely everything is green. Now I'm expecting this is entirely self inflicted but I just can't figure it out.

I've narrowed it down to specific examples in the controller tests - which cause the examples in model specs to fail.

eg. in a notes_controller_spec.rb if this line is present

 Note.any_instance.stubs(:valid?).returns(false)

it causes a failure in my models/account_spec.rb

Failure/Error: @account.all_notes.should have(2).notes
ArgumentError:
comparison of Note with Note failed
./app/models/account.rb:293:in `sort'

where line 293 is;

 (self.notes + self.transactions.map(&:notes).flatten).sort {|a,b| a.created_at <=> b.created_at }

I'm pretty sure this is going to be one of those face palm moments so be gentle with me!

Answer 1

Are you doing any date setup in a before :all block? These are not transactional and can cause test pollution issues.

Also, I think your syntax might be off here:

    Note.any_instance.stubs(:valid?).returns(false)

Should be:

    Note.any_instance.stub(:valid?).and_return(false)