Why must I reload records in rspec after using customer validators?

Question

I've got a model User that has options created in a callback after it is created

# User
has_one :user_options

after_create :create_options

private

def create_options
  UserOptions.create(user: self)
end

I have some simple Rspec coverage for this:

describe "new user" do
  it "creates user_options after the user is created" do
    user = create(:user)
    user.user_options.should be_kind_of(UserOptions)
  end
end

Everything worked until I added custom validation to the User model.

validate :check_whatever, if: :blah_blah

Now the spec fails and the only way to make it pass is to reload the record in the spec:

it "creates user_preferences for the user" do
  user = create(:user)
  user.reload
  user.user_options.should be_kind_of(UserOptions)
end

What is the reason for this?

Answer 1

First of all I would recommend reading this article about debugging rails applications: http://nofail.de/2013/10/debugging-rails-applications-in-development/

Secondly I would propose some changes to your code:

def create_options
  UserOptions.create(user: self)
end

should be

def create_options
  self.user_option.create
end

that way you don't have to reload an object after save, because the object already has the new UserOptions entity in it's relation.

Assuming from the code create(:user) you are using fixtures. There might be a problem with the data that you are using the in the user.yml and the validation that you wrote, but unfortunately did not post here.