Controller specs

Controller specs are marked by type: :controller or if you have set config.infer_spec_type_from_file_location! by placing them in spec/controllers.

A controller spec is an RSpec wrapper for a Rails functional test (ActionController::TestCase::Behavior). It allows you to simulate a single http request in each example, and then specify expected outcomes such as:

• rendered templates
• redirects
• instance variables assigned in the controller to be shared with the view
• cookies sent back with the response

To specify outcomes, you can use:

• standard rspec matchers (expect(response.status).to eq(200))
• standard test/unit assertions (assert_equal 200, response.status)
• rails assertions (assert_response 200)
• rails-specific matchers:

  • render_template

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    expect(response).to render_template(:new)   # wraps assert_template
    

  • redirect_to

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    expect(response).to redirect_to(location)   # wraps assert_redirected_to
    

  • have_http_status

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    expect(response).to have_http_status(:created)
    

  • be_a_new

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    expect(assigns(:widget)).to be_a_new(Widget)
    

Examples

RSpec.describe TeamsController do
  describe "GET index" do
    it "assigns @teams" do
      team = Team.create
      get :index
      expect(assigns(:teams)).to eq([team])
    end

    it "renders the index template" do
      get :index
      expect(response).to render_template("index")
    end
  end
end

Views

• by default, views are not rendered. See views are stubbed by default and render_views for details.

Headers

We encourage you to use request specs if you want to set headers in your call. If you still want to use controller specs with custom http headers you can use request.headers:

require "rails_helper"

RSpec.describe TeamsController, type: :controller do
  describe "GET index" do
    it "returns a 200" do
      request.headers["Authorization"] = "foo"
      get :show
      expect(response).to have_http_status(:ok)
    end
  end
end