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

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

redirect_to

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

have_http_status

expect(response).to have_http_status(:created)

be_a_new

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

Controller specs

Examples

Views

Headers

Topics