rails 4 rspec controllers all failing

Question

Upgrading from rails 3.2.17 to 4.0.1

All my rspec's (which passed in 3.2.17) now fail with undefined method, e.g.

Failure/Error: delete :destroy, id: @group
NoMethodError: undefined method `delete' for
#<RSpec::ExampleGroups::GroupsController::ViewAccess::DELETEDestroy:0x000000041bc188>

Failure/Error: put :update, id: @group,
undefined method `put' for 
#<RSpec::ExampleGroups::GroupsController::ViewAccess::PUTUpdate::InvalidAttributes

Failure/Error: post :create, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group)
undefined method `post' for ...

Failure/Error: get :show, id: @group
NoMethodError: undefined method `get' for
#<RSpec::ExampleGroups::GroupsController::ViewAccess::GETShow:0x00000004c5f298>

and a lot of

Failure/Error: session[:user_id] = user.id
NameError:
   undefined local variable or method `session' for
#<RSpec::ExampleGroups::GroupsController::AdminAccess::DELETEDestroy:0x00000004c1ac10>

How to fix?

spec is:

require 'spec_helper'

describe GroupsController do

  describe "admin access" do
    before :each do
      @group = FactoryGirl.create(:group, group_name: 'Tools', group_description: 'Tools and Utilities')
      user = FactoryGirl.create(:user, username: 'mdd', password: 'aaa', password_confirmation: 'aaa')
      session[:user_id] = user.id
    end

    describe 'GET #index' do    
      it "populates an array of groups" do
        get :index
        assigns(:groups).should eq([@group])
      end

      it "renders the :index view" do
        get :index
        response.should render_template :index
      end
    end

    describe 'GET #show' do    
      it "assigns the requested group to @group" do
        get :show, id: @group
        assigns(:group).should == @group
      end

      it "renders the :show template" do
        get :show, id: @group
        response.should render_template :show
      end
    end

    describe 'GET #new' do
      it "assigns a new Group to @group" do
        get :new
        assigns(:group).should be_a_new(Group)
      end

      it "renders the :new template" do
        get :new
        response.should render_template :new
      end
    end

    describe 'GET #edit' do
      it "assigns the requested group to @group" do
        get :edit, id: @group
        assigns(:group).should == @group
      end

      it "renders the :edit template" do
        get :edit, id: @group
        response.should render_template :edit
      end
    end

    describe "POST #create" do

      context "with valid attributes" do
        it "creates a new group" do
          expect{
            post :create, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group)
          }.to change(Group,:count).by(1)
        end

        it "redirects to the new group" do
          a = post :create, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group)
          response.should redirect_to Group.unscoped.last
        end
      end

      context "with invalid attributes" do
        it "does not save the new group" do
          expect{
            post :create, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:invalid_group)
          }.to_not change(Group,:count)
        end

        it "re-renders the new method" do
          post :create, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:invalid_group)
          response.should render_template :new
        end
      end 
    end

    describe 'PUT #update' do
      context "valid attributes" do
        it "located the requested @group" do
          put :update, id: @group, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group)
          assigns(:group).should eq(@group)      
        end

        it "changes @group's attributes" do
          put :update, id: @group, 
            group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group, 
              group_name: "test2", group_description: "test2")
          @group.reload
          @group.group_name.should eq("test2")
          @group.group_description.should eq("test2")
        end

        it "redirects to the updated group" do
          put :update, id: @group, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group)
          response.should redirect_to @group
        end
      end
      context "invalid attributes" do
        it "locates the requested @group" do
          put :update, id: @group, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:invalid_group)
          assigns(:group).should eq(@group)      
        end

        it "does not change @group's attributes" do
          put :update, id: @group, 
            group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group, 
              group_name: "XGroup", group_description: 'XGroup')
          @group.reload
          @group.group_name.should_not eq("Larry")
          @group.group_description.should_not eq("Smith")
        end

        it "re-renders the edit method" do
          put :update, id: @group, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:invalid_group)
          response.should render_template :edit
        end
      end
    end

    describe 'DELETE destroy' do
      it "deletes the group" do
        expect{
          delete :destroy, id: @group        
        }.to change(Group,:count).by(-1)
      end

      it "redirects to groups#index" do
        delete :destroy, id: @group
        response.should redirect_to groups_url
      end
    end
  end


  describe "view access" do
    before :each do
      @group = FactoryGirl.create(:group, group_name: 'Tools', group_description: 'Tools and Utilities')
    end

    describe 'GET #index' do    
      it "populates an array of groups" do
        get :index
        assigns(:groups).should eq([@group])
      end

      it "renders the :index view" do
        get :index
        response.should render_template :index
      end
    end

    describe 'GET #show' do    
      it "assigns the requested group to @group" do
        get :show, id: @group
        assigns(:group).should == @group
      end

      it "renders the :show template" do
        get :show, id: @group
        response.should render_template :show
      end
    end

    describe 'GET #new' do
      it "assigns a new Group to @group" do
        get :new
        assigns(:group).should be_nil 
      end

      it "renders the :new template" do
        get :new
        response.should redirect_to ladmin_login_url
      end
    end

    describe 'GET #edit' do
      it "assigns the requested group to @group" do
        get :edit, id: @group
        assigns(:group).should be_nil
      end

      it "renders the :edit template" do
        get :edit, id: @group
        response.should redirect_to ladmin_login_url
      end
    end

    describe "POST #create" do

      context "with valid attributes" do
        it "creates a new group" do
          expect{
            post :create, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group)
          }.to_not change(Group,:count)
        end

        it "redirects to the new group" do
          post :create, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group)
          response.should redirect_to ladmin_login_url
        end
      end

      context "with invalid attributes" do
        it "does not save the new group" do
          expect{
            post :create, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:invalid_group)
          }.to_not change(Group,:count)
        end

        it "re-renders the new method" do
          post :create, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:invalid_group)
          response.should redirect_to ladmin_login_url
        end
      end 
    end

    describe 'PUT #update' do
      context "valid attributes" do
        it "located the requested @group" do
          put :update, id: @group, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group)
          assigns(:group).should be_nil
        end

        it "changes @group's attributes" do          
          put :update, id: @group, 
            group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group, 
              group_name: "XTools", group_description: "XTools and Utilities")
          @group.reload
          @group.group_name.should_not eq("XTools")
          @group.group_description.should_not eq("XTools and Utilities")
        end

        it "redirects to the updated group" do
          put :update, id: @group, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group)
          response.should redirect_to ladmin_login_url
        end
      end

      context "invalid attributes" do
        it "locates the requested @group" do
          put :update, id: @group, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:invalid_group)
          assigns(:group).should be_nil
        end

        it "does not change @group's attributes" do
          put :update, id: @group, 
            group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:group, 
              group_name: "XTools", group_description: nil)
          @group.reload
          @group.group_name.should_not eq("XTools")
          @group.group_description.should eq("Tools and Utilities")
        end

        it "re-renders the edit method" do
          put :update, id: @group, group: FactoryGirl.attributes_for(:invalid_group)
          response.should redirect_to ladmin_login_url
        end
      end
    end

    describe 'DELETE destroy' do
      it "deletes the group" do
        expect{
          delete :destroy, id: @group        
        }.to_not change(Group,:count)
      end

      it "redirects to groups#index" do
        delete :destroy, id: @group
        response.should redirect_to ladmin_login_url
      end
    end
  end

end

Answer 1

Rspec 2 was guessing whether given class is controller or model based on spec file location. This guessing is disabled by default in rspec 3, you need to add the following line to your spec_helper (or rather rails_helper) to enable it:

config.infer_spec_type_from_file_location!

alternatively you need to tell rspec what are you testing with:

describe GroupsController, type: :controller do