RSpec Cannot find my Controllers Uninitialized Constant

Question

My rails app recently moved from Rails 3 to Rails 4 and I've been trying to run rspec on individual specs (controllers, models, etc.) and it seems to be having an issue actually locating the object. For example, when I try to run the following code it errors with an uninitialized constant error. This seems to be happening for multiple controllers. I've already tried deleting the rails_helper.rb and spec_helper.rb and running rails generate rspec:install but it doesn't seem to resolve the error. Why can't it find the controllers?

What I'm Trying to execute

-> rspec spec/controllers/activity_controller_spec.rb 
/Users/osx_user/rails_projects/tealeaf_rails/ltbweb/spec/controllers/activity_controller_spec.rb:4:in `<top (required)>': uninitialized constant ActivitiesController (NameError)

rails_helper.rb

# This file is copied to spec/ when you run 'rails generate rspec:install'
ENV["RAILS_ENV"] ||= 'test'
require 'spec_helper'
require File.expand_path("../../config/environment", __FILE__)
require 'rspec/rails'
# Add additional requires below this line. Rails is not loaded until this point!

# Requires supporting ruby files with custom matchers and macros, etc, in
# spec/support/ and its subdirectories. Files matching `spec/**/*_spec.rb` are
# run as spec files by default. This means that files in spec/support that end
# in _spec.rb will both be required and run as specs, causing the specs to be
# run twice. It is recommended that you do not name files matching this glob to
# end with _spec.rb. You can configure this pattern with the --pattern
# option on the command line or in ~/.rspec, .rspec or `.rspec-local`.
#
# The following line is provided for convenience purposes. It has the downside
# of increasing the boot-up time by auto-requiring all files in the support
# directory. Alternatively, in the individual `*_spec.rb` files, manually
# require only the support files necessary.
#
# Dir[Rails.root.join("spec/support/**/*.rb")].each { |f| require f }

# Checks for pending migrations before tests are run.
# If you are not using ActiveRecord, you can remove this line.
ActiveRecord::Migration.maintain_test_schema!

RSpec.configure do |config|
  # Remove this line if you're not using ActiveRecord or ActiveRecord fixtures
  config.fixture_path = "#{::Rails.root}/spec/fixtures"

  # If you're not using ActiveRecord, or you'd prefer not to run each of your
  # examples within a transaction, remove the following line or assign false
  # instead of true.
  config.use_transactional_fixtures = true

  # RSpec Rails can automatically mix in different behaviours to your tests
  # based on their file location, for example enabling you to call `get` and
  # `post` in specs under `spec/controllers`.
  #
  # You can disable this behaviour by removing the line below, and instead
  # explicitly tag your specs with their type, e.g.:
  #
  #     RSpec.describe UsersController, :type => :controller do
  #       # ...
  #     end
  #
  # The different available types are documented in the features, such as in
  # https://relishapp.com/rspec/rspec-rails/docs
  config.infer_spec_type_from_file_location!
end

spec_helper.rb

# This file was generated by the `rails generate rspec:install` command. Conventionally, all
# specs live under a `spec` directory, which RSpec adds to the `$LOAD_PATH`.
# The generated `.rspec` file contains `--require spec_helper` which will cause this
# file to always be loaded, without a need to explicitly require it in any files.
#
# Given that it is always loaded, you are encouraged to keep this file as
# light-weight as possible. Requiring heavyweight dependencies from this file
# will add to the boot time of your test suite on EVERY test run, even for an
# individual file that may not need all of that loaded. Instead, consider making
# a separate helper file that requires the additional dependencies and performs
# the additional setup, and require it from the spec files that actually need it.
#
# The `.rspec` file also contains a few flags that are not defaults but that
# users commonly want.
#
# See http://rubydoc.info/gems/rspec-core/RSpec/Core/Configuration
RSpec.configure do |config|
  # rspec-expectations config goes here. You can use an alternate
  # assertion/expectation library such as wrong or the stdlib/minitest
  # assertions if you prefer.
  config.expect_with :rspec do |expectations|
    # This option will default to `true` in RSpec 4. It makes the `description`
    # and `failure_message` of custom matchers include text for helper methods
    # defined using `chain`, e.g.:
    # be_bigger_than(2).and_smaller_than(4).description
    #   # => "be bigger than 2 and smaller than 4"
    # ...rather than:
    #   # => "be bigger than 2"
    expectations.include_chain_clauses_in_custom_matcher_descriptions = true
  end

  # rspec-mocks config goes here. You can use an alternate test double
  # library (such as bogus or mocha) by changing the `mock_with` option here.
  config.mock_with :rspec do |mocks|
    # Prevents you from mocking or stubbing a method that does not exist on
    # a real object. This is generally recommended, and will default to
    # `true` in RSpec 4.
    mocks.verify_partial_doubles = true
  end

# The settings below are suggested to provide a good initial experience
# with RSpec, but feel free to customize to your heart's content.
=begin
  # These two settings work together to allow you to limit a spec run
  # to individual examples or groups you care about by tagging them with
  # `:focus` metadata. When nothing is tagged with `:focus`, all examples
  # get run.
  config.filter_run :focus
  config.run_all_when_everything_filtered = true

  # Limits the available syntax to the non-monkey patched syntax that is recommended.
  # For more details, see:
  #   - http://myronmars.to/n/dev-blog/2012/06/rspecs-new-expectation-syntax
  #   - http://teaisaweso.me/blog/2013/05/27/rspecs-new-message-expectation-syntax/
  #   - http://myronmars.to/n/dev-blog/2014/05/notable-changes-in-rspec-3#new__config_option_to_disable_rspeccore_monkey_patching
  config.disable_monkey_patching!

  # Many RSpec users commonly either run the entire suite or an individual
  # file, and it's useful to allow more verbose output when running an
  # individual spec file.
  if config.files_to_run.one?
    # Use the documentation formatter for detailed output,
    # unless a formatter has already been configured
    # (e.g. via a command-line flag).
    config.default_formatter = 'doc'
  end

  # Print the 10 slowest examples and example groups at the
  # end of the spec run, to help surface which specs are running
  # particularly slow.
  config.profile_examples = 10

  # Run specs in random order to surface order dependencies. If you find an
  # order dependency and want to debug it, you can fix the order by providing
  # the seed, which is printed after each run.
  #     --seed 1234
  config.order = :random

  # Seed global randomization in this process using the `--seed` CLI option.
  # Setting this allows you to use `--seed` to deterministically reproduce
  # test failures related to randomization by passing the same `--seed` value
  # as the one that triggered the failure.
  Kernel.srand config.seed
=end
end

Answer 1

In my case, I have my controllers inside of 'api/v1/' so I had to define in the spec file something like:

describes Api::V1::ActivitiesController do

I hope this can help you ;)

Answer 2

Ensure require 'rails_helper' is at the top of your spec.

Answer 3

I have added

--require rails_helper

in .rspec in my rails application, it resolves the error.

Answer 4

It looks like you have upgraded rspec. That require line was moved from spec_helper to the new file rails_helper. You probably failed to change the line at the top of your spec file to include rails_helper instead of spec_helper. (note that rails_helper in turn includes spec_helper)

Answer 5

I added

require File.expand_path("../../config/environment", __FILE__)

to the spec_helper.rb file and this resolved the error. I'm not sure why the spec_helper needs this, but I think it has something to do with Rails' ability to locate a file's path relative to another file, and I suspect this was messing up RSpec's ability to find the appropriate controllers, models, etc.

I did some research and found that previously we were on RSpec 2.14 and we're now on 3.2, and I think there may be some differences in the way rspec uses these two files. In our old spec_helper file we had this line:

require File.expand_path("../../config/environment", __FILE__)

Answer 6

Could it simply be that you're referring to ActivitiesController and yet the controller is defined as ActivityController.

It says...

uninitialized constant ActivitiesController

and yet your spec file is called...

rspec spec/controllers/activity_controller_spec.rb