Rails failure to load shoulda-matchers 3.1.1 gem, undefined method `allow_value' for #<RSpec

Question

'shoulda-matchers' gem is not loading when running rspec tests.

Error: NoMethodError: undefined method 'allow_value' for #<RSpec::ExampleGroups::Contact::ActiveModelValidationss:0x007fef1021b310>

versions being used: Ruby 2.2.2 Rails 4.2.1 shoulda-matchers 3.1.1

Gemfile:

source 'https://rubygems.org'

gem 'rails', '4.2.1'
gem 'sqlite3'
gem 'sass-rails', '~> 5.0'
gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.3.0'
gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 4.1.0'
gem 'jquery-rails'
gem 'turbolinks'
gem 'jbuilder', '~> 2.0'
gem 'sdoc', '~> 0.4.0', group: :doc

group :development, :test do
  gem 'byebug'
  gem 'rspec-rails', '~> 3.0'
  gem 'factory_girl_rails'
  gem 'shoulda-matchers', '~> 3.1'
  gem 'web-console', '~> 2.0'
  gem 'spring'
  gem 'rubocop', require: false
end

rails_helper.rb:

ENV['RAILS_ENV'] ||= 'test'
require File.expand_path('../../config/environment', __FILE__)
abort("The Rails environment is running in production mode!") if Rails.env.production?
require 'spec_helper'
require 'rspec/rails'

ActiveRecord::Migration.maintain_test_schema!

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.fixture_path = "#{::Rails.root}/spec/fixtures"
  config.use_transactional_fixtures = true
  config.infer_spec_type_from_file_location!
  config.filter_rails_from_backtrace!

  Shoulda::Matchers.configure do |config|
    config.integrate do |with|
      with.test_framework :rspec
      with.library :active_record
      with.library :rails
    end
  end
end

spec_helper.rb:

RSpec.configure do |config|
  require 'factory_girl_rails'
  require 'shoulda/matchers'
  config.include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
  config.expect_with :rspec do |expectations|
    expectations.include_chain_clauses_in_custom_matcher_descriptions = true
  end
  config.mock_with :rspec do |mocks|
    mocks.verify_partial_doubles = true
  end
end

contact_spec.rb:

require 'spec_helper'

describe Contact do

  FactoryGirl.define do
    factory :contact do
      first_name "Alice"
      last_name  "Bob"
      email_address "alicebob@example.com"
      phone_number "555-555-5555"
      company_name "ExampleCompany"
    end
  end

  it "has a valid factory" do
    expect(build(:contact)).to be_valid
  end

  describe "ActiveModel validations" do
    it { expect(:contact).to allow_value("alice_bob@example.com").for(:email_address) }
  end
end

Sorry for all the code. Please note I am using shoulda-matchers version 3.1.1 and adding 'require: false` to the gemfile is no longer needed as noted here https://robots.thoughtbot.com/shoulda-matchers-3-0

I have also tried adding shoulda-matchers to its own test environment in the Gemfile as below but found no change

group :test do
  gem 'shoulda-matchers', '~> 3.1'
end

I've looked online and have found similar problems with solutions that don't work in my case. Any help or advice would be great!

Answer 1

In my case, the problem was that the tested class was not an ActiveRecord item, so shoulda did not load methods such as allow_value by default.

Solution was to add type: :model in the _spec.rb file:

RSpec.describe MyTestedClass, type: :model do
  ...
end

Answer 2

The fix that should get you green again is to change:

it { expect(:contact).to allow_value("alice_bob@example.com").for(:email_address) }

to

it { expect(build(:contact)).to allow_value("alice_bob@example.com").for(:email_address) }

in the same way as your first test, as your second test is expecting the symbol :contact to allow_value, rather than the object created in your factory.

Further, I'd recommend moving your factory definition into its own file under spec/factories/contact.rb rather than inline in your spec, and memoise the contact object in a let method, so you'd have a spec that looks like:

require 'spec_helper'

describe Contact do
  let(:contact) { build(:contact) }

  it "has a valid factory" do
    expect(contact).to be_valid
  end

  describe "ActiveModel validations" do
    it { expect(contact).to allow_value("alice_bob@example.com").for(:email_address) }
  end
end