rspec not loading factory

Question

I am just getting started on rspec, and I may have included to much in the first go. I followed this guide but cant seem to get it all to come together.

I have a Model called Photo, so I have created a Factory girl for that:

# spec/factories/photo.rb
FactoryGirl.define do
  factory :photo do
    date_taken     { Faker::Date.backward(14) }
  end
end

I use this in a test:

#spec/models/photo_spec.rb
require 'rails_helper'

RSpec.describe Photo, type: :model do
  it "has a valid factory" do
    expect(photo).to be_valid
  end
end

But I get the following, indicating that the photo factory is not loaded...

rspec spec/models/photo_spec.rb

Failures:

  1) Photo has a valid factory
     Failure/Error: expect(photo).to be_valid

     NameError:
       undefined local variable or method `photo' for #<RSpec::ExampleGroups::Photo:0x00000004b769f8>
     # ./spec/models/photo_spec.rb:5:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'

Finished in 0.29491 seconds (files took 7.67 seconds to load)
1 example, 1 failure

Failed examples:

rspec ./spec/models/photo_spec.rb:4 # Photo has a valid factory

My config is:

#spec/rails_helper.rb
# This file is copied to spec/ when you run 'rails generate rspec:install'
require 'spec_helper'
ENV['RAILS_ENV'] ||= 'test'
require File.expand_path('../../config/environment', __FILE__)
# Prevent database truncation if the environment is production
abort("The Rails environment is running in production mode!") if Rails.env.production?
require 'rspec/rails'
# Add additional requires below this line. Rails is not loaded until this point!

require 'shoulda/matchers'
require 'database_cleaner'
require 'support/factory_girl'

# 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 migration and applies them 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 = false

  # 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!

  # Filter lines from Rails gems in backtraces.
  config.filter_rails_from_backtrace!
  # arbitrary gems may also be filtered via:
  # config.filter_gems_from_backtrace("gem name")
end

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

in support dir:

#spec/support/factory_girl.rb
RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
end

  #spec/support/database_cleaner.rb`enter code here`
  RSpec.configure do |config|

  config.before(:suite) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
  end

  config.before(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
  end

  config.before(:each, :js => true) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
  end

  config.before(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.start
  end

  config.after(:each) do
    DatabaseCleaner.clean
  end
end

Answer 1

Down in the comments section on the linked guide, there's a comment by Rhys Davis on 11 Jan 2016

Although in the Model Specs section I had to add the following to rails_helper.rb: config.include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods

then also add the following to my contact_spec.rb: contact = build(:contact)

and then a reply by Arkadiusz Zdanowski on 5 Sep

Yes, without those lines I got the following error:

Failures:

1) Contact has a valid factory Failure/Error: expect(contact).to be_valid

 NameError:
   undefined local variable or method `contact' for #

Which is the same error you're getting now, so adding those 2 lines should probably fix the issue for you.