instance variables and test functionals

[mitchai]

I have the following in my functional test file.

class UserControllerTest < ActionController::TestCase
fixtures :users

def setup
@controller = UserController.new
@request = ActionController::TestRequest.new
@response = ActionController::TestResponse.new
@invalid_user = userinvalid_user)
@valid_user = usersvalid_user)
end

def test_login_success
@valid_user.screen_name
end

When I run a test that tries to use the @valid_user variable I get the
following error.

NoMethodError: You have a nil object when you didn't expect it!
The error occurred while evaluating nil.screen_name

It seems that this class isn't storing the instance variables in memory.

Any ideas.

Thanks in advance

Mitch


I just found the answer. Cryptic little bugger.

t's worth noting that R2.0.2 subclasses ActionController::TestCase
for functional tests (i.e. UserControllerTest), not
ActiveSupport::TestCase. You need to explicitly change the skeleton
test files for (user|spec|etc)_controller_test.rb files to subclass
ActiveSupport::TestCase.

[Mittineague]

Thanks for posting your solution. I haven't upgraded from 1.8 yet, and I've yet to write any code that uses instance variables, but I'm wondering how/where you found the helpful information.

[mitchai]

Thanks for posting your solution. I haven't upgraded from 1.8 yet, and I've yet to write any code that uses instance variables, but I'm wondering how/where you found the helpful information.

I found it by looking at the website for the books website RailsSpace.com/book I think.

There they have some updates etc and a listing for the google group for RailsSpace.

On that site I found someone else who had the same problem and posted the solution. I hope this helps.