Cookie value set in spec, but controller can't read it

Testing RSpec
1

Hello,

I set a value in controller spec using @request.cookies:

but when the controller reads it, it’s nil somehow, as this screenshot
from the debugger shows:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/830772/p/Selection_033.jpeg

This does not occur in development environment. I’m using RSpec 2.4
and Rails 3.

Does someone have an idea what I am doing wrong / how to solve this?

2

On Jan 5, 2011, at 11:54 AM, Marko A. wrote:

and Rails 3.

Does someone have an idea what I am doing wrong / how to solve this?

That looks like it should work, and I don’t think you’re doing anything
wrong.

What’s happening is that the object returned by @request.cookies is a
Hash, but the object returned by cookies() in the controller is an
ActionDispatch::Cookies::CookieJar. If you print them both out with
.inspect, they’ll both say they are {:lastfm_username => “rj”}, but the
answer differently to other questions:

in spec

@request.cookies[:lastfm_username] # => “rj”
@request.cookies[“lastfm_username”] # => nil

in controller

cookies[:lastfm_username] # => nil
cookies[“lastfm_username”] # => nil

You’ll see exactly the same behavior, btw, in a Rails functional test
(which an RSpec controller spec wraps), so this is happening in the
Rails test infrastructure, not RSpec. Care to log a bug report in the
Rails tracker?

https://rails.lighthouseapp.com/

Thx,
David

3

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 05:05, David C. wrote:

@request.cookies[:lastfm_username] # => “rj”
@request.cookies[“lastfm_username”] # => nil

in controller

cookies[:lastfm_username] # => nil
cookies[“lastfm_username”] # => nil

You’ll see exactly the same behavior, btw, in a Rails functional test (which an
RSpec controller spec wraps), so this is happening in the Rails test
infrastructure, not RSpec. Care to log a bug report in the Rails tracker?

https://rails.lighthouseapp.com/

Thanks for your explanation David. I created Rails ticket #6272.

Later I found a workaround of using request.cookies in the controller,
but it would be nice if it would just work with cookies.

Btw I was also not sure when to use symbols, and when keys. Eg if I
set a value in controller:
cookies.permanent[:lastfm_username] = username

then in spec, I need to obtain the value with a string:
cookies[“lastfm_username”].should == “rj”

Marko

4

On Jan 10, 2011, at 8:27 AM, Marko A. wrote:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/830772/p/Selection_033.jpeg

in spec

then in spec, I need to obtain the value with a string:
cookies[“lastfm_username”].should == “rj”

My understanding is that it’s a HashWithIndifferentAccess, which means
you can use string or symbol keys. That said, however, when the app is
running the cookies come from the rack environment and are always string
keys, so I’d recommend sticking w/ that for consistency, but that’s a
pretty subjective thing.

HTH,
David

5

On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 17:33, David C. [email protected]
wrote:

You’ll see exactly the same behavior, btw, in a Rails functional test (which
an RSpec controller spec wraps), so this is happening in the Rails test
infrastructure, not RSpec. Care to log a bug report in the Rails tracker?
set a value in controller:
cookies.permanent[:lastfm_username] = username

then in spec, I need to obtain the value with a string:
cookies[“lastfm_username”].should == “rj”

My understanding is that it’s a HashWithIndifferentAccess, which means you can
use string or symbol keys. That said, however, when the app is running the cookies
come from the rack environment and are always string keys, so I’d recommend
sticking w/ that for consistency, but that’s a pretty subjective thing.

When I inspected spec’s cookies’ class in debugger, it was Hash. In
any case, I will remember that they’re always in string keys when
coming rack. As I read your reply I connected this with the
observation that I needed to add an OR to use string keys in cucumber
environment within the controller.

Thanks.