Dont understand unit test self.use_instantiated_fixtures

Rails
1

Hi all,

I am trying to do some tests based on a tutorial here
http://www.aidanf.net/rails_user_authentication_tutorial

here is the two tests that seem to ‘blow up’ when I have the
use_instantiated_fixtures line in place.

require File.dirname(FILE) + ‘/…/test_helper’

class UserTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
self.use_instantiated_fixtures = true
fixtures :users

test basic authentication

def test_auth
# check that we can login a valid user
assert_equal @bob, User.authenticate(“bob”, “test1”)
# wrong username
assert_nil User.authenticate(“notbob”, “test1”)
# wrong pwd
assert_nil User.authenticate(“bob”, “wrongpass”)
# both wrong
assert_nil User.authenticate(“notbob”, “wrongpass”)
end

can we change passwords

def test_passwordchange
# check that it exists in the first place
assert_equal @longbob, User.authenticate(“longbob”, “longtest”)
# change password
@longbob.password = @longbob.password_confirmation =
“nonbobpasswd”
assert @longbob.save
# check that the new password works
assert_equal @longbob, User.authenticate(“longbob”,
“nonbobpasswd”)
# check that old password doesnt work any more
assert_nil User.authenticate(“longbob”, “longtest”)
#change it back again
@longbob.password = @longbob.password_confirmation = “longtest”
assert @longbob.save
assert_equal @longbob, User.authenticate(“longbob”, “longtest”)
assert_nil User.authenticate(“longbob”, “nonbobpasswd”)
end

2 other tests that work below here omitted

…

end

This is the error listing I get

ruby user_test.rb
Loaded suite user_test
Started
F…F
Finished in 0.279297 seconds.

  1. Failure:
    test_auth(UserTest) [user_test.rb:10]:
    <#<User:0x99f7b18
    @attributes=
    {“salt”=>“813762200.1356”,
    “name”=>“bob”,
    “hashed_password”=>“69f50afebdc75388afbe144e3355b6c08066a0bc”,
    “lastname”=>“bob”,
    “firstname”=>“bob”,
    “id”=>“1000001”,
    “email”=>“[email protected]”}>> expected but was
    .

  2. Failure:
    test_passwordchange(UserTest) [user_test.rb:22]:
    <#<User:0x99affc0
    @attributes=
    {“salt”=>“808396800.134522”,
    “name”=>“longbob”,
    “hashed_password”=>“f1bd0a176e98e973b03529ee89303e24acca00c6”,
    “lastname”=>“bob”,
    “firstname”=>“long”,
    “id”=>“1000003”,
    “email”=>“[email protected]”}>> expected but was
    .

4 tests, 11 assertions, 2 failures, 0 errors

Now if i comment out the line I get this instead

ruby user_test.rb
Loaded suite user_test
Started
…E
Finished in 0.149724 seconds.

  1. Error:
    test_passwordchange(UserTest):
    NoMethodError: You have a nil object when you didn’t expect it!
    The error occurred while evaluating nil.password_confirmation=
    user_test.rb:24:in `test_passwordchange’

4 tests, 14 assertions, 0 failures, 1 errors

Having tried other good and bad values in test_auth I reckon that the
whole
content of this method is not providing good testing …

And test_passwordchange seems to be completely missing an instance
variable.

What am I missing ??
I am using Rails version 1.2.3

mjt