[newbie] rspec, validations and factory_girl

Testing RSpec
1

Hi,

class B < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :a
validates_numericality_of :some_attribute, :greater_than =>
0, :allow_blank=>true

def some_attribute
a.numeric_attr * read_attribute(:some_attribute)
end
…

If I create an instance of my class B in rspec with factory_girl w.out
a parent (but not required!) instance of class A, I get the following
error: “undefined method `numeric_attr’ for nil:NilClass”.

Why? Is this an apparent idiosyncrasy of using rspec and factory_girl
together?

Thanks,

Lille

2

On Jul 26, 2010, at 11:34 AM, Lille wrote:

…

If I create an instance of my class B in rspec with factory_girl w.out
a parent (but not required!)

It may not be a business requirement, but the some_attribute method
above requires it’s existence in order to run without error.

Try:

def some_attribute
return nil unless a
a.numeric_attr * read_attribute(:some_attribute)
end

HTH,
David

3

OK.

On a Rails note, this seems to suggest that attributes are checked
from their accessors before the save, whereas I had assumed my
some_attribute accessor would not be called at all during
validation…

(Thank you David, this is one of the better groups I’ve lately
monitored, and a fine complement to your book…)

Thanks,

Lille