What does 'these' mean in a PUT controller spec?

Testing RSpec
1

hi, all,

the spec above is found in my controller spec for a ‘category’
resource.

It’s a generated spec.

----- start extract --------------------------------------------
describe “PUT update” do
describe “with valid params” do
it “updates the requested category” do
category = Category.create! valid_attributes
# Assuming there are no other categories in the database, this
# specifies that the Category created on the previous line
# receives the :update_attributes message with whatever params
are
# submitted in the request.

Category.any_instance.should_receive(:update_attributes).with({‘these’
=> ‘params’})
put :update, :id => category.id, :category => {‘these’ =>
‘params’}
end
----- end extract --------------------------------------------

When the spec is run, it fails with the error below.

----- start extract --------------------------------------------

  1. CategoriesController PUT update with valid params updates the
    requested category
    Failure/Error: put :update, :id => category.id, :category =>
    {‘these’ => ‘params’}
    #Category:0x000001017cd498 received :update_attributes with
    unexpected arguments
    expected: ({“these”=>“params”})
    got: ({“these”=>“params”, “updated_by”=>1})

    /Users/anexiole/projects/try_rails/app/controllers/

categories_controller.rb:72:in block in update' # /Users/anexiole/projects/try_rails/app/controllers/ categories_controller.rb:71:inupdate’
# ./categories_controller_spec.rb:92:in `block (4 levels) in <top
(required)>’

Finished in 19.15 seconds
16 examples, 1 failure

Failed examples:

rspec ./categories_controller_spec.rb:85 # CategoriesController PUT
update with valid params updates the requested category

----- end extract --------------------------------------------

My ‘update’ method in the categories controller file itself has one
added rule for which
I will assign the current user’s id to the updated_by attribute
before a call to update_attribute is made.

----- start extract --------------------------------------------

PUT /categories/1

PUT /categories/1.json

def update
# Record current user’s id as he/she created the part
params[:category][:updated_by] = current_user.id

@category = Category.find(params[:id])

respond_to do |format|
  if @category.update_attributes(params[:category])
    format.html { redirect_to @category, notice: 'Category was

successfully updated.’ }
format.json { head :ok }
else
format.html { render action: “edit” }
format.json { render json: @category.errors,
status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end

----- end extract --------------------------------------------

Can someone please tell me what does ‘these’ refer to in the spec?
Where can I read up more about them?
I would like to fix the failing spec example.

Thank you

Gorodn

2

On Jan 16, 2012, at 4:59 AM, Gordon wrote:

 it "updates the requested category" do

‘params’}
{‘these’ => ‘params’}

My ‘update’ method in the categories controller file itself has one

status: :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end

----- end extract --------------------------------------------

Can someone please tell me what does ‘these’ refer to in the spec?
Where can I read up more about them?
I would like to fix the failing spec example.

What’s being specified here is that the contents of params[:category]
are passed to update attributes. What they actually contain is not of
concern to the controller or the controller spec, since they get passed
directly to the model in the generated controller. ‘these’ => ‘params’
could just as easily be ‘foo’ => ‘bar’. The important thing is that the
same params get received by the model object.

The reason the spec is failing now is that the line you added modifies
the hash before it gets sent to model object. If you change the spec to
this:

Category.any_instance.should_receive(:update_attributes).with(‘these’
=> ‘params’, ‘updated_by’ => 1)

then it will pass. If you find ‘these’ => ‘params’ to be confusing, feel
free to change it to what ever you like. Just make sure you do so in
both places in the example.

HTH,
David