Functional test a "create" action when a validation fails

rubyonrails-talk
1

I'm trying to write a functional test of a "create" action in one of my controllers. In the corresponding model I have a "validates_uniqueness_of :location". In the test case I am constructing I have the create fail with the error "Location has already been taken". Is there a way I can write an assertion like: assert_equal "Location has already been taken", [the_actual_error]. I can't figure out how to retrieve the validation errors. Thanks.

2

kendall wrote:

I'm trying to write a functional test of a "create" action in one of my controllers. In the corresponding model I have a "validates_uniqueness_of :location". In the test case I am constructing I have the create fail with the error "Location has already been taken". Is there a way I can write an assertion like: assert_equal "Location has already been taken", [the_actual_error]. I can't figure out how to retrieve the validation errors. Thanks.

assert_equal "has already been taken", assigns(:your_model_instance).errors(:location)

If my memory fails me and the above doesn't work, check the API reference for ActiveRecord::Errors for the proper methods.

3

Thank you. I'll try that and report back.

4

Thanks, Jakob, that was good advice. I looked at the ActiveRecord::Errors API and saw that it provides a ".on" method that returns the error message text when provided with the attribute, which in this case I assume would be "location_id".

Here is some code that works:

assert_equal 'has already been taken',        assigns(:my_model_instance).errors.on('location_id')

This next one also works. Not sure which is better, but I think I'll keep the latter one for now.

assert_equal ActiveRecord::Errors.default_error_messages[:taken],      assigns(:my_model_instance).errors.on('location_id')

Appreciate your help, Kendall