problem with named_scope and test-spec?

I may be overlooking something, but it seems to me that it is a problem if with this code...

Class Blog < ActiveRecord::Base   named_scope :unseen, :conditions => "displayed IS NULL" end

this test fails...

it "should give a list of unseen entries" do   Blog.expects :unseen   b = Blog.new   b.unseen end

given that the docs say about named_scope:

"Adds a class method for retrieving and querying objects. A scope represents a narrowing of a database query, such as :conditions => {:color => :red}, :select => ‘shirts.*’, :include => :washing_instructions.   class Shirt < ActiveRecord::Base     named_scope :red, :conditions => {:color => 'red'}     named_scope :dry_clean_only, :joins => :washing_instructions, :conditions => ['washing_instructions.dry_clean_only = ?', true]   end The above calls to named_scope define class methods Shirt.red and Shirt.dry_clean_only. Shirt.red, in effect, represents the query Shirt.find(:all, :conditions => {:color => ‘red’})."

Am I missing something?

Thanks, Tom

I don’t know if this will help or not, but the little I’ve used named scopes, I’ve used them as class methods, not as instance methods, i.e. Blog.unseen not b.unseen.

–wpd

Patrick,

Thanks... I checked again and the example I posted was a bit off of my real example, which uses associations and scopes. According to the docs:

All \scopes are available as class methods on the ActiveRecord::Base descendent upon which the \scopes were defined. But they are also available to has_many associations. If,   class Person < ActiveRecord::Base     has_many :shirts   end then elton.shirts.red.dry_clean_only will return all of Elton’s red, dry clean only shirts.

So a better example would be: b = Blog.first b.entries.unseen

I guess in this case, the method :unseen is bound to the set returned via the association, and not the class itself?

Tom

I’m not too sure what you mean by that. As I’ve used named scopes, I have been confused by thinking that entries.unseen was an array such as is returned by #find, when, it seems, it is a piece of RoR magic that looks more like the model. I wonder if b.entries.unseen.all or b.entries.unseen.first might do what you need it to.

(Between you and me, I’m hoping that somebody who knows what (s)he is talking about chimes in here pretty soon, as this is already out of my depth. :-))

–wpd

Well, I guess I/we are on our own. I'll try to dig a bit deeper and see if I can find out just what's going on w/ those associations.