How to stub ApplicationController method in request spec

Question

I am needing to stub the response of a current_user method in an Rspec/capybara request spec. The method is defined in ApplicationController and is

Answer 1

Here are a couple of examples of the basic form.

controller.stub(:action_name).and_raise([some error])
controller.stub(:action_name).and_return([some value])

In your particular case, I believe the proper form would be:

controller.stub(:current_user).and_return([your user object/id])

Here's a full working example from a project I work on:

describe PortalsController do

  it "if an ActionController::InvalidAuthenticityToken is raised the user should be redirected to login" do
    controller.stub(:index).and_raise(ActionController::InvalidAuthenticityToken)
    get :index
    flash[:notice].should eql("Your session has expired.")
    response.should redirect_to(portals_path)
  end

end

To explain my full example, basically what this does is verify that, when an ActionController::InvalidAuthenticityToken error is raised anywhere in the app, that a flash message appears, and the user is redirected to the portals_controller#index action. You can use these forms to stub out and return specific values, test an instance of a given error being raised, etc. There are several .stub(:action_name).and_[do_something_interesting]() methods available to you.

---

Update (after you added your code): per my comment, change your code so it reads:

require 'spec_helper'

describe "Login" do

   before(:each) do
      @mock_controller = mock("ApplicationController") 
      @mock_controller.stub(:current_user).and_return(User.first)
   end

  it "logs in" do
    visit '/'
    page.should have_content("Hey there user!")
  end

end