How to check for a JSON response using RSpec?

Question

I have the following code in my controller:

format.json { render :json => { 
        :flashcard  => @flashcard,
        :lesson     => @lesson,
             


        

Answer 1

Another approach to test just for a JSON response (not that the content within contains an expected value), is to parse the response using ActiveSupport:

ActiveSupport::JSON.decode(response.body).should_not be_nil

If the response is not parsable JSON an exception will be thrown and the test will fail.

Answer 2

You could parse the response body like this:

parsed_body = JSON.parse(response.body)

Then you can make your assertions against that parsed content.

parsed_body["foo"].should == "bar"