“undefined method `env' for nil:NilClass” in 'setup_controller_for_warden' error when testing Devise using Rspec

Question

I\'m trying to create a spec for a sign out flow by using factorygirl to create a user and then use Devise\'s sign_in method to authenticate the user, then use

Answer 1

In Rails 5 you must include Devise::Test::IntegrationHelpers instead Devise::Test::ControllerHelpers:

# rails_helper.rb
config.include Devise::Test::IntegrationHelpers, type: :feature

See more:

• https://github.com/plataformatec/devise/issues/3913#issuecomment
• https://github.com/plataformatec/devise/pull/4071

Answer 2

Like others have already said, you're including the Devise::TestHelpers. That's for testing controllers. If you'd still like to automatically login a test user in your integration tests, check out the official Devise Instructions on using it with Capybara.

---

Using Devise with Capybara

Basically, what you need to do is first enable Warden's test mode:

include Warden::Test::Helpers
Warden.test_mode!

Then, (create and) login your user:

user = FactoryGirl.create(:user)
login_as(user, scope: :user)

---

Example:

# spec/features/survey_spec.rb
require 'rails_helper'

feature 'survey app' do
    include Warden::Test::Helpers

    let(:user)   { create(:user) }
    let(:survey) { create(:survey_with_questions) }

    before do
        # Sign the User in
        Warden.test_mode!
        login_as(user, scope: user)
    end

    it 'renders the survey' do
        visit survey_show_path(survey)
        expect(page).to have_content(survey.title)
    end
end

Answer 3

I meet the same error on rails 5. Here's my solution

spec/rails_helper.rb

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include Devise::TestHelpers, type: :controller
  config.include Devise::TestHelpers, type: :view
  config.include Warden::Test::Helpers
end

spec/controllers/your_controller_spec.rb

RSpec.describe YourController, type: :controller do
  before(:all) do
  user = FactoryGirl.create(:user)
  login_as user, scope: :user
end

it "#index" do
  get "index"
  expect(response).to render_template(:index)
  expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
end

$ rspec --tag focus

Run options: include {:focus=>true}
DashboardController
#index
Finished in 3.9 seconds (files took 3.5 seconds to load)
1 example, 0 failures

Answer 4

FWIW it seems like the issues have been fixed, however I ran into the issue after not reading the documentation well enough.

This was our code:

RSpec.configure do |config|
  ...  
  config.include Devise::TestHelpers
  ...
end

This means every test will include the test helpers, including models. This wound up being the issue for us. Should we have read the documentation closer we would have noticed Devise suggests limiting it to only controllers with:

RSpec.configure do |config|
  ...  
  config.include Devise::TestHelpers, type: :controller
  ...
end

This solved the issue for us. All tests passing :)