RSpec send_file testing

Question

How to test a controller action that sends a file?

If I do it with controller.should_receive(:send_file) test fails with "Missing template" because nothing gets rendered.

score 34 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 15 '11 at 19:58

34

From Googling around, it appears that render will also be called at some point .. but with no template, will cause an error.

The solution seems to be to stub it out as well:

controller.stub!(:render)

answered Jan 15 '11 at 19:58

Andy Lindeman

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Nice, why didn't I think of that :) – Mirko Jan 16 '11 at 12:12
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For anyone viewing this using newer versions of RSpec, `stub!` has been deprecated. Just use `stub` – Noah Koch Jun 09 '14 at 21:04
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And in Rspec 3, it's `allow(controller).to receive(:render)` – mehulkar Sep 30 '14 at 17:18

score 26 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 17 '14 at 03:34

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Another way that works is:

controller.should_receive(:send_file).and_return{controller.render :nothing => true}

To me, this captures the fact that the intended side effect of send_file is to arrange that nothing else be rendered. (Albeit, it admittedly seems a bit wonky to have the stub call a method on the original object.)

edited Sep 17 '14 at 03:34

Joshua Pinter

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answered Dec 07 '11 at 10:18

ronen

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Rails 4, RSpec 3: `'and_return { value }' is deprecated. Use 'and_return(value)' or an implementation block without 'and_return' instead.` – Artem Kalinchuk Sep 01 '15 at 14:26

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 26 '15 at 18:55

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You can also do this:

result = get ....

result.body.should eq IO.binread(path_to_file)

edited Jun 26 '15 at 18:55

Dave Newton

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answered Jul 05 '13 at 22:34

Jack Dempsey

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 06 '20 at 21:47

This has worked great for me in RSpec controller tests. I prefer to not stub it out, but instead call the original so it does return the file and you can even access the response headers, etc...

expect(controller).to receive(:send_file).with(some_filepath, type: "image/jpg").and_call_original

RSpec send_file testing

4 Answers4