Why can't I access the controller object in RSpec when testing a controller?

Question

I'm using rspec-rails, version 1.2.6. In a controller test

describe WebsController do ...

I don't seem to have access to the controller object in order to stub methods. For example, the following won't work:

  before :all do
    @feed = mock_model(Feed)
    controller.should_receive(:feed_from_params).and_return @feed    
  end

I get warnings like

An expectation of :feed_from_params was set on nil. 

and firing up a debug session from the spec tells on the line just before the method mock, I get the following:

(rdb:1) self.respond_to? :controller
true
(rdb:1) controller
nil

From all the examples, accessing the controller variable should work, but it doesn't. What gives? How can I mock or stub methods in a controller under test?

Answer 1

Remove the :all in the before block fixes the issue. Not sure why, though.

before do
...
end

is what you need.

Answer 2

Try using @controller rather than controller

Answer 3

If you need controller in a before(:all) block, call setup_controller_request_and_response.

Answer 4

PS: This behavior should be fixed in recent versions of RSpec.

See a running example from RSpec v.2.14:

require "spec_helper"

RSpec.configure {|c| c.before { expect(controller).not_to be_nil }}

describe WidgetsController do
  describe "GET index" do
    it "doesn't matter" do
    end
  end
end