FactoryGirl not creating unique objects

Question

I have a failing test where, to my understanding, it should be creating objects with unique values by using the Faker gem. I'm really stuck here. Thanks for the help!

Failing test from user_spec.rb:

describe "post associations" do
   before { @user.save }
   let!(:older_post) do
     older_post = FactoryGirl.create(:post, user: @user, created_at: 1.day.ago)
     older_post.add_tags!([Faker::Lorem.words(1), Faker::Lorem.words(1), Faker::Lorem.words(1)])
  end
  let!(:newer_post) do
     newer_post = FactoryGirl.create(:post, user: @user, created_at: 1.hour.ago)
     newer_post.add_tags!([Faker::Lorem.words(1), Faker::Lorem.words(1), Faker::Lorem.words(1)])
   end

   it "should have the right posts in the right order" do
     @user.posts.should == [newer_post, older_post]
   end 
end

Post factory:

    factory :post do
    title       Faker::Lorem.sentence(Random.rand(1..5))
    content     Faker::Lorem.paragraphs(3)
    shared_url  Faker::Internet.url
    public_post true
    user
end

Rspec results:

1) User post associations should have the right posts in the right order
 Failure/Error: @user.posts.should == [newer_post, older_post]
   expected: [true, true]
        got: [#<Post id: 2, title: "Sapiente dignissimos qui et a.", content: "---\n- Quis necessitatibus eligendi sunt distinctio ...", shared_url: "http://blanda.biz/xander.cormier", public_post: true, created_at: "2013-06-28 15:31:00", updated_at: "2013-06-28 16:31:00", user_id: 1>, #<Post id: 1, title: "Sapiente dignissimos qui et a.", content: "---\n- Quis necessitatibus eligendi sunt distinctio ...", shared_url: "http://blanda.biz/xander.cormier", public_post: true, created_at: "2013-06-27 16:31:00", updated_at: "2013-06-28 16:31:00", user_id: 1>] (using ==)
   Diff:
   @@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
   -[true, true]
   +[#<Post id: 2, title: "Sapiente dignissimos qui et a.", content: "---\n- Quis necessitatibus eligendi sunt distinctio ...", shared_url: "http://blanda.biz/xander.cormier", public_post: true, created_at: "2013-06-28 15:31:00", updated_at: "2013-06-28 16:31:00", user_id: 1>,
   + #<Post id: 1, title: "Sapiente dignissimos qui et a.", content: "---\n- Quis necessitatibus eligendi sunt distinctio ...", shared_url: "http://blanda.biz/xander.cormier", public_post: true, created_at: "2013-06-27 16:31:00", updated_at: "2013-06-28 16:31:00", user_id: 1>]

 # ./spec/models/user_spec.rb:94:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'

Answer 1

In each of your :let! blocks, the last line evaluated is the add_tags! method, which appears to be returning true instead of the post the tags were added to. Because of this, in your spec [newer_post, older_post] actually equals [true, true] instead of your actual posts.

At the end of each :let! block, return the post:

let!(:older_post) do
  older_post = FactoryGirl.create(:post, user: @user, created_at: 1.day.ago)
  older_post.add_tags!([Faker::Lorem.words(1), Faker::Lorem.words(1), Faker::Lorem.words(1)])
  older_post
end

let!(:newer_post) do
  newer_post = FactoryGirl.create(:post, user: @user, created_at: 1.hour.ago)
  newer_post.add_tags!([Faker::Lorem.words(1), Faker::Lorem.words(1), Faker::Lorem.words(1)])
  newer_post
end

Alternatively, you could change your add_tags! method to return the post instead of true/false.