NameError: uninitialized constant when trying to execute rails tests

Question

In a Rails 3.2.13 app I'm writing right now I have a model called Business. As this model was getting fatter and fatter, I decided to split it up in two, extracting all code related to availability into a Rails concern named Availability, stored at models/concerns/business

class Business
  module Availability
    extend ActiveSupport::Concern

    AVAILABILITY_OPEN        =  1
    AVAILABILITY_CLOSED      = -1
    AVAILABILITY_COMPLETE    = -2

...

As concerns are not enabled in Rails by default, I've put the following line in config/application.rb in order to autoload them:

config.autoload_paths += %W(#{config.root}/app/models/concerns)

The problem is that, after the split, all my tests have stopped working, returning a NameError: uninitialized constant Availability error. I suppose I need to require this concern somehow in my tests, but I haven't managed to do it yet, and I also don't understand why this concern is needed even in tests which doesn't make use of it.

The following is the stack trace returned after running the tests:

NameError: uninitialized constant Availability
    (erb):9:in `<main>'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/erb.rb:849:in `eval'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/erb.rb:849:in `result'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures/file.rb:51:in `render'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures/file.rb:43:in `rows'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures/file.rb:29:in `each'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:670:in `block (2 levels) in read_fixture_files'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures/file.rb:20:in `open'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:669:in `block in read_fixture_files'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:668:in `each'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:668:in `read_fixture_files'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:548:in `initialize'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:482:in `new'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:482:in `block (2 levels) in create_fixtures'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:479:in `map'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:479:in `block in create_fixtures'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract_mysql_adapter.rb:232:in `disable_referential_integrity'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:476:in `create_fixtures'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:895:in `load_fixtures'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activerecord-3.2.13/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:849:in `setup_fixtures'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-3.2.13/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:407:in `_run__871072887135343583__setup__3260066542044458782__callbacks'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-3.2.13/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:405:in `__run_callback'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-3.2.13/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:385:in `_run_setup_callbacks'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-3.2.13/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:81:in `run_callbacks'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/activesupport-3.2.13/lib/active_support/testing/setup_and_teardown.rb:35:in `run'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/minitest/unit.rb:919:in `block in _run_suite'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/minitest/unit.rb:912:in `map'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/minitest/unit.rb:912:in `_run_suite'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/test/unit.rb:657:in `block in _run_suites'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/test/unit.rb:655:in `each'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/test/unit.rb:655:in `_run_suites'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/minitest/unit.rb:867:in `_run_anything'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/minitest/unit.rb:1060:in `run_tests'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/minitest/unit.rb:1047:in `block in _run'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/minitest/unit.rb:1046:in `each'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/minitest/unit.rb:1046:in `_run'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/minitest/unit.rb:1035:in `run'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/test/unit.rb:21:in `run'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/test/unit.rb:774:in `run'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/test/unit.rb:366:in `block (2 levels) in autorun'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/test/unit.rb:27:in `run_once'
    /home/sergio/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/2.0.0/test/unit.rb:365:in `block in autorun'

UPDATE

This is an excerpt of the class Business, which includes the Availability concern:

class Business < ActiveRecord::Base
  include Availability
  include EmailVirtualAttribute
  include TelephoneVirtualAttribute

  belongs_to :place
  has_many :businesses_users
  has_many :users,        :through => :businesses_users, :uniq => true
  has_many :customers,    :inverse_of => :business, :dependent => :destroy
  has_many :emails,       :as => :contactable, :class_name => 'Email'
  has_many :telephones,   :as => :contactable, :class_name => 'Telephone'

  ...

The development/test configs are the standard ones, no changes have been made

test.rb

Rendezvous::Application.configure do
  # Settings specified here will take precedence over those in config/application.rb

  # The test environment is used exclusively to run your application's
  # test suite. You never need to work with it otherwise. Remember that
  # your test database is "scratch space" for the test suite and is wiped
  # and recreated between test runs. Don't rely on the data there!
  config.cache_classes = true

  # Configure static asset server for tests with Cache-Control for performance
  config.serve_static_assets = true
  config.static_cache_control = "public, max-age=3600"

  # Log error messages when you accidentally call methods on nil
  config.whiny_nils = true

  # Show full error reports and disable caching
  config.consider_all_requests_local       = true
  config.action_controller.perform_caching = false

  # Raise exceptions instead of rendering exception templates
  config.action_dispatch.show_exceptions = false

  # Disable request forgery protection in test environment
  config.action_controller.allow_forgery_protection    = false

  # Tell Action Mailer not to deliver emails to the real world.
  # The :test delivery method accumulates sent emails in the
  # ActionMailer::Base.deliveries array.
  config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :test

  # Raise exception on mass assignment protection for Active Record models
  config.active_record.mass_assignment_sanitizer = :strict

  # Print deprecation notices to the stderr
  config.active_support.deprecation = :stderr
end

development.rb

Rendezvous::Application.configure do
  # Settings specified here will take precedence over those in config/application.rb

  # In the development environment your application's code is reloaded on
  # every request. This slows down response time but is perfect for development
  # since you don't have to restart the web server when you make code changes.
  config.cache_classes = false

  # Log error messages when you accidentally call methods on nil.
  config.whiny_nils = true

  # Show full error reports and disable caching
  config.consider_all_requests_local       = true
  config.action_controller.perform_caching = false

  # Don't care if the mailer can't send
  config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = false

  # Print deprecation notices to the Rails logger
  config.active_support.deprecation = :log

  # Only use best-standards-support built into browsers
  config.action_dispatch.best_standards_support = :builtin

  # Raise exception on mass assignment protection for Active Record models
  config.active_record.mass_assignment_sanitizer = :strict

  # Log the query plan for queries taking more than this (works
  # with SQLite, MySQL, and PostgreSQL)
  config.active_record.auto_explain_threshold_in_seconds = 0.5

  # Do not compress assets
  config.assets.compress = false

  # Expands the lines which load the assets
  config.assets.debug = true
end

UPDATE 2

It seems that the errors that happen when executing the tests are caused by the fixtures. If I comment the fixtures :all loading on test_helper.rb and create a simple test that just asserts true, this test pass, but it doesn't when the fixtures are loaded.

Answer 1

Finally I found the reason why all my tests failed with an error. I was referencing to a constant declared in the Availability concern using Availabiliy:: , instead of using Business::. Also, my tests were not in sync with the current code, which made finding the bug a lot more difficult than it should. Replacing all the references to Availability with Business solved the problem. The lesson here is: keep always application and testing code in sync.

Thank you to Lichtamberg for all his kind support.

Answer 2

Try it with the specific model name.. like User::Confirmation

# -*- encoding : utf-8 -*-
require 'active_support/concern'

module Business::Availability
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern

And this:

config.autoload_paths += Rails.root.join("app", "models", "concerns")

Answer 3

I've kind of isolated the source of the problem, which are the fixtures. I was using the fixtures :all method in test_helper.rb. Changing it to just run the customers.yml fixture, I'm able to run customer_test.rb with no errors. What I don't know yet what are the offending fixtures (I suppose that businesses.yml and maybe related ones, but I've not checked it) and why are causing the problem.