Programmers Blog

Problem: I wanted to run a rspec in Aptana RadRails as a Test::Unit Test (Alt+Shift+X U) I have a spec/controller/my_controller_spec.rb file generated by rspec_controller generator. While running it in Aptana I got:

./spec/controllers/my_controller_spec.rb:1:in `require': no such file to load -- spec_helper (LoadError)

The solution is to change what the generator generated. Replace in the file:

require 'spec_helper'

with:

require 'spec/spec_helper'

This should help. Running this rspec through rake (rake spec) should work still as well.

Problem:

When doing:

rake thinking_sphinx:index

you get:

undefined method `[]' for false:FalseClass

Solution: remove the empty config/schema.yml file.

Problem: using email_spec in cucumber with rails 2.3.5 you get:

Using the default profile...
uninitialized constant EmailSpec (NameError)
/fooProject/vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:443:in `load_missing_constant'
/fooProject/vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:80:in `const_missing'
/fooProject/vendor/rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:92:in `const_missing'
/fooProject/vendor/gems/email_spec-0.6.2/lib/email_spec/cucumber.rb:25
/usr/local/lib/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `gem_original_require'
(...)

Solution: include the following TWO lines in your features/support/env.rb (not as the documentation says - only the second one :/)

require 'email_spec'
require 'email_spec/cucumber'

Problem: when using current_user in step definitions you get:

 undefined method `current_user' for #<ActionController::Integration::Session:0xb66b25f4>(NoMethodError)

Solution: add the below line at the end of “features/support/env.rb”

ApplicationController.send(:public, :current_user)

And then use it as in the sample below:

Then /^I should be logged in as (.*)$/ do |login|
  controller.current_user.login.should == login
end

Problem: while running this (I got this rake task from http://gist.github.com/231022):

rake rcov:cucumber

/home/xyz/workspace/fooProject/vendor/gems/rspec-1.3.0/lib/spec/runner.rb:48:in `exit': can't convert Object into Integer (TypeError)
    from /home/xyz/workspace/fooProject/vendor/gems/rspec-1.3.0/lib/spec/runner.rb:48:in `autorun'

Solution: replace in that file the method (workspace/fooProject/vendor/gems/rspec-1.3.0/lib/spec/runner.rb:48)

      def autorun # :nodoc:
        at_exit {exit run unless $!}
      end

with:

      def autorun # :nodoc:
        at_exit {run unless $!}
      end

I did not go into the details of the why run returns an Object instead of Integer, but I do not need to. I do not need the exit status at the moment. The only thing I am interested in is that rcov generates the coverage results.

Problem:

libxslt is missing.  try 'port install libxslt' or 'yum install libxslt-devel'
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
necessary libraries and/or headers.  Check the mkmf.log file for more
details.  You may need configuration options.

Solution:

apt-get install libxslt1-dev

I have some stuff in ApplicationController that need testing. I found a simple way to test those methods, sample (test/functional/application_controller_test.rb):

require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../test_helper'

class ApplicationControllerTest < ActionController::TestCase
  def setup
    @controller = ApplicationController.new
    @request    = ActionController::TestRequest.new
    @response   = ActionController::TestResponse.new
  end
  
  test "foo test" do
    bar_result = @controller.foo_method
    assert bar_result
  end
end

Problem:

File to launch does not exist: '/home/wojtek/workspace_galileo/.metadata/.plugins/org.rubypeople.rdt.testunit/ruby/RemoteTestRunner.rb'

Solution: create a new workspace from beginning.

I did not find on the net how to override the “{attribute} {message}” format of validation error messages. It is no use in my language. Sometimes I need a different order or specific message. The way I managed to do it using rails 2.3.4 is:

1. use validation message in model, for example:

  validates_presence_of     :login, :message => :login_blank

1. Define the message in your locale in the yml, (en.yml, pl.yml or whatever yours is) under the tree (this example is for “pl” locale):

pl:
(...)
  activerecord:
    (...)
    errors:
      (...)
      full_messages:
        login_blank: "My custom message hahaha!"
(...)

I found this by looking at: RAILS_HOME/activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb and the comment to generate_full_message method

There are multiple solutions on the net for dynamic select menus. By saying “dynamic menus” I mean that we have a form with two select dropdowns. When we change the first one, the content of the second one is updated.

The most promising that I have found are:

1. http://railscasts.com/episodes/88-dynamic-select-menus

This one includes writing JS code. I don’t like writing JS code.

1. http://github.com/splendeo/dependent_select

This one does not use AJAX. It generates the whole thing in JS and sends it to the client. Can be useful when dealing with not big data.

1. http://pullmonkey.com/2008/3/30/dynamic-select-boxes-ruby-on-rails/

A very nice one but in my opinion a bit complicated for a beginner.

I had to develop my own solution. This is what I came up with. Lets assume we have a form for Foo model that has a select dropdown with Bar1 model and select dropdown with Bar2 model, that is dependent on Bar1 current selection.

1. In the Foo model form, add a field observer:

  <%= observe_field :foo_box1_id, :url => { :action => :box2_select_box },
      :update => :foo_box2_id,
      :with => :box1_id
      %>

1. In the FooController add:

  def box2_select_box
    @box1 = Box1.find(params[:box1_id]) unless params[:box1_id].empty?
    render :layout => false
  end

1. In the view for the above action (box2_select_box.html.erb) put:

<%=
if @box1
  options_from_collection_for_select(@box1.box2s, :id, :name)
else
  options_for_select([["Nothing to select", ""]])
end
%>

No JS code writing. Working with AJAX. Simple.

EDIT:
In reply to Rob Bean’s comment (thanks!) I attach a full rails project with a sample.

The “@box1.box2s” comes from models association. box1 has_many box2s (see box1.rb)