NoMethodError: undefined method `[]=' for nil:NilClass in unit test

[davidjconnolly]

Hi, thanks for creating this awesome gem!

I'm trying to unit test my controllers and am getting an error I'm having a really hard time debugging. I've got devise_token_auth configured and am using all the default rails 5 testing gems.

I'm doing what I think is a pretty vanilla test case where I just want to get a list of companies for the currently logged in user. I've verified that the objects are being set up correctly and tried putting loggers/byebug in the controller, however the execution path never makes it that far. Something in my get call is failing but I have no idea what the error it's throwing means: NoMethodError: undefined method []=' for nil:NilClass`

Any suggestions?

test_helper.rb:

ENV['RAILS_ENV'] ||= 'test'
require File.expand_path('../../config/environment', __FILE__)
require 'rails/test_help'

class ActiveSupport::TestCase
  # Setup all fixtures in test/fixtures/*.yml for all tests in alphabetical order.
  fixtures :all

  include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
end

class ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
  include Devise::Test::IntegrationHelpers
end

companies_controller_test.rb

require 'test_helper'

class CompaniesControllerTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest

  setup do
    @user = create(:user)
    @company = create(:company)
    @permission = create(:permission, { user: @user, model: @company})
  end

  test "should get company" do
    sign_in @user

    get companies_url
  end

end

rake test output:

I, [2017-02-27T16:50:59.615092 #23039]  INFO -- : ------------------------------------------------
I, [2017-02-27T16:50:59.615143 #23039]  INFO -- : CompaniesControllerTest: test_should_get_company
I, [2017-02-27T16:50:59.615162 #23039]  INFO -- : ------------------------------------------------
I, [2017-02-27T16:50:59.884915 #23039]  INFO -- : Started GET "/companies" for 127.0.0.1 at 2017-02-27 16:50:59 -0700
E

Error:
CompaniesControllerTest#test_should_get_company:
NoMethodError: undefined method `[]=' for nil:NilClass
    test/controllers/companies_controller_test.rb:14:in `block in <class:CompaniesControllerTest>'

[Blitzkev]

Hey, I'm trying to do the same thing you are basically (Except starting with IntegrationTests with registration), and I had that error before but I no longer do.

This is my test_helper.rb:

ENV['RAILS_ENV'] = 'test'
require File.expand_path('../../config/environment', __FILE__)
require 'rails/test_help'

class ActiveSupport::TestCase
  include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
  # Setup all fixtures in test/fixtures/*.yml for all tests in alphabetical order.
  fixtures :all

  # Add more helper methods to be used by all tests here...
end


class ActionController::TestCase
  include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
  include Devise::Test::ControllerHelpers

  setup do
    @request.env['devise.mapping'] = Devise.mappings[:user]
  end
end

and my auth_controller_test.rb:

require 'test_helper'

class AuthControllerTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
  #include Devise::TestHelpers
  setup do
    # Create a user with factory girl
    @user = build(:user)
  end

  test "should create new user with sign_up" do
    pw = Faker::Internet.password(12, 20, true, true)
    assert_difference('User.count') do
      post user_registration_url, params: { email: @user.email, password: pw, password_confirmation: pw }, as: :json
      pp response.status
    end

    assert_response 201
  end
end

I keep getting 307 as response code from the post.

[davidjconnolly]

Thanks @Blitzkev, what did you do to fix the []= for nil error? When you say you keep getting a 307 you mean where you assert_response 201?

[Blitzkev]

Hey, I think adding

  setup do
    @request.env['devise.mapping'] = Devise.mappings[:user]
  end

Fixed that particular error for me, but like you said it was hard to troubleshoot.

The 307 is from the post user_registration_url line, which makes the User.count assert fail (no user created)

[Blitzkev]

@davidjconnolly :
I was able to figure out my error, and then recreate an error similar. Since I have force_ssl on, I had to specify https for all test requests (hence the 307 redirecting to ssl)

# test/controllers/auth_controller_test.rb
require 'test_helper'

class AuthControllerTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
  setup do
    # Create a user with factory girl
    @user = build(:user)
  end

  test "should create new user with sign_up" do
    pw = Faker::Internet.password(12, 20, true, true)
    assert_difference('User.count') do
      post user_registration_url, params: { email: @user.email, password: pw, password_confirmation: pw }, as: :json
    end

    assert_response 200
  end
end

# test/test_helper.rb
ENV['RAILS_ENV'] = 'test'
require File.expand_path('../../config/environment', __FILE__)
require 'rails/test_help'

class ActiveSupport::TestCase
  include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
  # Setup all fixtures in test/fixtures/*.yml for all tests in alphabetical order.
  fixtures :all

  # Add more helper methods to be used by all tests here...
  setup do
    @request.env['HTTPS'] = 'on'
  end
end


class ActionController::TestCase
  include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
  include Devise::Test::ControllerHelpers

  setup do
    @request.env['devise.mapping'] = Devise.mappings[:user]
    @request.env['HTTPS'] = 'on'
  end
end

Run options: -vb --seed 61463

# Running:

D, [2017-02-28T23:47:56.336212 #10297] DEBUG -- :    (0.3ms)  BEGIN
I, [2017-02-28T23:47:56.336478 #10297]  INFO -- : ------------------------------------------------------------
I, [2017-02-28T23:47:56.336624 #10297]  INFO -- : AuthControllerTest: test_should_create_new_user_with_sign_up
I, [2017-02-28T23:47:56.336822 #10297]  INFO -- : ------------------------------------------------------------
D, [2017-02-28T23:47:56.757794 #10297] DEBUG -- :    (0.4ms)  ROLLBACK
AuthControllerTest#test_should_create_new_user_with_sign_up = 0.42 s = E


Error:
AuthControllerTest#test_should_create_new_user_with_sign_up:
NoMethodError: undefined method `env' for nil:NilClass
    /home/andes/test/test_helper.rb:12:in `block in <class:TestCase>'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:396:in `instance_exec'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:396:in `block in make_lambda'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:169:in `block (2 levels) in halting'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:547:in `block (2 levels) in default_terminator'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:546:in `catch'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:546:in `block in default_terminator'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:170:in `block in halting'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:454:in `block in call'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:454:in `each'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:454:in `call'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:101:in `__run_callbacks__'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:750:in `_run_setup_callbacks'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:90:in `run_callbacks'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.1/lib/active_support/testing/setup_and_teardown.rb:41:in `before_setup'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activerecord-5.0.1/lib/active_record/fixtures.rb:853:in `before_setup'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/actionpack-5.0.1/lib/action_dispatch/testing/integration.rb:401:in `before_setup'
    /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/railties-5.0.1/lib/rails/test_help.rb:40:in `before_setup'


bin/rails test test/controllers/auth_controller_test.rb:10


Finished in 0.428388s, 2.3343 runs/s, 0.0000 assertions/s.

1 runs, 0 assertions, 0 failures, 1 errors, 0 skips

This was caused because @request doesn't exist in non controller cases, so I've amended that.

Try running tests with the -vb option to see verbose output + full backtrace

[Blitzkev]

I was unable to change the requests environment variables, I think this is no longer supported in ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest style controller tests... Which may be what include Devise::Test::IntegrationHelpers is attempting to do. I got my tests to pass by disabling ssl in test.rb environment file.

Would be good to hear from devise_token_auth devs with respect to this.

[davidjconnolly]

Thanks @Blitzkev, I still can't get rid of the NoMethodError: undefined method '[]=' for nil:NilClass error.

If I add:

 setup do
    @request.env['devise.mapping'] = Devise.mappings[:user]
  end

To my class ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest block in my test helper, I get the same NoMethodError: undefined method 'env' for nil:NilClass error you mentioned.

Here is my test_helper.rb

ENV['RAILS_ENV'] ||= 'test'
require File.expand_path('../../config/environment', __FILE__)
require 'rails/test_help'

class ActiveSupport::TestCase
  # Setup all fixtures in test/fixtures/*.yml for all tests in alphabetical order.
  fixtures :all

  include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
end

class ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
  include Devise::Test::IntegrationHelpers
end

And my controller unit test:

require 'test_helper'

class CompaniesControllerTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest

  setup do
    @user = create(:user)
    @company = create(:company)
    @permission = create(:permission, { user: @user, model: @company})
  end

  test "should get company" do
    sign_in @user
    get companies_url
  end

end

I experimented with adding config.force_ssl = true to my test.rb file. If I set it to true, I just get a 301 response. If I set it to false, I get the same NoMethodError: undefined method '[]=' for nil:NilClass error that's been plaguing me.

I also wasn't able to run rake test -vb, I get an OptionParser::AmbiguousOption: ambiguous option: -b error. Instead I added the following to my test.rb file which seems to give me a more verbose (albeit not that much more useful) output:

config.logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
config.log_level = :INFO

Any suggestions?

[Blitzkev]

@davidjconnolly

I assume you're using Rails 5, if so the new preferred syntax is to use rails instead of rake, so your run command would be rails t -vb

If your main application doesn't use SSL, then don't worry about messing with those settings.

I don't think Devise::Test::IntegrationHelpers work in rails 5, I created my own helper and was able to get things working. Here are some snippets:

# test/test_helper.rb
ENV['RAILS_ENV'] = 'test'
require File.expand_path('../../config/environment', __FILE__)
require 'rails/test_help'

# Takes user object and their password, and returns headers we need for valid requests
# If testing multiple requests afterwards, you'll need to keep trak of changing headers
module SignInHelper
  def sign_in_as(user, password)
    post user_session_url, params: { email: user.email, password: password }, as: :json
    return response.headers.slice("client", "uid", "access-token")
  end
end

class ActiveSupport::TestCase
  include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
  # Setup all fixtures in test/fixtures/*.yml for all tests in alphabetical order.
  fixtures :all

  # Add more helper methods to be used by all tests here...
end


class ActionController::TestCase
  include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
end

class ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
  include SignInHelper
end

# test/controllers/api/v1/users_controller_test.rb
require 'test_helper'

module Api::V1
  class UsersControllerTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
    setup do
      # Create a user with factory girl
      @pw = Faker::Internet.password(12, 20, true, true)
      email = Faker::Internet.free_email
      @user = create( :user, email: email, uid: email, password: @pw,
                                          password_confirmation: @pw )
    end

    test 'request should fail without signing in' do
      get api_v1_users_url, as: :json
      assert_response :unauthorized
    end

    test 'should get index' do
      tokens = sign_in_as( @user, @pw )
      get api_v1_users_url, headers: tokens, as: :json
      #get api_v1_users_url, as: :json - this would fail.

      assert_response 200
    end

  end # class
end # module

[davidjconnolly]

I see, that worked, thanks for the explanation @Blitzkev. I'm coming from Rails 4 a few years back and apparently have some catching up to do!

FYI my controller/model tests are passing without:

class ActionController::TestCase
  include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
end

Are you using ActionDispatch for all your controller/integration testing? What tests do you have that inherit ActionController?

Thanks again!

[zachfeldman]

Seems like we have an explanation here and also a lack of recent activity. Closing out for now.