Test controllers without going through routing

Question

I'm trying to test my controller's action chain in isolation. Specifically, I want to ensure my desired behavior is applied to all my controller's actions. For example, test that all my actions require authentication: ``` context "when not authenticated" do # single case describe "GET index" do it "responds with 401" do get :index response.code.should be(401) end end # all of them... described_class.action_methods.each do |action| ['get', 'put', 'post', 'delete', 'patch'].each do |verb| describe "#{verb.upcase} #{action}" do it "responds with 401" do send verb, action response.code.should == "401" end end end end end ``` I expected this to work but it doesn't. I get some `ActionController::RoutingErrors`. This is because some of my routes require params and in some cases I'm not supplying them (like when I call `post :create`). I get that. But what I don't understand is: why should it matter!? For these tests routing is a separate concern. I care about my action chains, not my request…

Accepted Answer

One work around is to loosen the routing engine's constraints. This doesn't bypass routing, but it does make it easier to work with for testing.

Add something like the following to your specs:

```
before(:all) do
  Rails.application.routes.draw { match ':controller(/:action)' }
end
after(:all) do
  Rails.application.reload_routes!
end
```

While not strictly an answer to the question, it might be a good enough work around.

Test controllers without going through routing

Solution

Problem