How to test render status: 404 with Rails4 and RSpec when using rescue_from

Question

I have a Rails4 application with a 'PagesController'. The show-method throws a customized Exception 'PageNotFoundError' when a Page is not found. On top of the controller I defined `rescue_from PageNotFoundError, with: :render_not_found` `render not found` is a private method of `PagesController` and looks like: ``` def render_not_found flash[:alert]=t(:page_does_not_exists, title: params[:id]) @pages = Page.all render :index, status: :not_found #404 end ``` The rails-log in development-mode shows: ``` Started GET "/pages/readmef" for 127.0.0.1 at 2013-08-02 23:11:35 +0200 Processing by PagesController#show as HTML Parameters: {"id"=>"readmef"} .. Completed 404 Not Found in 14ms (Views: 12.0ms) ``` So, it seams my :status => :not_found works, so far. When I do `curl -v http://0.0.0.0:3000/pages/readmef` curl logs ``` curl -v http://localhost:3000/pages/readmef * About to connect() to localhost port 3000 (#0) * Trying 127.0.0.1... * connected * Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1) port 3…

Accepted Answer

Although I'm not very happy with this solution, at least this is a work around:

I splited the test into two separate specs. One for testing the response code 404 (with GET instead of visit) and a second to test the alert. The second test is necessary because `get` doesn't render the view - even if `render_views` is defined on top of the spec-file.

```
  it 'response with 404 if page not found' do
    get :show, { controller: 'pages', id: 'not_existing_page_321' }
    expect(response.status).to eq(404)
  end

it 'renders an error-message if page not found and shows index' do
    visit page_path('page_not_found')
    within '.alert-error' do
      page.should have_content("Page page_not_found doesn't exist")
    end
  end
```

How to test render status: 404 with Rails4 and RSpec when using rescue_from

Solution

Problem