How to test rendering a partial with RSpec

Question

I want to test rendering a particular partial according to some conditions.

For example, in model show action view show.html.erb I have:

<% if condition1 %>
 <%=  render :partial => "partial1" %>
<% else %>
 <%=  render :partial => "partial1" %>
<% end %>

I tried:

response.should render_template("partial_name")

but it tells that it rendered "show" template

expecting <"partial1"> but rendering with <"model/show, layouts/application">

What I am doing wrong?

Solution 1

Also try this

response.should render_template(:partial => 'partial_name')

Solution 2

Latest rspec version suggest to use expect syntax rather than should:

expect(response).to render_template(partial: 'partial_name')

Solution 3

If you are testing this inside a controller you should do something like this:

RSpec.describe Users::RegistrationsController, type: :controller do
  describe "GET #new" do
    render_views

    it "render customer partial" do
      get :new
      expect(response).to render_template :new
      expect(response).to render_template(partial: '_new_customer')
    end
  end
end

Note that we need render_views as reported into documentation.

And this is the line that will test if "_new_customer" partial is rendered:

expect(response).to render_template(partial: '_new_customer')

You need to provide the name of the partial with the initial underscore.

Also be careful because in your code the IF and the ELSE statements are rendering the same thing.

Solution 4

If using in rspec controllers

expect(response).to render_template(partial: 'home/_sector_performance')

Solution 5

You can also test, if your controller inferred required action.

require "spec_helper"

describe "model_name/new.html.erb" do
 it "infers the controller path" do
  expect(controller.request.path_parameters["action"]).to eq("new")
 end
end

The docs are here

View more solutions

Comments

[Fabio]

It works, but you need to specify render_views if you're writing controller specs.

[Abe Petrillo]

Can you expand on the render_views thing? render_template isn't working for me in controller tests.

[aNoble]

render_views is simply called within the describe block.describe OrganizationsController do; render_views; ...

[rouan]

With the latest version of rpec it may look more like this expect(response).to render_template(:partial => '_partial_name')

[aceofbassgreg]

Here's some documentation regarding render_views: relishapp.com/rspec/rspec-rails/docs/controller-specs/…

[c.apolzon]

Latest rspec will pass with expect(response).to render_partial("partial_name") rouan's approach also works.

[Benj]

@c.apolzon I got undefined method 'render_partial' using today's updated rspec-rails ~> 2.14.0 and shoulda-matchers git-branch dp-rails-four. What gem are you using to get render_partial matcher? Thanks

[jbielick]

that would be a pretty fragile test -- such that the test would fail if you changed the html, but what you're really testing is whether or not the template gets rendered.

[Argonus]

Spec should test test rendering partial, not html body.

[Kris Khaira]

Should you really be testing a view in a controller spec? RSpec provides spec/views for this; or you could use feature/integration tests.

[Diego D]

@KrisKhaira well, may you need both. In a controller spec you could test that the controller is going to render the expected template/view. Then in feature/integration tests you can deeply test the whole floe, in particular the view to test if user is able to perform expected actions.

[Amit Patel]

For rspec 3.6.0 use expect(response).to render_partial("_partial_name") but you have to use render_views within describe. Mind the _ in the name of the partial

[lacostenycoder]

why do you need need CGI.unescape_html ?

[coorasse]

because if you check for a string that contains characters like ', it would fail otherwise