undefined method `visit' when using RSpec and Capybara in rails

Question

I can't get capybara working with rspec. It gives me this error:

undefined method `visit' for #<RSpec::Core::ExampleGroup::Nested_1:0x16529f8 @example=nil>

I know there are lots of posts about this but non of the solutions are working for me. Most of them involve the specs not being in /spec/features - which mine is in.

First the error:

$bundle exec rspec spec
F

Failures:

  1) security signs users in
     Failure/Error: visit "/sessions/new"
     NoMethodError:
       undefined method `visit' for #<RSpec::Core::ExampleGroup::Nested_1:0x16529f8 @example=nil>
     # ./spec/features/security_spec.rb:4:in `(root)'

 Finished in 0.006 seconds
 1 example, 1 failure

Failed examples:

rspec ./spec/features/security_spec.rb:3 # security signs users in

I think its important to note that at first I was using the URL Helper 'new_sessions_path' and it kept giving me an error undefined local variable or method 'new_sessions_path'. I know it is valid because:

$ rake routes
logout_sessions GET    /sessions/logout(.:format) sessions#logout
       sessions POST   /sessions(.:format)        sessions#create
   new_sessions GET    /sessions/new(.:format)    sessions#new
      contracts POST   /contracts(.:format)       contracts#create
  new_contracts GET    /contracts/new(.:format)   contracts#new
 edit_contracts GET    /contracts/edit(.:format)  contracts#edit
                GET    /contracts(.:format)       contracts#show
                PUT    /contracts(.:format)       contracts#update
                DELETE /contracts(.:format)       contracts#destroy
           root        /                          contracts#index

My Gemfile:

source 'https://rubygems.org'

gem 'rails', '3.2.11'
gem 'execjs'

group :assets do
  gem 'sass-rails',   '~> 3.2.3'
  gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 3.2.1'
  gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.0.3'
end

gem 'jquery-rails'
gem 'activerecord-oracle_enhanced-adapter', '~> 1.4.1'
gem 'jruby-openssl'
gem 'therubyrhino'
gem 'kaminari'
gem 'nokogiri'

group :development do
  gem 'warbler'
end

group :test do
  gem 'rspec-rails'
  gem 'capybara'
  gem 'activerecord-jdbcsqlite3-adapter'
end

spec_helper.rb inside of my_app/spec:

# This file is copied to spec/ when you run 'rails generate rspec:install'
ENV["RAILS_ENV"] ||= 'test'
require File.expand_path("../../config/environment", __FILE__)
require 'rspec/rails'
require 'rspec/autorun'

# Capybara integration
require 'capybara/rspec'
require 'capybara/rails'

# Requires supporting ruby files with custom matchers and macros, etc,
# in spec/support/ and its subdirectories.
Dir[Rails.root.join("spec/support/**/*.rb")].each {|f| require f}

RSpec.configure do |config|
  # Remove this line if you're not using ActiveRecord or ActiveRecord fixtures
  # config.fixture_path = "#{::Rails.root}/spec/fixtures"
  config.use_transactional_fixtures = true
  config.infer_base_class_for_anonymous_controllers = false
  config.order = "random"
  # Include path helpers
  config.include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers
end

my_app/spec/features/security_spec.rb:

describe "security", :type => :feature do
  it "signs users in" do
    visit "/sessions/new"
    fill_in "username", :with => "user"
    fill_in "password", :with => "pass"
    click_button "Sign In"

    page.should have_content('Login Successful')
  end
end

I've tried defining the test above both with and without :type => :feature. It makes no difference either way. Any ideas what I should try next?

Solution 1

Adding require 'rails_helper' at the top of my feature ended up fixing my problem:

require 'rails_helper'

describe "security", :type => :feature do

  it "signs users in" do
    visit new_sessions_path
    fill_in "username", :with => "user"
    fill_in "password", :with => "pass"
    click_button "Sign In"

    page.should have_content('Login Successful')
  end
end

This seems odd to me since every example I've seen for rspec and capybara didn't have that require, but oh well. Problem solved.

Original Answer (older versions of rspec)

require 'spec_helper' is used by older versions of RSpec. The better answer would be require 'rails_helper'.

Solution 2

Try to add:

  config.include Capybara::DSL

to your config block.

# This file is copied to spec/ when you run 'rails generate rspec:install'
ENV["RAILS_ENV"] ||= 'test'
require File.expand_path("../../config/environment", __FILE__)
require 'rspec/rails'
require 'rspec/autorun'

# Requires supporting ruby files with custom matchers and macros, etc,
# in spec/support/ and its subdirectories.
Dir[Rails.root.join("spec/support/**/*.rb")].each {|f| require f}

RSpec.configure do |config|
  # Remove this line if you're not using ActiveRecord or ActiveRecord fixtures
  # config.fixture_path = "#{::Rails.root}/spec/fixtures"
  config.use_transactional_fixtures = true
  config.infer_base_class_for_anonymous_controllers = false
  config.order = "random"
  # Include path helpers
  config.include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers

  config.include Capybara::DSL

end

Solution 3

Since Capybara 2.0 one has to use folder spec/features Capybara commands don't work in folder spec/requests anymore.

Solution 4

Try performing all your setup in a before block:

spec/features/security_spec.rb

describe "security" do
  before do
    visit "/sessions/new"
    fill_in "username", :with => "user"
    fill_in "password", :with => "pass"
    click_button "Sign In"
  end

  it "signs users in" do
    page.should have_content('Login Successful')
  end
end

Solution 5

I also had this problem,

Adding require 'rails_helper' at the top of my feature ended up fixing my problem:

require 'rails_helper'

RSpec.describe "Products", type: :request do
 describe "GET /products" do
 it "display tasks" do
  Product.create!(:name => "samsung")
  visit products_path
  page.should have_content("samsung")
  #expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
  end
 end
end

And add the 'config.include Capybara::DSL' in rails_helper.rb

RSpec.configure do |config|

 config.fixture_path = "#{::Rails.root}/spec/fixtures"

 config.use_transactional_fixtures = true

 config.infer_spec_type_from_file_location!

 config.include Capybara::DSL

end

View more solutions

Comments

[lightswitch05]

Nope, exact same issue, no apparent change

[lightswitch05]

This is actually a common cause of the error. The visit function is only available within a it block. Source

[zetetic]

Not true -- code in a before block runs in the example context, so visit will work there as well as in an it block.

[Paul Fioravanti]

@user912563, ultimately, since you solved your own problem, my answer just really becomes a style suggestion more than anything else (set up code in before blocks is how I write my specs, and they work without error ;-) ), so I think it's fair to accept your own answer.

[lightswitch05]

Thanks @zetetic and @Paul-Firavanti - I did not know before was still inside the it context. Using this will make my other tests that require login much cleaner

[lightswitch05]

As my question states, my capybara test was already located under spec/features. But that is a valid point for other people who might be having issues.

[Peter Berg]

This worked for me -- thanks a ton. I didn't need to do this though in my other projects. What circumstances would make this necessary in one project, but not another? Also, what exactly is this doing?

[omarshammas]

I find it helpful to create the directory mkdir spec/features and create a symbolic link ln -s spec/features spec/requests. This way any generated tests will be placed in the features directory.

[Marian Zagoruiko]

Worked for me as well. Thank you very much!

[Danny]

This helped me because I'm a noob and didn't have test wrapped in it "" do ... end.

[sixty4bit]

My file already had the require 'spec_helper' that was checked asthe answer to this problem, but this worked for me. Thanks!

[nistvan]

You should put the update part in the top of your post.

[digitig]

That doesn't work for me: I get an error message that Capybara is an undefined constant. My Cucumber tests are using Capybara just fine.

[Jonathan Tuzman]

Adding that Config line worked for me. It's strange because I was getting the error in one of my spec files but not in another spec file, and both called the same capy methods (and both required rails_helper)

[VegaStudios]

Thanks @ThillaiNarayanan, this was my issue following an older setup guide, but on a more recent Capybara version

[randmin]

It is really bad manner to accept ones own answer, even though Kocur4d's answer is more precise (and forgetting to include the rails_helper.rb would not be the more common problem). You should change the accepted answer, as without the configuration change done before including it, you would still have the same error.

[Jason FB]

this happens because of the setting config.infer_spec_type_from_file_location! inside of your Rspec configure. see github.com/rspec/rspec-rails/blob/main/lib/rspec/rails/…