view template rspec file - working. Switched to factory girl for data

factories.rb

FactoryGirl.define do
  factory :user do
    login "login"
    firstname Faker::Name.first_name
    lastname Faker::Name.last_name
  end
end

index.html.erb_spec.rb

require 'spec_helper'
require 'will_paginate/array'

describe "users/index" do

  before(:each) do
    # i need this because i use a private model method as a helper method so I have to expose this
    # i don't remember exactly was in one of ryan's railcasts though (sorting)
    controller.singleton_class.class_eval do
      protected
        def sort_column
          "id"
        end
        helper_method :sort_column
    end

# use timecop freeze as soon as it is available - just to be sure
    # Timecop.freeze
    @user1 = create(:user)
    @user2 = create(:user, :login => "keimchri")
    #Timecop.return

    assign(:users, [@user1, @user2])
    view.stub(:will_paginate)
  end

  it "renders a list of users" do
    render
    # rendered.should contain("TEXT")  <-- also possible
    #i dunno yet what i really want to test here
    assert_select "tr>td", :text => "login".to_s, :count => 1
    assert_select "tr>td", :text => "keimchri".to_s, :count => 1
    # faker generates same name when called in same test WHY?
    assert_select "tr>td", :text => @user1.firstname, :count => 2
    assert_select "tr>td", :text => @user1.lastname, :count => 2
    # created at is the same for both created users
    assert_select "tr>td", :text => l(@user1.created_at.in_time_zone, :format => :standard).to_s, :count => 2
  end
end

Probably not what you want to hear, but I avoid view specs whenever possible. They're too brittle and I find that I have to go look at the page in a browser anyway to confirm. If you have to test it, though, I think you should be able to use Factory Girl's build_stubbed to create your users, then assign the stubbed users to :users as you do in line 23.

One other thing I like to do is always assign an ID in the DOM for whatever I'm iterating through. So in this case each would have a unique ID, then I use Capybara to test that within that element, my page has whatever content I'm looking for. I like the flexibility of this--if I switch from a table to an unordered list or straight

tags, for example, my test still passes.