How do I create a factory for models that have a has_one/belongs_to relationship with validations that are usually overcome by nested attributes?

Question

I have an Account model that has_one User model, and a User model that belongs_to Account model. I think that the basic code required for demonstration is:

class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_one :user
  validates_presence_of :user
  accepts_nested_attributes_for :user
end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :account
  # validates_presence_of :account # this is not actually present,
                                   # but is implied by a not null requirement
                                   # in the database, so it only takes effect on
                                   # save or update, instead of on #valid?
end

When I define associations in each factory:

Factory.define :user do |f|
  f.association :account
end

Factory.define :account do |f|
  f.association :user
end

I get a stack overflow, as each is creating an account/user recursively.

The way I've been able to solve this is to emulate nested attribute forms in my tests:

before :each do
  account_attributes = Factory.attributes_for :account
  account_attributes[:user_attributes] = Factory.attributes_for :user
  @account = Account.new(account_attributes)
end

However, I'd like to keep this logic in the factory, as it can get out of hand once I start adding other modules:

before :each do
  account_attributes = Factory.attributes_for :account
  account_attributes[:user_attributes] = Factory.attributes_for :user
  account_attributes[:user_attributes][:profile_attributes] = Factory.attributes_for :profile
  account_attributes[:payment_profile_attributes] = Factory.attributes_for :payment_profile
  account_attributes[:subscription_attributes] = Factory.attributes_for :subscription
  @account = Account.new(account_attributes)
end

Please help!

Answer 1

I was able to solve this problem by using factory_girl's after_build callback.

Factory.define :account do |f|
  f.after_build do |account|
    account.user ||= Factory.build(:user, :account => account)
    account.payment_profile ||= Factory.build(:payment_profile, :account => account)
    account.subscription ||= Factory.build(:subscription, :account => account)
  end
end

Factory.define :user do |f|
  f.after_build do |user|
    user.account ||= Factory.build(:account, :user => user)
    user.profile ||= Factory.build(:profile, :user => user)
  end
end

This will create the associated classes before the owning class is saved, so validations pass.

Answer 2

Have a look at the factory_girl documentation. The way you're building those accounts seems like you're not really taking advantage of factory_girl.

I've always taken care of associations by creating the objects that I need before testing. I'm going to take a stab at this based on the models you're referencing above:

before :each do
  @account = Factory(:account, :user_id => Factory(:user).id, :profile_id => Factory(:profile).id)
end

Now @account will have @account.user and @account.profile available. If you need to define those, @profile = @account.profile works just great.