passing an array into get command in rspec

Question

I'm trying to pass an array in the query string of an rspec test but it's giving me an error. I will be sending query strings like "products[]=desk,chair" and expect the controller to be able to handle it.

Here's the error:

Failure/Error: get :index, { :format => :json, :products => [product_1, product_2]}, { "Accept" => "application/json" }
NoMethodError:
       undefined method `each' for "[\"desk\", \"chair\"]":String

Here's my test method:

product_1 = "desk"
product_2 = "chair"
get :index, { :format => :json, :products => [product_1, product_2]}, { "Accept" => "application/json" }

Heres my controller:

products.each do |product|
    puts "product: #{product}"
end

def products
    params[:products].to_s
end

Any ideas?

Note: this is running Rails 3.2.12

Answer 1

You are defining products as params[:products].to_s that makes it an string, no matter what you send. So when you do products.each in the index method it fails.

Do the each on params[:products] instead:

def index
  params[:products].each do |product|
    puts "product: #{product}"
  end
end

I'm sure that puts, is just troubleshooting code, but you shouldn't use it on your controller.