RSpec request test merges hashes in array in POST JSON params

Question

Looks like a bug in RSpec but maybe I'm missing something.

I have a request spec where I post a JSON that contains an array of hashes:

spec/requests/dummy_request_spec.rb:

post "http://my.server.com/some/route", {
  format: :json,
  data: [
    {
      details: {
        param1: 1
      },
    },
    {
      details: {
        param2: 1
      }
    }
  ]
}

For some odd reason, RSpec merges the hashes into one element and then sends them to server. print out of params received in controller:

data: [
  {
    details: {
      param1: 1,
      param2: 2
    },
  },
]

versions: rspec-2.13.0 rails-3.2.10

Very strange!!

Thanks

Brad · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-25 17:20:58Z

21

Got it! array of hashes is not supported for form-data
RSpec by default posts it as form-data. Solution:

post '...', {...}.to_json, {'CONTENT_TYPE' => "application/json", 'ACCEPT' => 'application/json'}

edited Feb 25, 2014 at 17:20

Brad

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answered Aug 20, 2013 at 15:16

Adam Klein

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1 Comment

Joe Half Face Over a year ago

Side note: array of hashes for form-data is supported, but requires 'index' field, otherwise entities will be merged into one. This may be useful if you want to send array of files.

Jignesh Gohel · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-15 12:10:42Z

I faced the same problem reported in the question post while using following versions

ruby 2.3.2

rails (5.0.0.1)

rspec-rails (3.5.2)

Searching for the problem on web I found a related issue at https://github.com/rails/rails/issues/26069 and the solution suggested by it is to pass as: :json option to the post, get etc methods while using them in the controller tests (refer the PR referenced in comment https://github.com/rails/rails/issues/26069#issuecomment-240916233 for more details). Using that solution didn't solved the params mingling issue I was encountering. Following were the results found for different types of data I used with the recommended solution:

In my controller spec I have following

before(:each) do
 request.accept = "application/json"
end

and in the test logs I do see that the request is being served

Processing by Api::V1::MyController#my_action as JSON

Data-1

data = [
  {
    param_1: "param_1_value",
  },
  {
    param_2: "param_2_value",
  }
]

params.merge!(my_data: data)

post :my_action, params: params, as: :json

That ends-up in request params as following

{ "my_data"=> [ {"param_1"=>"param_1_value", "param_2"=>"param_2_value"} ] }

which is wrong.

Data-2

data = [
  {
    param_1: "param_1_value",
    something_else: ""
  },
  {
    param_2: "param_2_value",
    another_thing: ""
  }
]

params.merge!(my_data: data)

post :my_action, params: params, as: :json

That ends-up in request params as following

{ "my_data"=> [ {"param_1"=>"param_1_value", "something_else"=>"", "another_thing"=>"", "param_2"=>"param_2_value"} ] }

which is wrong.

Data-3

data = [
  {
    param_1: "param_1_value",
    param_2: ""
  },
  {
    param_1: ""
    param_2: "param_2_value",
  }
]

params.merge!(my_data: data)

post :my_action, params: params, as: :json

That ends-up in request params as following

{ "my_data"=>[ {"param_1"=>"param_1_value", "param_2"=>""}, {"param_1"=>"", "param_2"=>"param_2_value"} ] }

which is correct.

It should be noted that for Data-3 without the as: :json option also I receive the correct data in request params.

One more thing: In comment https://github.com/rails/rails/issues/26069#issuecomment-240358290 an alternate solution suggested to deal with the problem narrated above is following

another fix would be to specify nested attributes not as array but as hash:

params = {
      id: @book.id,
      book: {
        title: 'Cool',
        pages_params: {
          "0" => { id: @page.id, content: 'another content' },
          "1" => { id: @delete_page.id, _destroy: 1 },
          "2" => { content: 'another new page' }
        }
      },
      format: :json
    }

Unfortunately this was removed from the documentation of nested attributes so I don't know if this is going to stay valid. http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/NestedAttributes/ClassMethods.html

But this solution has a drawback is that we need to manually sanitize the data on controller-end to bring it back to expected structure i.e. Array of Hashes.

Finally I am sharing below what worked for me

spec/shared_contexts.rb

RSpec.shared_context "common helpers" do

  def set_request_header(request_obj:, request_header_name:, request_header_value:)
    request_obj.headers[request_header_name] = request_header_value
  end

  def set_request_header_content_type_as_json(request_obj:)
    set_request_header(request_obj: request_obj, request_header_name: 'CONTENT_TYPE', request_header_value: 'application/json')
  end
end

Then in my spec file

require 'shared_contexts'

RSpec.describe Api::V1::MyController, :type => :controller do
  include_context "common helpers"

  context "POST #my_action" do  
    it "my example" do
      data = [
        {
          param_1: "param_1_value",
        },
        {
          param_2: "param_2_value",
        }
      ]

      params.merge!(my_data: data)

      set_request_header_content_type_as_json(request_obj: request)

      post :my_action, params: params
    end
  end 
end

As can be seen setting the request header CONTENT_TYPE was what was missing to make the request params to be received in expected structure.

RubeOnRails · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-20 23:11:16Z

0

Also, be aware that you have an extra comma:

data: [
  {
   details: {
    param1: 1
   }**,**
  },
  {
   details: {
    param2: 1
   }
  }
 ]

answered Aug 20, 2013 at 23:11

RubeOnRails

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