React Rails Testing

[tmoney100]

I just updated to 1.3.0, ran rake test and got this error message:

ActionView::Template::Error: undefined method 'react_component' for nil:NilClass app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:30:in '_app_views_layouts_application_html_erb___3811361224884677630_70195218569900'

This only happens when I run my tests and doesn't happen when I run the code in the browser. When I stepped back to 1.2.0 it fixed the issue.

I'm calling react_component in my application.html.erb file.

[rmosolgo]

sounds like I broke something, hmm

[rmosolgo]

Ah, is this only in test. I think my implementation depends on Rack middleware doing its thing, let me find a fix for this ...

[rmosolgo]

could you share the test that's breaking? The tests in this repo pass but I guess there's another kind of test that I missed!

[tmoney100]

The most basic test that is failing is:

test '.show should succeed' do
    get :show
    assert_response :success
  end

[rmosolgo]

what kind of test is that? what test framework? is it inside a class which extends a base test class? is it part of a describe block?

[rmosolgo]

(seems like this middleware is not applied in the test context: https://github.com/reactjs/react-rails/blob/master/lib/react/rails/render_middleware.rb)

[tmoney100]

We use:

group :development, :test do
  # Call 'byebug' anywhere in the code to stop execution and get a debugger console
  gem 'byebug'

  # Shim to load environment variables from .env into ENV in development. Read more: https://github.com/bkeepers/dotenv
  gem 'dotenv-rails'

  # Letter opener: https://github.com/ryanb/letter_opener
  gem 'letter_opener', :group => :development

  # Headless phantomjs(chrome based browser) for javascrip testing
  gem 'poltergeist', :require => false

  # Ruby Pry, debug ruby https://github.com/deivid-rodriguez/pry-byebug
  gem 'pry-byebug'

  # Static syle checking https://github.com/bbatsov/rubocop
  # version 0.33.0 is causing issues -> when running autocomplete it find multiple infinite loops
  # Untill we solve that problem, we'll go back to the last stable version.
  gem 'rubocop', '0.32.1', :require => false

  # Optional code coverage
  gem 'simplecov', :require => false

  # Spring speeds up development by keeping your application running in the background. Read more: https://github.com/rails/spring
  gem 'spring'

  # Javascript testing https://github.com/modeset/teaspoon
  gem 'teaspoon'
  gem 'teaspoon-mocha'
end

group :test do
  # Use webmock for integration testing.  Read more: https://github.com/bblimke/webmock
  gem 'webmock'
  gem 'mocha'
end

[stevestmartin]

@rmosolgo I can confirm this as well when upgrading to react-rails 1.3.0, this is using minitest 5.1 using a controller test extending from ActionController::TestCase

[rmosolgo]

Ahh awesome, thanks for that info, i can try to reproduce tomorrow!

[stevestmartin]

@rmosolgo I went ahead and sumitted a pull request for a failing testcase that reproduces this problem #355, hope this helps

[rmosolgo]

YES, that's super helpful, thank you!!

[rmosolgo]

@stevestmartin could you point your gemfile at this branch and give it a try? #356

for example,

gem 'react-rails', github: 'rmosolgo/react-rails', branch: 'refactor-helper-lifecycle'

[stevestmartin]

@rmosolgo works great, thanks. also using middleware was only temporarily a bad choice. Rails 5 controller tests will work the same as integration tests executing the middleware.

[rmosolgo]

Thanks for reporting & testing, please try 1.3.1 from rubygems and reopen if you still have this problem!

Good to know about middleware in the future, but I figure we'll be supporting Rails 4 for a few years still 😬

[dapi]

1.3.2 still broken for rspec

[javierjulio]

I can confirm this is still failing on 1.3.2. I have a cache warming rake task that renders a view page which uses react_component in there. On version 1.2.0 it wasn't an issue but after upgrading I receive the same error: ActionView::Template::Error: undefined method 'react_component' for nil:NilClass

[rmosolgo]

Sorry, I'm on the road this week so I haven't had a chance to properly address this issue. There's a PR to fix Rspec here: #367

Perhaps something there will be useful in the meantime!

[nacengineer]

FWIW this also also breaks using react_component within the cells gem (in development) the 3.0 branch not current 4.0 branch. Perhaps this may help create a fix in isolation. It's not broken in 1.2.0. Still broken in 1.3.2

Also as a side note, perhaps its just me but if it were my gem and I knew it was broken (even if for a smaller subset) and is present in rubygems, I would advise yanking those versions.

[rmosolgo]

@nacengineer Thanks for the heads up about the "cells" gem, I'll have to take a look at that!

I hear your point about putting imperfect code on Rubygems. But I don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good! 1.3.0 introduced the per-request view helper implementation, which I want to support.

The broken use case here is to use a Rails view helper without a Rails controller. I think I can fix that case, but I'm just without a home base at the moment (moving from CA to VA 😬)!

[nacengineer]

@rmosolgo congrats on getting back east of the Mississippi, live is better on this side.

FWIW all I have to do to trigger it is render a cell and use the the react_component helper in its view. Nothing special.

[rmosolgo]

I've suggested a fix here: #375

This way, the view helper will work even if you're not in the context of a controller action. Could you give it a try and let me know if that works for you?

Sorry I overlooked this when adding that feature!!

[javierjulio]

@rmosolgo I just chimed in to mention it was still failing but when I described how I was using it I realized I could workaround it. But also probably not at all how you intended someone to use the helper so I didn't expect a fix for an odd case. Just wanted to say thanks so much for taking the time! Really appreciate it.

[rmosolgo]

Shipped in 1.3.3, please let me know if you find a case where it's still broken!

[javierjulio]

@rmosolgo just gave it a try, its working for my use case. Thanks!! 👍🏻🎉

[nacengineer]

@rmosolgo Can confirm it fixes the issue in cells gem. Thanks! I'm always impressed with the responsiveness of react-rails gem's devs. Thanks

I would still put a small plug in to yank previous 1.3.x gem as they're technically broken. Just from a technical support POV I don't think you want to rely on people coming across this thread if they run into the issue. IMO its not a better v. good issue. Its broken v. working. But its of course your call.

Best of luck in VA! Thanks for the timely response.