VCR with Webmock incorrectly stubbing Typhoeus (undefined method `>=' for nil:NilClass)

Question

What I want: External API calls to return the same thing each time the tests run What I get: First time VCR saves it, second time Typhoeus returns an error

What happens is I run the test once, it makes the actual requests (that happens when I create an organization and user), and then when I run it again it can't parse the request correctly.

First run:

1) AccountSettingsController GET #show responds successfully with an HTTP 200 status code
   Failure/Error: expect(response).to be_success
     expected success? to return true, got false
   # ./spec/controllers/account_settings_spec.rb:12:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'

All the following runs until I delete the cassette:

1) AccountSettingsController GET #show responds successfully with an HTTP 200 status code
   Failure/Error: organization = Fabricate(:organization)
   NoMethodError:
     undefined method `>=' for nil:NilClass
   # ./app/models/hand.rb:45:in `create'
   # ./app/models/hand.rb:64:in `save'
   # ./app/models/hand.rb:70:in `save!'
   # ./spec/controllers/account_settings_spec.rb:6:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'

Which traces back to these lines (from a private gem I use)

def create(values)
  response = Typhoeus.post(resource_url, {body: values.to_json}.merge(headers))

  process_as_json response.options[:response_body]
end

def process_as_json(response)
  if !response.empty?
    JSON.parse(response)
  else
    nil
  end
end

Versions:

• VCR (2.9.0)
• Webmock (1.18.9)
• Typhoeus (0.6.8)

Setup:

# spec/spec_helper.rb

require "simplecov"
SimpleCov.start "rails"

ENV["RAILS_ENV"] ||= "test"
require File.expand_path("../../config/environment", __FILE__)

require "rspec/rails"
require "rspec/autorun"
require "capybara/rspec"
require "webmock/rspec"

Dir[Rails.root.join("spec/support/**/*.rb")].each { |f| require f }

Fabrication.configure do |config|
  config.path_prefix = Rails.root
end

VCR.configure do |config|
  config.cassette_library_dir = "spec/vcr_cassettes"
  config.hook_into :webmock
  config.configure_rspec_metadata!
end

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.order = "random"
  config.treat_symbols_as_metadata_keys_with_true_values = true
end

Test:

# spec/controllers/account_settings_spec.rb

require "spec_helper"

describe AccountSettingsController do
  describe "GET #show" do
    it "responds successfully with an HTTP 200 status code", :vcr do
      organization = Fabricate(:organization)
      user = Fabricate(:user, organization_id: organization.id)

      get :show

      expect(response).to be_success
      expect(response.status).to eq(200)
    end
  end
end

Answer 1

There's no way to definitively answer your question from the details you've provided but here's a few suggestions:

• Use the debug_logger option to get detailed output of what VCR is doing; that can give you a hint about what's going on.
• Try using hook_into :typhoeus rather than hook_into :webmock. VCR's able to record and playback more accurately when you hook directly into typhoeus rahter than using webmock as an intermediary layer.