# Respec APIs Testing Notes 
## Folder Structure
```
  spec
  |--- apis #do not put into controllers folder. 
        |--- your_api_test_spec.rb  
  |--- controllers
  |--- models
  |--- supports
        |--- api_helper.rb
        |--- authentication_helper.rb
```
*note: do not put your apis folder underneath controllers folder, otherwise, it will inherited with controller ``ActionController::TestCase::Behavior``, ``Rake::Test::Methods`` cannot be apply accordingly.

## Custom Rspec Helper for Rake::Test::Methods for api scopes.

```ruby
@spec/supports/api_helper.rb


module ApiHelper
  include Rack::Test::Methods

  def app
    Rails.application
  end
end

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include ApiHelper, :type=>:api #apply to all spec for apis folder
end

```
## Enable Spec_helper supports
```
@spec/spec_helper.rb
Dir[Rails.root.join("spec/support/**/*.rb")].each {|f| require f}
```

## API Test Spec
make sure your sample test group has type: api, then it will include Rake::Test::Methods for (``get,post,put,delete``) requests
```
@spec/apis/authentication_spec.rb

require "spec_helper"

describe "API authentication" , :type => :api do

  let!(:user) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }

  it "making a request without cookie token " do
    get "/api/v1/items/1",:formate =>:json
    last_response.status.should eql(401)
    error = {:error=>'You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.'}
    last_response.body.should  eql(error.to_json)
  end

end  

```

##Interesting points.

``
ActionController::TestCase::Behavior 
``
v.s.
``
Rack::Test::Methods
``
Rspec Rails includes ``ActionController::TestCase::Behavior`` for simulating controller requests. 
so you could do 

```ruby

require "spec_helper"

describe Api::V1::SessionsController , :type => :api do

  let!(:user) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }

  it "making a request without cookie token " do
    get :index
    response.status.should eql(401)
    error = {:error=>'You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.'}
    response.body.should  eql(error.to_json)
  end

end  

```

Two points of differents:
 * ``Rake::Test::Methods`` could query the url "/api/v1/xxxx", but ``ActionController::TestCase::Behavior`` only execute actions within current controller scope.
 * the reponse in ``Rake::Test::Methods`` called: last_response, in  ``ActionController::TestCase::Behavior`` called: response.