Simulating Requests

Ideally, our controllers are relatively simple. The complicated functionality is in a model or other object and tested in our unit tests for those objects. One reason this is a best practice is that models are easier to test than requests because they’re easier to extract and are used independently in a test framework.

Note: A request test should test the behavior of a single request. A request test should not fail because of problems in the model.

Request tests performance

A request test that overlaps with model behavior is part of the awkward middle ground of testing that the Rails 5 changes are designed to avoid. If the request test is going to the database, the test is slower than it needs to be. If a model failure can cascade into the controller tests, it’s harder than it ...