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Action Cable Connection TestCase

Unit test Action Cable connections.

Useful to check whether a connection’s identified_by gets assigned properly and that any improper connection requests are rejected.

Basic example

Unit tests are written as follows:

  1. Simulate a connection attempt by calling connect.

  2. Assert state, e.g. identifiers, has been assigned.

class ApplicationCable::ConnectionTest < ActionCable::Connection::TestCase
  def test_connects_with_proper_cookie
    # Simulate the connection request with a cookie.
    cookies["user_id"] = users(:john).id

    connect

    # Assert the connection identifier matches the fixture.
    assert_equal users(:john).id, connection.user.id
  end

  def test_rejects_connection_without_proper_cookie
    assert_reject_connection { connect }
  end
end

connect accepts additional information about the HTTP request with the params, headers, session, and Rack env options.

def test_connect_with_headers_and_query_string
  connect params: { user_id: 1 }, headers: { "X-API-TOKEN" => "secret-my" }

  assert_equal "1", connection.user.id
  assert_equal "secret-my", connection.token
end

def test_connect_with_params
  connect params: { user_id: 1 }

  assert_equal "1", connection.user.id
end

You can also set up the correct cookies before the connection request:

def test_connect_with_cookies
  # Plain cookies:
  cookies["user_id"] = 1

  # Or signed/encrypted:
  # cookies.signed["user_id"] = 1
  # cookies.encrypted["user_id"] = 1

  connect

  assert_equal "1", connection.user_id
end

Connection is automatically inferred

ActionCable::Connection::TestCase will automatically infer the connection under test from the test class name. If the channel cannot be inferred from the test class name, you can explicitly set it with tests.

class ConnectionTest < ActionCable::Connection::TestCase
  tests ApplicationCable::Connection
end
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