Rails now allows specifying the HTTP status code in assert_redirected_to

Rails provides a plethora of assertion methods to test the request/response flow in applications. One of the most commonly used assertion methods is assert_redirected_to which is used to assert that the request was redirected to the specified path.

Before

Let’s create a controller and some actions to test this assertion method.

  class HomeController < ApplicationController
    def index
    end

    def go_back
      redirect_to root_path, status: :moved_permanently
    end
  end

When users visit the go_back action, they are redirected to the root_path with a :moved_permanently status code (can be a HTTP response code as well). Let’s write a test to assert that the request was redirected to the root_path.

  class HomeControllerTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
    test "should redirect to root path" do
      get go_back_path
      assert_redirected_to root_path
    end
  end

However, if we are unable to assert the status code, we can’t be sure that the request was redirected with the correct status code.

After

Thanks to this PR the assertion statement can now be used to assert status codes and the corresponding symbols (as shown below).

  class HomeControllerTest < ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest
    test "should redirect to root path with status code" do
      get go_back_path
      assert_redirected_to root_path, status: :moved_permanently
      # equivalent to
      # assert_redirected_to root_path, status: 301
    end
  end