ActionDispatch::ClosedError when testing Rails 3.1 model creation (RSpec/Cucumber) - cucumber

Question

I am creating a web application with Ruby on Rails 3.1 (RC1). I am using Factory Girl, RSpec and Cucumber (with Capybara) for testing, but I am experiencing unexpected raised ActionDispatch::ClosedErrors some of the times (not every time) when I am creating new users (through the User model's create action). Below is the error message that I get:
Cannot modify cookies because it was closed. This means it was already streamed
back to the client or converted to HTTP headers. (ActionDispatch::ClosedError)
The error is raised when using these ways of creating users:
Creation using Factory Girl
Factory.create( :user )
Factory.build( :user ).save
Basic creation
User.create( { ... } )
User.new( { ... } ).save
What is funny is that they do work during some test, but not in others, and it does not seem random, although I cannot figure out the reason. Below is an excerpt from my code:
users_controller_spec.rb
require 'spec_helper'
def user
#user ||= Factory.create( :user )
end
def valid_attributes
Factory.attributes_for :user
end
describe UsersController do
describe 'GET index' do
it 'assigns all users as #users' do
users = [ user ] # The call to user() raises the error here
get :index
assigns[ :users ].should == users
end
end
describe 'GET show' do
it 'assigns the requested user as #user' do
get :show, id: user.id # The call to user() raises the error here
assigns[ :user ].should == user
end
end
However, the error is not raised in the following code block:
describe 'GET edit' do
it 'assigns the requested user as #user' do
get :edit, id: user.id # This raises no error
assigns[ :user ].should == user
end
end
Any other method below this does not raise the error, even though I am creating users in the exact same way.
Any suggestions to what I might be doing wrong would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Someone posted a workaround here
https://github.com/binarylogic/authlogic/issues/262#issuecomment-1804988

Answer 2

This is due to the way rails 3 streams the response now. They posted a fix in edge for the same issue in flash but not in cookies yet. For now I have turned off my request specs. I am going to look at the problem this weekend if no one gets to it before then.
https://github.com/rails/rails/issues/1452

Answer 3

Just so we don't have to follow links, here's my modified version of the authlogic workaround:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
acts_as_authentic do |c|
c.maintain_sessions = false if Rails.env == "test"
end
end
Rather than deal with ensuring session management on every .save call, I just turn them off if I'm testing.