RSpec Specification Test Model Attribute

I have the following Rspec file:

describe "Cart" do
  before do
    @user = FactoryGirl.create(:user)
    @cart = @user.carts.create!
  end

describe "using stripe" do
  before do
    @sport = FactoryGirl.create(:sport)
  end

  describe "user adds sport to cart" do
    before do
      visit sports_path
      click_link "Add to Cart"
    end

    it "should be checkout page" do
      page.should have_content("Total")
    end

    describe "user clicks checkout" do
      before do
        click_button "Checkout"
      end

      it "should redirect user to sign in form" do
        page.should have_selector('h2', text: "Sign in")
      end

      describe "user logs on" do
        before do
          fill_in "Email", with: @user.email
          fill_in "Password", with: @user.password
          click_button "Sign in"
        end

        it "should be on checkout page" do
          page.should have_selector('h2', text: "Checkout")
        end

        describe "user fills in form", js: true, driver: :webkit do

          describe "everything valid" do
            before do
              fill_in "card-number", with: 4242424242424242
              fill_in "card-expiry-month", with: 12
              fill_in "card-expiry-year", with: 2015
              fill_in "card-cvc", with: 123
              click_button "Submit Payment"
            end

            it "should redirect to confirmation page" do
              page.should have_content("Confirmation")
            end

            it "should have the total price listed" do
              page.should have_content(@cart.total_price)
            end

            it "should create a stripe customer and save that to the stripe_customer_id of the user" do
              @user.stripe_customer_id.should_not be_nil
            end

            describe "should allow user authorize charge" do
              before do
                click_button "Confirm and Purchase"
              end

              it "should be back to sports page" do
                page.should have_content("Select a Sport")
              end
            end


          end
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

      

        
        
        
      

    

So a user (created by FactoryGirl) buys something from my site.

Error should create a stripe customer and save that to the stripe_customer_id of the user

( @user.stripe_customer_id

is nil

).

The controller has this method:

def confirmation
  @cart = current_cart
  customer = Stripe::Customer.create(description: current_user.email, card: params[:stripeToken])
  current_user.update_attributes(stripe_customer_id: customer.id)
end

      

        
        
        
      

    

I know the current_user (the same user from FactoryGirl for tests) is updated with stripe_customer_id

because other tests are working.

I assumed that I would have to update the model somehow, because I was directly acting on the database (@user and current_user refer to the same db entry, but not the same object). So I tried to call @user.reload

before checking if the value was stripe_customer_id

zero, but the test still failed.

2 questions: Should I even validate model attributes in the request spec? And, is there a way that I can pass the failure test?

thank