Rails/Rspec Make tests pass with http basic authentication

Update (2013): Matt Connolly has provided a GIST which also works for request and controller specs: http://gist.github.com/4158961

Another way of doing this if you have many tests to run and don’t want to include it everytime (DRYer code):

Create a /spec/support/auth_helper.rb file:

module AuthHelper
  def http_login
    user="username"
    pw = 'password'
    request.env['HTTP_AUTHORIZATION'] = ActionController::HttpAuthentication::Basic.encode_credentials(user,pw)
  end  
end

In your test spec file:

describe HomeController do
  render_views

  # login to http basic auth
  include AuthHelper
  before(:each) do
    http_login
  end

  describe "GET 'index'" do
    it "should be successful" do
      get 'index'
      response.should be_success
    end
  end

end

Credit here – Archived site