Rspec: How to assign instance variable in controller spec

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When testing private methods in controllers, rather than use send, I tend to use an anonymous controller due to not wanting to call the private method directly, but the interface to the private method (or, in the test below, effectively stubbing that interface). So, in your case, perhaps something like: 

require 'spec_helper'

describe TestController do
  controller do
    def test_some_method
      some_method
    end
  end

  describe "a phone test with some_method" do

    subject { controller.test_some_method }

    context "when my_variable is not nil" do
      before { controller.instance_variable_set(:@my_variable, Phone.new(...)) }
      it { should be_true }
    end

    context "when my_variable is nil" do
      before { controller.instance_variable_set(:@my_variable, nil) } 
      it { should_not be_true } # or should be_false or whatever
    end     
  end
end

There’s some good discussion on the issue of directly testing private methods in this StackOverflow Q&A, which swayed me towards using anonymous controllers, but your opinion may differ.

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