Migrating rails app from 2.2.2 to 2.3.5

I recently migrated my rails app from rails version 2.2.2 to 2.3.5. I enjoyed the work as it was a good learning for me. Listing the steps that I followed and some issues that I faced during the migration.

Gems installed on my windows machine :-

mongrel (1.1.5 x86-mingw32)
rake (0.8.7)
rack (1.0.1)
rubygems-update (1.3.7)

(1) I installed rails :-

gem install rails -v=2.3.5

(2) Deleted rails folder (2.2.2) from app/vendor.

environment.rb file -

RAILS_GEM_VERSION = '2.3.5' unless defined? RAILS_GEM_VERSION

Go to the project root and execute :-

rake rails:update --trace

It will update some js files and also renames application.rb to application_controller.rb

** Invoke rails:update (first_time)
** Invoke rails:update:scripts (first_time)
** Execute rails:update:scripts
** Invoke rails:update:javascripts (first_time)
** Execute rails:update:javascripts
** Invoke rails:update:configs (first_time)
** Execute rails:update:configs
** Invoke rails:update:application_controller (first_time)
** Execute rails:update:application_controller
app_root/app/controllers/application.rb has been renamed to app_root/app/controllers/application_controller.rb, update your SCM as necessary
** Execute rails:update

(3) Rename application_spec.rb to application_controller_spec.rb

(4) Localize rails version into the app.

rake rails:freeze:gems

(5) I was having rspec(1.2.3) and rspec-rails(1.2.3) plugins which I removed and installed rspec(1.3.0) and rspec-rails(1.3.0) gems instead and then localized in the app/vendor.

gem install rspec -v 1.3.0
gem install rspec-rails -v 1.3.0

environment.rb file :-

config.gem "rack", :version => "1.0.1"
config.gem "rspec-rails", :lib => false, :version => ">= 1.3.0"
config.gem "rspec", :lib => false, :version => ">= 1.3.0"

Go to the project root and execute :-
rake gems:unpack

(6) I kept a copy of my customized spec/spec_helper.rb file because I wanted to run "ruby script/generate rspec" for upgrading rspec-rails in the app which overwrites these three files :-

* spec/spec.opts
* spec/rcov.opts
* spec/spec_helper.rb

(7) While running the specs, I got flash.now[:message] specs failing.

I added following in the spec/spec_helper.rb file to fix the issue with that spec.

module DisableFlashSweeping
def sweep
end
end

module EnableFlashSweeping
def sweep
keys.each do |k|
unless @used[k]
use(k)
else
delete(k)
@used.delete(k)
end
end
# clean up after keys that could have been left over by calling reject! or shift on the flash
(@used.keys - keys).each{ |k| @used.delete(k) }
end
end

And I used the calls in the spec before the action as :-

it 'should retain the flash message only for the current request' do
controller.instance_eval { flash.extend(DisableFlashSweeping) }
post :create, :work_loc => {:country => "India", :state => "Maharashtra"}
response.should be_success
flash[:message].should == "Error in Loc mapping!"
end

(8) I changed in rspec from

response.should render_template(:states) '
TO
controller.should_receive(:render).with(:partial => 'states')

(9) Changed response.headers["Status"] to response.status in some of the controller specs.

(10) I got one deprecation warning about formatted_url :-

DEPRECATION WARNING: formatted_action_name_controller_name_url() has been deprecated. Please pass format to the standard action_name_controller_name_url method instead..

So changed :action from
:action => formatted_action_name_controller_name_url('js')
to
:action => action_name_controller_name_url(:format => 'js')

Now, along with the rspecs, my app is looking good with rails 2.3.5

Planning to go ahead with migrating to 2.3.9 to make the app more closer to Rails 3.0.