Why are parameters not being passed within my test

问题:

I have the following code in users_controller.rb:

def create
  params = user_params
  x = 1

  render :json => { :message => "New user created!"}, :status => :ok
end

private

def user_params
  params.permit!
end

It obviously doesn't do much right now. I don't have any before or after filters on it.

I also have the following test code:

RSpec.describe UsersController, type: :controller do
fixtures :users, :clients
include AuthHelper

before do
  @request.headers["Content-Type"] = 'application/json'
  @request.headers["Accept"] = 'application/json'

  @default_registered_users = 3
end

describe '#create' do
  context 'a user with a valid authorization token' do
    before do
      init_headers_for_admin
    end

    context 'with a valid set of input parameters' do
      before do
        @new_user = {
          :username => 'blorp',
          :email => '[e-mail]',
          :role => 'user',
          :name => 'Blorp Blorperson'
        }.as_json
      end

      it 'should create a new user' do
        post :create, params: @new_user

        expect(response).to have_http_status(:ok)
      end
    end
  end

Inside of spec_helper.rb, I have the following helper functions:

  def init_headers_for_admin
    # Manually added to the database, this username/password is good.
    init_headers_with_login 'scottj', '771625142'
  end

  def init_headers_with_login (username, password)
    auth_token = login username, password
    init_headers_with_auth_token auth_token
  end

  def login (username, password)
    unless @request
      return login_for_integration_tests username, password
    end

    old_controller = @controller
    @controller = UsersController.new

    get_headers_for_login(username, password).each { |key, value|
      @request.headers[key] = value
    }

    post :login

    response_body = JSON.parse response.body

    @controller = old_controller
    response_body['auth_token']
  end

  def login_for_integration_tests(username, password)
    headers = get_headers_for_login username, password

    post '/login', headers: headers

    response_body = JSON.parse response.body
    response_body['auth_token']
  end

  def get_headers_for_login(username, password)
    combined_login_password = username + ":" + password
    encoded_username_password =. Base64.encode64(combined_login_password)

    headers = get_default_headers
    headers['X-Api-Key'] = Client.find_by_id(1234).api_key
    headers['Authorization'] = 'Basic ' + encoded_username_password

    headers
  end

When I run the test and set a breakpoint at the code where I set x=1, I get the following value for the params variable: {"controller"=>"users", "action"=>"create", "user"=><ActionController::Parameters {} permitted: true>}

Notice how username, name, email, and role are not present, but a mysterious hash called user is present, but is not populated.

The problem I'm seeing is that I can't seem to get the users_controller to actually pass any parameters, regardless of what I do. I thought, at first, it was a problem with not permitting the correct parameters, hence the params.permit! that I perform in users_controller. This doesn't seem to fix the issue, though.

Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong here? I have been banging my head against the wall for quite a while trying to figure this out.