title: Validation error on associated factory when using FactoryGirl with RSpec
body: <p>I'm new to using RSpec and FactoryGirl. I'm trying to add RSpec tests to an existing codebase.</p>
  
  <p>I have the following factories defined:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Factory.sequence :email do |n|
    "somebody#{n}@example.com"
  end
  
  Factory.sequence :login do |n|
    "inquire#{n}"
  end
  
  Factory.define :user do |f|
    f.login { Factory.next(:login) }
    f.email { Factory.next(:email) }
    f.password 'inquire_pass'
    f.password_confirmation 'inquire_pass'
    f.first_name 'test'
    f.last_name 'guy'
    f.newsletter true
    f.notify_of_events true
    f.terms_of_service true
  end
  
  Factory.define :project do |project|
    project.title               "Example Project Title"
    project.association         :user
    project.association         :provider
    project.association         :project_request
    project.association         :offering
    project.association         :offering_type
  end
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I try to create a Project factory in my tests, however and assign it to @project:</p>
  
  <pre><code>require 'spec_helper'
  
  describe Charge do
      before(:each) do
          @provider_user = Factory(:user)
          @provider = stub_model(Provider, :user =&gt; @provider_user)
          @user = Factory(:user)
          @project_request = stub_model(ProjectRequest)
          @project = Factory(:project, :user =&gt; @user, :provider =&gt; @provider, :offering_fixed_fee_number =&gt; 700,
                                       :project_request_id =&gt; @project_request.id)
          @attr = {
            :user_id =&gt; @user.id,
            :provider_id =&gt; @provider.id,
            :charge_client =&gt; "0.01"
          }
          @charge = @project.build_charge(@attr)
      end
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I get an error message when running the tests indicating that the validations for the associated user have failed:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Validation failed: User email can't be blank, User email is too short (minimum is 3 characters), User email does not look like a valid email address., Login can't be blank
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The relevant validations on the User model are:</p>
  
  <pre><code>  validates_presence_of     :login, :email
    validates_uniqueness_of   :login, :email, :case_sensitive =&gt; false
  
    validates_length_of       :login, :within =&gt; 5..20   
    validates_format_of       :login, :with =&gt; /^[a-z0-9-]+$/i, :message =&gt; 'may only contain letters, numbers or a hyphen.'
  
    validates_length_of       :email, :within =&gt; 3..100
    validates_format_of       :email, :with =&gt; Authentication.email_regex, :message =&gt; 'does not look like a valid email address.'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm able to create valid User factories (by themselves) with no problem. But when I try to create projects that have a User association, and specify the associated User as the factory user I created earlier, the validations on that User fail. Any ideas what I'm missing here?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks very much,</p>
  
  <p>Dean Richardson</p>