Integration Testing POSTing an entire object to Spring MVC controller

Question

Is there a way to pass an entire form object on mock request when integration testing a spring mvc web app  All I can find is to pass each field separately as a param like this   mockMvc perform post   somehwere new   param  items 0  value   value       Which is fine for small forms  But what if my posted object gets larger  Also it makes the test code look nicer if I can just post an entire object   Specifically I d like to test the selection of multiple items by checkbox and then posting them  Of course I could just test posting a single item  but I was wondering     We re using spring 3 2 2 with the spring-test-mvc included   My Model for the form looks something like this   NewObject       List lt Item gt  selection      I ve tried calls like this   mockMvc perform post   somehwere new   requestAttr  newObject   newObject     to a Controller like this    Controller  RequestMapping value     somewhere new   public class SomewhereController         RequestMapping method   RequestMethod POST      public String post               ModelAttribute  newObject   NewObject newObject                           But the object will be empty  yes I ve filled it before in the test   The only working solution I found was using  SessionAttribute like this   Integration Testing of Spring MVC Applications  Forms  But I dislike the idea of having to remember to call complete at the end of every controller where I need this  After all the form data does not have to be inside the session  I only need it for the one request   So the only thing I can think of right now is to write some Util class that uses the MockHttpServletRequestBuilder to append all the object fields as  param using reflections or individually for each test case    I don t know  feeld un-intuitive     Any thoughts   ideas on how I might make my like easier   Apart from just calling the controller directly   Thanks

User · Answer

I ran into the same issue a while ago and did solve it by using reflection with some help from Jackson.

First populate a map with all the fields on an Object. Then add those map entries as parameters to the MockHttpServletRequestBuilder.

In this way you can use any Object and you are passing it as request parameters. I'm sure there are other solutions out there but this one worked for us:

    @Test
    public void testFormEdit() throws Exception {
        getMockMvc()
                .perform(
                        addFormParameters(post(servletPath + tableRootUrl + "/" + POST_FORM_EDIT_URL).servletPath(servletPath)
                                .param("entityID", entityId), validEntity)).andDo(print()).andExpect(status().isOk())
                .andExpect(content().contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)).andExpect(content().string(equalTo(entityId)));
    }

    private MockHttpServletRequestBuilder addFormParameters(MockHttpServletRequestBuilder builder, Object object)
            throws IllegalAccessException, InvocationTargetException, NoSuchMethodException {

        SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(applicationSettings.getApplicationDateFormat());

        Map<String, ?> propertyValues = getPropertyValues(object, dateFormat);

        for (Entry<String, ?> entry : propertyValues.entrySet()) {
            builder.param(entry.getKey(),
                    Util.prepareDisplayValue(entry.getValue(), applicationSettings.getApplicationDateFormat()));
        }

        return builder;
    }

    private Map<String, ?> getPropertyValues(Object object, DateFormat dateFormat) {
        ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
        mapper.setDateFormat(dateFormat);
        mapper.setSerializationInclusion(JsonInclude.Include.NON_NULL);
        mapper.registerModule(new JodaModule());

        TypeReference<HashMap<String, ?>> typeRef = new TypeReference<HashMap<String, ?>>() {};

        Map<String, ?> returnValues = mapper.convertValue(object, typeRef);

        return returnValues;

    }

User · Answer

Another way to solve with Reflection  but without marshalling   I have this abstract helper class   public abstract class MvcIntegrationTestUtils           public static MockHttpServletRequestBuilder postForm String url                   Object modelAttribute  String    propertyPaths                   try                        MockHttpServletRequestBuilder form   post url  characterEncoding                              UTF-8   contentType MediaType APPLICATION FORM URLENCODED                         for  String path   propertyPaths                                form param path  BeanUtils getProperty modelAttribute  path                                                 return form                   catch  Exception e                         throw new RuntimeException e                              You use it like this      static import  optional  import static org springframework test web servlet result MockMvcResultMatchers        in your test method  populate your model attribute object  yes  works with nested properties  BlogSetup bgs   new BlogSetup          bgs getBlog   setBlogTitle  Test Blog          bgs getUser   setEmail  admin localhost example com        bgs getUser   setFirstName  Administrator          bgs getUser   setLastName  Localhost          bgs getUser   setPassword  password        finally put it together mockMvc perform              postForm   blogs create   bgs   blog blogTitle    user email                        user firstName    user lastName    user password                 andExpect status   isOk      I have deduced it is better to be able to mention the property paths when building the form  since I need to vary that in my tests  For example  I might want to check if I get a validation error on a missing input and I ll leave out the property path to simulate the condition  I also find it easier to build my model attributes in a  Before method   The BeanUtils is from commons-beanutils        lt dependency gt           lt groupId gt commons-beanutils lt  groupId gt           lt artifactId gt commons-beanutils lt  artifactId gt           lt version gt 1 8 3 lt  version gt           lt scope gt test lt  scope gt       lt  dependency gt

User · Answer

I believe that I have the simplest answer yet using Spring Boot 1 4  included imports for the test class    public class SomeClass        this goes in it s own file      fields go here    import org junit Before import org junit Test import org junit runner RunWith import org springframework beans factory annotation Autowired import org springframework boot test autoconfigure web servlet WebMvcTest import org springframework http MediaType import org springframework test context junit4 SpringRunner import org springframework test web servlet MockMvc  import static org springframework test web servlet request MockMvcRequestBuilders post import static org springframework test web servlet result MockMvcResultMatchers status   RunWith SpringRunner class   WebMvcTest SomeController class  public class ControllerTest       Autowired private MockMvc mvc     Autowired private ObjectMapper mapper     private SomeClass someClass     this could be Autowired                                     initialized in the test method                                     or created in setup block    Before   public void setup         someClass   new SomeClass             Test   public void postTest         String json   mapper writeValueAsString someClass       mvc perform post   someControllerUrl           contentType MediaType APPLICATION JSON          content json          accept MediaType APPLICATION JSON           andExpect status   isOk

User · Answer

I had the same question and it turned out the solution was fairly simple  by using JSON marshaller  Having your controller just change the signature by changing  ModelAttribute  newObject   to  RequestBody  Like this    Controller  RequestMapping value     somewhere new   public class SomewhereController         RequestMapping method   RequestMethod POST      public String post  RequestBody NewObject newObject                             Then in your tests you can simply say   NewObject newObjectInstance   new NewObject       setting fields for the NewObject    mockMvc perform MockMvcRequestBuilders post uri     content asJsonString newObjectInstance      contentType MediaType APPLICATION JSON     accept MediaType APPLICATION JSON      Where the asJsonString method is just     public static String asJsonString final Object obj        try           final ObjectMapper mapper   new ObjectMapper            final String jsonContent   mapper writeValueAsString obj           return jsonContent        catch  Exception e            throw new RuntimeException e

User · Answer

I think most of these solutions are far too complicated  I assume that in your test controller you have this     Autowired  private ObjectMapper objectMapper    If its a rest service    Test public void test   throws Exception      mockMvc perform post   person               contentType MediaType APPLICATION JSON             content objectMapper writeValueAsString new Person                  etc     For spring mvc using a posted form I came up with this solution   Not really sure if its a good idea yet   private MultiValueMap lt String  String gt  toFormParams Object o  Set lt String gt  excludeFields  throws Exception       ObjectReader reader   objectMapper readerFor Map class       Map lt String  String gt  map   reader readValue objectMapper writeValueAsString o         MultiValueMap lt String  String gt  multiValueMap   new LinkedMultiValueMap lt  gt         map entrySet   stream                filter e - gt   excludeFields contains e getKey                  forEach e - gt  multiValueMap add e getKey     e getValue      null        e getValue           return multiValueMap        Test public void test   throws Exception     MultiValueMap lt String  String gt  formParams   toFormParams new Phone       Set of  id    created         mockMvc perform post   person               contentType MediaType APPLICATION FORM URLENCODED             params formParams                etc     The basic idea is to  - first convert object to json string to get all the field names easily  - convert this json string into a map and dump it into a MultiValueMap that spring expects  Optionally filter out any fields you dont want to include  Or you could just annotate fields with  JsonIgnore to avoid this extra step

User · Answer

One of the main purposes of integration testing with MockMvc is to verify that model objects are correclty populated with form data   In order to do it you have to pass form data as they re passed from actual form  using  param     If you use some automatic conversion from NewObject to from data  your test won t cover particular class of possible problems  modifications of NewObject incompatible with actual form

User · Answer

Here is the method I made to transform recursively the fields of an object in a map ready to be used with a MockHttpServletRequestBuilder  public static void objectToPostParams final String key  final Object value  final Map lt String  String gt  map  throws IllegalAccessException       if   value instanceof Number      value instanceof Enum      value instanceof String             map put key  value toString           else if  value instanceof Date            map put key  new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd HH mm   format  Date  value          else if  value instanceof GenericDTO            final Map lt String  Object gt  fieldsMap   ReflectionUtils getFieldsMap  GenericDTO  value           for  final Entry lt String  Object gt  entry   fieldsMap entrySet                  final StringBuilder sb   new StringBuilder                if   GenericValidator isEmpty key                     sb append key  append                                 sb append entry getKey                 objectToPostParams sb toString    entry getValue    map                   else if  value instanceof List            for  int i   0  i  lt    List  value  size    i                  objectToPostParams key         i          List  value  get i   map                       GenericDTO is a simple class extending Serializable  public interface GenericDTO extends Serializable      and here is the ReflectionUtils class  public final class ReflectionUtils       public static List lt Field gt  getAllFields final List lt Field gt  fields  final Class lt   gt  type            if  type getSuperclass      null                getAllFields fields  type getSuperclass                          if a field is overwritten in the child class  the one in the parent is removed         fields addAll Arrays asList type getDeclaredFields    stream   map field - gt                final Iterator lt Field gt  iterator   fields iterator                while iterator hasNext                     final Field fieldTmp   iterator next                    if  fieldTmp getName   equals field getName                           iterator remove                        break                                              return field             collect Collectors toList              return fields             public static Map lt String  Object gt  getFieldsMap final GenericDTO genericDTO  throws IllegalAccessException           final Map lt String  Object gt  map   new HashMap lt  gt             final List lt Field gt  fields   new ArrayList lt  gt             getAllFields fields  genericDTO getClass             for  final Field field   fields                final boolean isFieldAccessible   field isAccessible                field setAccessible true               map put field getName    field get genericDTO                field setAccessible isFieldAccessible                     return map            You can use it like  final MockHttpServletRequestBuilder post   post       final Map lt String  String gt  map   new TreeMap lt  gt     objectToPostParams     genericDTO  map   for  final Entry lt String  String gt  entry   map entrySet          post param entry getKey    entry getValue         I didn t tested it extensively  but it seems to work

[java] Integration Testing POSTing an entire object to Spring MVC controller

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