[unit-testing] How to test my servlet using JUnit

I have created a web system using Java Servlets and now want to make JUnit testing. My dataManager is just a basic piece of code that submits it to the database. How would you test a Servlet with JUnit?

My code example that allows a user to register/sign up, which is submitted from my main page via AJAX:

public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) 
         throws ServletException, IOException{

    // Get parameters
    String userName = request.getParameter("username");
    String password = request.getParameter("password");
    String name = request.getParameter("name");

    try {

        // Load the database driver
        Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");

        //pass reg details to datamanager       
        dataManager = new DataManager();
        //store result as string
        String result = dataManager.register(userName, password, name);

        //set response to html + no cache
        response.setContentType("text/html");
        response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "no-cache");
        //send response with register result
        response.getWriter().write(result);

    } catch(Exception e){
        System.out.println("Exception is :" + e);
    }  
}

First you should probably refactor this a bit so that the DataManager is not created in the doPost code.. you should try Dependency Injection to get an instance. (See the Guice video for a nice intro to DI.). If you're being told to start unit testing everything, then DI is a must-have.

Once your dependencies are injected you can test your class in isolation.

To actually test the servlet, there are other older threads that have discussed this.. try here and here.

Use Selenium for webbased unit tests. There's a Firefox plugin called Selenium IDE which can record actions on the webpage and export to JUnit testcases which uses Selenium RC to run the test server.

Updated Feb 2018: OpenBrace Limited has closed down, and its ObMimic product is no longer supported.

Here's another alternative, using OpenBrace's ObMimic library of Servlet API test-doubles (disclosure: I'm its developer).

package com.openbrace.experiments.examplecode.stackoverflow5434419;

import static org.junit.Assert.*;
import com.openbrace.experiments.examplecode.stackoverflow5434419.YourServlet;
import com.openbrace.obmimic.mimic.servlet.ServletConfigMimic;
import com.openbrace.obmimic.mimic.servlet.http.HttpServletRequestMimic;
import com.openbrace.obmimic.mimic.servlet.http.HttpServletResponseMimic;
import com.openbrace.obmimic.substate.servlet.RequestParameters;
import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Test;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import java.io.IOException;

/**
 * Example tests for {@link YourServlet#doPost(HttpServletRequest,
 * HttpServletResponse)}.
 *
 * @author Mike Kaufman, OpenBrace Limited
 */
public class YourServletTest {

    /** The servlet to be tested by this instance's test. */
    private YourServlet servlet;

    /** The "mimic" request to be used in this instance's test. */
    private HttpServletRequestMimic request;

    /** The "mimic" response to be used in this instance's test. */
    private HttpServletResponseMimic response;

    /**
     * Create an initialized servlet and a request and response for this
     * instance's test.
     *
     * @throws ServletException if the servlet's init method throws such an
     *     exception.
     */
    @Before
    public void setUp() throws ServletException {
        /*
         * Note that for the simple servlet and tests involved:
         * - We don't need anything particular in the servlet's ServletConfig.
         * - The ServletContext isn't relevant, so ObMimic can be left to use
         *   its default ServletContext for everything.
         */
        servlet = new YourServlet();
        servlet.init(new ServletConfigMimic());
        request = new HttpServletRequestMimic();
        response = new HttpServletResponseMimic();
    }

    /**
     * Test the doPost method with example argument values.
     *
     * @throws ServletException if the servlet throws such an exception.
     * @throws IOException if the servlet throws such an exception.
     */
    @Test
    public void testYourServletDoPostWithExampleArguments()
            throws ServletException, IOException {

        // Configure the request. In this case, all we need are the three
        // request parameters.
        RequestParameters parameters
            = request.getMimicState().getRequestParameters();
        parameters.set("username", "mike");
        parameters.set("password", "xyz#zyx");
        parameters.set("name", "Mike");

        // Run the "doPost".
        servlet.doPost(request, response);

        // Check the response's Content-Type, Cache-Control header and
        // body content.
        assertEquals("text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1",
            response.getMimicState().getContentType());
        assertArrayEquals(new String[] { "no-cache" },
            response.getMimicState().getHeaders().getValues("Cache-Control"));
        assertEquals("...expected result from dataManager.register...",
            response.getMimicState().getBodyContentAsString());

    }

}

Notes:

• Each "mimic" has a "mimicState" object for its logical state. This provides a clear distinction between the Servlet API methods and the configuration and inspection of the mimic's internal state.

• You might be surprised that the check of Content-Type includes "charset=ISO-8859-1". However, for the given "doPost" code this is as per the Servlet API Javadoc, and the HttpServletResponse's own getContentType method, and the actual Content-Type header produced on e.g. Glassfish 3. You might not realise this if using normal mock objects and your own expectations of the API's behaviour. In this case it probably doesn't matter, but in more complex cases this is the sort of unanticipated API behaviour that can make a bit of a mockery of mocks!

• I've used response.getMimicState().getContentType() as the simplest way to check Content-Type and illustrate the above point, but you could indeed check for "text/html" on its own if you wanted (using response.getMimicState().getContentTypeMimeType()). Checking the Content-Type header the same way as for the Cache-Control header also works.

• For this example the response content is checked as character data (with this using the Writer's encoding). We could also check that the response's Writer was used rather than its OutputStream (using response.getMimicState().isWritingCharacterContent()), but I've taken it that we're only concerned with the resulting output, and don't care what API calls produced it (though that could be checked too...). It's also possible to retrieve the response's body content as bytes, examine the detailed state of the Writer/OutputStream etc.

There are full details of ObMimic and a free download at the OpenBrace website. Or you can contact me if you have any questions (contact details are on the website).

 public class WishServletTest {
 WishServlet wishServlet;
 HttpServletRequest mockhttpServletRequest;
 HttpServletResponse mockhttpServletResponse;

@Before
public void setUp(){
    wishServlet=new WishServlet();
    mockhttpServletRequest=createNiceMock(HttpServletRequest.class);
    mockhttpServletResponse=createNiceMock(HttpServletResponse.class);
}

@Test
public void testService()throws Exception{
    File file= new File("Sample.txt");
    File.createTempFile("ashok","txt");
    expect(mockhttpServletRequest.getParameter("username")).andReturn("ashok");
    expect(mockhttpServletResponse.getWriter()).andReturn(new PrintWriter(file));
    replay(mockhttpServletRequest);
    replay(mockhttpServletResponse);
    wishServlet.doGet(mockhttpServletRequest, mockhttpServletResponse);
    FileReader fileReader=new FileReader(file);
    int count = 0;
    String str = "";
    while ( (count=fileReader.read())!=-1){
        str=str+(char)count;
    }

    Assert.assertTrue(str.trim().equals("Helloashok"));
    verify(mockhttpServletRequest);
    verify(mockhttpServletResponse);

}

}

EDIT: Cactus is now a dead project: http://attic.apache.org/projects/jakarta-cactus.html

You may want to look at cactus.

http://jakarta.apache.org/cactus/

Project Description

Cactus is a simple test framework for unit testing server-side java code (Servlets, EJBs, Tag Libs, Filters, ...).

The intent of Cactus is to lower the cost of writing tests for server-side code. It uses JUnit and extends it.

Cactus implements an in-container strategy, meaning that tests are executed inside the container.

I find Selenium tests more useful with integration or functional (end-to-end) testing. I am working with trying to use org.springframework.mock.web, but I am not very far along. I am attaching a sample controller with a jMock test suite.

First, the Controller:

package com.company.admin.web;

import javax.validation.Valid;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.ui.Model;
import org.springframework.validation.BindingResult;
import org.springframework.validation.ObjectError;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ModelAttribute;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.SessionAttributes;
import org.springframework.web.bind.support.SessionStatus;

import com.company.admin.domain.PaymentDetail;
import com.company.admin.service.PaymentSearchService;
import com.company.admin.service.UserRequestAuditTrail;
import com.company.admin.web.form.SearchCriteria;

/**
 * Controls the interactions regarding to the refunds.
 * 
 * @author slgelma
 *
 */
@Controller
@SessionAttributes({"user", "authorization"})
public class SearchTransactionController {

    public static final String SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE = "searchtransaction";

    private PaymentSearchService searchService;
    //private Validator searchCriteriaValidator;
    private UserRequestAuditTrail notifications;

    @Autowired
    public void setSearchService(PaymentSearchService searchService) {
        this.searchService = searchService;
    }

    @Autowired
    public void setNotifications(UserRequestAuditTrail notifications) {
        this.notifications = notifications;
    }

    @RequestMapping(value="/" + SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE)
    public String setUpTransactionSearch(Model model) {
        SearchCriteria searchCriteria = new SearchCriteria();
        model.addAttribute("searchCriteria", searchCriteria);
        notifications.transferTo(SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE);
        return SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE;
    }

    @RequestMapping(value="/" + SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE, method=RequestMethod.POST, params="cancel")
    public String cancelSearch() {
        notifications.redirectTo(HomeController.HOME_PAGE);
        return "redirect:/" + HomeController.HOME_PAGE;
    }

    @RequestMapping(value="/" + SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE, method=RequestMethod.POST, params="execute")
    public String executeSearch(
            @ModelAttribute("searchCriteria") @Valid SearchCriteria searchCriteria,
            BindingResult result, Model model,
            SessionStatus status) {
        //searchCriteriaValidator.validate(criteria, result);
        if (result.hasErrors()) {
            notifications.transferTo(SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE);
            return SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE;
        } else {
            PaymentDetail payment = 
                searchService.getAuthorizationFor(searchCriteria.geteWiseTransactionId());
            if (payment == null) {
                ObjectError error = new ObjectError(
                        "eWiseTransactionId", "Transaction not found");
                result.addError(error);
                model.addAttribute("searchCriteria", searchCriteria);
                notifications.transferTo(SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE);
                return SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE;
            } else {
                model.addAttribute("authorization", payment);
                notifications.redirectTo(PaymentDetailController.PAYMENT_DETAIL_PAGE);
                return "redirect:/" + PaymentDetailController.PAYMENT_DETAIL_PAGE;
            }
        }
    }

}

Next, the test:

    package test.unit.com.company.admin.web;

    import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.containsString;
    import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
    import static org.junit.Assert.assertThat;

    import org.jmock.Expectations;
    import org.jmock.Mockery;
    import org.jmock.integration.junit4.JMock;
    import org.jmock.integration.junit4.JUnit4Mockery;
    import org.junit.Before;
    import org.junit.Test;
    import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
    import org.springframework.ui.Model;
    import org.springframework.validation.BindingResult;
    import org.springframework.validation.ObjectError;
    import org.springframework.web.bind.support.SessionStatus;

    import com.company.admin.domain.PaymentDetail;
    import com.company.admin.service.PaymentSearchService;
    import com.company.admin.service.UserRequestAuditTrail;
    import com.company.admin.web.HomeController;
    import com.company.admin.web.PaymentDetailController;
    import com.company.admin.web.SearchTransactionController;
    import com.company.admin.web.form.SearchCriteria;

    /**
     * Tests the behavior of the SearchTransactionController.
     * @author slgelma
     *
     */
    @RunWith(JMock.class)
    public class SearchTransactionControllerTest {

        private final Mockery context = new JUnit4Mockery(); 
        private final SearchTransactionController controller = new SearchTransactionController();
        private final PaymentSearchService searchService = context.mock(PaymentSearchService.class);
        private final UserRequestAuditTrail notifications = context.mock(UserRequestAuditTrail.class);
        private final Model model = context.mock(Model.class);


        /**
         * @throws java.lang.Exception
         */
        @Before
        public void setUp() throws Exception {
            controller.setSearchService(searchService);
            controller.setNotifications(notifications);
        }

        @Test
        public void setUpTheSearchForm() {

            final String target = SearchTransactionController.SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE;

            context.checking(new Expectations() {{
                oneOf(model).addAttribute(
                        with(any(String.class)), with(any(Object.class)));
                oneOf(notifications).transferTo(with(any(String.class)));
            }});

            String nextPage = controller.setUpTransactionSearch(model);
            assertThat("Controller is not requesting the correct form", 
                    target, equalTo(nextPage));
        }

        @Test
        public void cancelSearchTest() {

            final String target = HomeController.HOME_PAGE;

            context.checking(new Expectations(){{
                never(model).addAttribute(with(any(String.class)), with(any(Object.class)));
                oneOf(notifications).redirectTo(with(any(String.class)));
            }});

            String nextPage = controller.cancelSearch();
            assertThat("Controller is not requesting the correct form", 
                    nextPage, containsString(target));
        }

        @Test
        public void executeSearchWithNullTransaction() {

            final String target = SearchTransactionController.SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE;

            final SearchCriteria searchCriteria = new SearchCriteria();
            searchCriteria.seteWiseTransactionId(null);

            final BindingResult result = context.mock(BindingResult.class);
            final SessionStatus status = context.mock(SessionStatus.class);

            context.checking(new Expectations() {{
                allowing(result).hasErrors(); will(returnValue(true));
                never(model).addAttribute(with(any(String.class)), with(any(Object.class)));
                never(searchService).getAuthorizationFor(searchCriteria.geteWiseTransactionId());
                oneOf(notifications).transferTo(with(any(String.class)));
            }});

            String nextPage = controller.executeSearch(searchCriteria, result, model, status);
            assertThat("Controller is not requesting the correct form", 
                    target, equalTo(nextPage));
        }

        @Test
        public void executeSearchWithEmptyTransaction() {

            final String target = SearchTransactionController.SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE;

            final SearchCriteria searchCriteria = new SearchCriteria();
            searchCriteria.seteWiseTransactionId("");

            final BindingResult result = context.mock(BindingResult.class);
            final SessionStatus status = context.mock(SessionStatus.class);

            context.checking(new Expectations() {{
                allowing(result).hasErrors(); will(returnValue(true));
                never(model).addAttribute(with(any(String.class)), with(any(Object.class)));
                never(searchService).getAuthorizationFor(searchCriteria.geteWiseTransactionId());
                oneOf(notifications).transferTo(with(any(String.class)));
            }});

            String nextPage = controller.executeSearch(searchCriteria, result, model, status);
            assertThat("Controller is not requesting the correct form", 
                    target, equalTo(nextPage));
        }

        @Test
        public void executeSearchWithTransactionNotFound() {

            final String target = SearchTransactionController.SEARCH_TRANSACTION_PAGE;
            final String badTransactionId = "badboy"; 
            final PaymentDetail transactionNotFound = null;

            final SearchCriteria searchCriteria = new SearchCriteria();
            searchCriteria.seteWiseTransactionId(badTransactionId);

            final BindingResult result = context.mock(BindingResult.class);
            final SessionStatus status = context.mock(SessionStatus.class);

            context.checking(new Expectations() {{
                allowing(result).hasErrors(); will(returnValue(false));
                atLeast(1).of(model).addAttribute(with(any(String.class)), with(any(Object.class)));
                oneOf(searchService).getAuthorizationFor(with(any(String.class)));
                    will(returnValue(transactionNotFound));
                oneOf(result).addError(with(any(ObjectError.class)));
                oneOf(notifications).transferTo(with(any(String.class)));
            }});

            String nextPage = controller.executeSearch(searchCriteria, result, model, status);
            assertThat("Controller is not requesting the correct form", 
                    target, equalTo(nextPage));
        }

        @Test
        public void executeSearchWithTransactionFound() {

            final String target = PaymentDetailController.PAYMENT_DETAIL_PAGE;
            final String goodTransactionId = "100000010";
            final PaymentDetail transactionFound = context.mock(PaymentDetail.class);

            final SearchCriteria searchCriteria = new SearchCriteria();
            searchCriteria.seteWiseTransactionId(goodTransactionId);

            final BindingResult result = context.mock(BindingResult.class);
            final SessionStatus status = context.mock(SessionStatus.class);

            context.checking(new Expectations() {{
                allowing(result).hasErrors(); will(returnValue(false));
                atLeast(1).of(model).addAttribute(with(any(String.class)), with(any(Object.class)));
                oneOf(searchService).getAuthorizationFor(with(any(String.class)));
                    will(returnValue(transactionFound));
                oneOf(notifications).redirectTo(with(any(String.class)));
            }});

            String nextPage = controller.executeSearch(searchCriteria, result, model, status);
            assertThat("Controller is not requesting the correct form", 
                    nextPage, containsString(target));
        }

    }

I hope this might help.

Another approach would be to create an embedded server to "host" your servlet, allowing you to write calls against it with libraries meant to make calls to actual servers (the usefulness of this approach somewhat depends on how easily you can make "legitimate" programatic calls to the server - I was testing a JMS (Java Messaging Service) access point, for which clients abound).

There are a couple of different routes you can go - the usual two are tomcat and jetty.

Warning: something to be mindful of when choosing the server to embed is the version of servlet-api you are using (the library which provides classes like HttpServletRequest). If you are using 2.5, I found Jetty 6.x to work well (which is the example I'll give below). If you're using servlet-api 3.0, the tomcat-7 embedded stuff seems to be a good option, however I had to abandon my attempt to use it, as the application I was testing used servlet-api 2.5. Trying to mix the two will result in NoSuchMethod and other such exceptions when attempting to configure or start the server.

You can set up such a server like this (Jetty 6.1.26, servlet-api 2.5):

public void startServer(int port, Servlet yourServletInstance){
    Server server = new Server(port);
    Context root = new Context(server, "/", Context.SESSIONS);

    root.addServlet(new ServletHolder(yourServletInstance), "/servlet/context/path");

    //If you need the servlet context for anything, such as spring wiring, you coudl get it like this
    //ServletContext servletContext = root.getServletContext();

    server.start();
}

First off, in a real application, you would never get database connection info in a servlet; you would configure it in your app server.

There are ways, however, of testing Servlets without having a container running. One is to use mock objects. Spring provides a set of very useful mocks for things like HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, HttpServletSession, etc:

http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/api/org/springframework/mock/web/package-summary.html

Using these mocks, you could test things like

What happens if username is not in the request?

What happens if username is in the request?

etc

You could then do stuff like:

import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;

import java.io.IOException;

import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.springframework.mock.web.MockHttpServletRequest;
import org.springframework.mock.web.MockHttpServletResponse;

public class MyServletTest {
    private MyServlet servlet;
    private MockHttpServletRequest request;
    private MockHttpServletResponse response;

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
        servlet = new MyServlet();
        request = new MockHttpServletRequest();
        response = new MockHttpServletResponse();
    }

    @Test
    public void correctUsernameInRequest() throws ServletException, IOException {
        request.addParameter("username", "scott");
        request.addParameter("password", "tiger");

        servlet.doPost(request, response);

        assertEquals("text/html", response.getContentType());

        // ... etc
    }
}