HTTP Tests
Introduction
Laravel provides a very fluent API for making HTTP requests to your application and examining the output. For example, take a look at the test defined below:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\RefreshDatabase;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithoutMiddleware;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function testBasicTest()
{
$response = $this->get('/');
$response->assertStatus(200);
}
}
The get
method makes a GET
request into the application, while the assertStatus
method asserts that the returned response should have the given HTTP status code. In addition to this simple assertion, Laravel also contains a variety of assertions for inspecting the response headers, content, JSON structure, and more.
Customizing Request Headers
You may use the withHeaders
method to customize the request's headers before it is sent to the application. This allows you to add any custom headers you would like to the request:
<?php
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic functional test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function testBasicExample()
{
$response = $this->withHeaders([
'X-Header' => 'Value',
])->json('POST', '/user', ['name' => 'Sally']);
$response
->assertStatus(201)
->assertJson([
'created' => true,
]);
}
}
The CSRF middleware is automatically disabled when running tests.
Debugging Responses
After making a test request to your application, the dump
and dumpHeaders
methods may be used to examine and debug the response contents:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\RefreshDatabase;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithoutMiddleware;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function testBasicTest()
{
$response = $this->get('/');
$response->dumpHeaders();
$response->dump();
}
}
Session / Authentication
Laravel provides several helpers for working with the session during HTTP testing. First, you may set the session data to a given array using the withSession
method. This is useful for loading the session with data before issuing a request to your application:
<?php
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
public function testApplication()
{
$response = $this->withSession(['foo' => 'bar'])
->get('/');
}
}
One common use of the session is for maintaining state for the authenticated user. The actingAs
helper method provides a simple way to authenticate a given user as the current user. For example, we may use a model factory to generate and authenticate a user:
<?php
use App\User;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
public function testApplication()
{
$user = factory(User::class)->create();
$response = $this->actingAs($user)
->withSession(['foo' => 'bar'])
->get('/');
}
}
You may also specify which guard should be used to authenticate the given user by passing the guard name as the second argument to the actingAs
method:
$this->actingAs($user, 'api')
Testing JSON APIs
Laravel also provides several helpers for testing JSON APIs and their responses. For example, the json
, get
, post
, put
, patch
, delete
, and option
methods may be used to issue requests with various HTTP verbs. You may also easily pass data and headers to these methods. To get started, let's write a test to make a POST
request to /user
and assert that the expected data was returned:
<?php
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic functional test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function testBasicExample()
{
$response = $this->json('POST', '/user', ['name' => 'Sally']);
$response
->assertStatus(201)
->assertJson([
'created' => true,
]);
}
}
The assertJson
method converts the response to an array and utilizes PHPUnit::assertArraySubset
to verify that the given array exists within the JSON response returned by the application. So, if there are other properties in the JSON response, this test will still pass as long as the given fragment is present.
Verifying An Exact JSON Match
If you would like to verify that the given array is an exact match for the JSON returned by the application, you should use the assertExactJson
method:
<?php
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic functional test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function testBasicExample()
{
$response = $this->json('POST', '/user', ['name' => 'Sally']);
$response
->assertStatus(201)
->assertExactJson([
'created' => true,
]);
}
}
Testing File Uploads
The Illuminate\Http\UploadedFile
class provides a fake
method which may be used to generate dummy files or images for testing. This, combined with the Storage
facade's fake
method greatly simplifies the testing of file uploads. For example, you may combine these two features to easily test an avatar upload form:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
use Illuminate\Http\UploadedFile;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\RefreshDatabase;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithoutMiddleware;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
public function testAvatarUpload()
{
Storage::fake('avatars');
$file = UploadedFile::fake()->image('avatar.jpg');
$response = $this->json('POST', '/avatar', [
'avatar' => $file,
]);
// Assert the file was stored...
Storage::disk('avatars')->assertExists($file->hashName());
// Assert a file does not exist...
Storage::disk('avatars')->assertMissing('missing.jpg');
}
}
Fake File Customization
When creating files using the fake
method, you may specify the width, height, and size of the image in order to better test your validation rules:
UploadedFile::fake()->image('avatar.jpg', $width, $height)->size(100);
In addition to creating images, you may create files of any other type using the create
method:
UploadedFile::fake()->create('document.pdf', $sizeInKilobytes);
Available Assertions
Response Assertions
Laravel provides a variety of custom assertion methods for your PHPUnit tests. These assertions may be accessed on the response that is returned from the json
, get
, post
, put
, and delete
test methods:
assertCookie assertCookieExpired assertCookieNotExpired assertCookieMissing assertDontSee assertDontSeeText assertExactJson assertForbidden assertHeader assertHeaderMissing assertJson assertJsonCount assertJsonFragment assertJsonMissing assertJsonMissingExact assertJsonMissingValidationErrors assertJsonStructure assertJsonValidationErrors assertLocation assertNotFound assertOk assertPlainCookie assertRedirect assertSee assertSeeInOrder assertSeeText assertSeeTextInOrder assertSessionHas assertSessionHasInput assertSessionHasAll assertSessionHasErrors assertSessionHasErrorsIn assertSessionHasNoErrors assertSessionDoesntHaveErrors assertSessionMissing assertStatus assertSuccessful assertUnauthorized assertViewHas assertViewHasAll assertViewIs assertViewMissing
assertCookie
Assert that the response contains the given cookie:
$response->assertCookie($cookieName, $value = null);