HTTP Tests
Introduction
Laravel provides a very fluent API for making HTTP requests to your application and examining the responses. For example, take a look at the feature test defined below:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\RefreshDatabase;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithoutMiddleware;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function test_a_basic_request()
{
$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.
Making Requests
To make a request to your application, you may invoke the get
, post
, put
, patch
, or delete
methods within your test. These methods do not actually issue a "real" HTTP request to your application. Instead, the entire network request is simulated internally.
Instead of returning an Illuminate\Http\Response
instance, test request methods return an instance of Illuminate\Testing\TestResponse
, which provides a variety of helpful assertions that allow you to inspect your application's responses:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\RefreshDatabase;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithoutMiddleware;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function test_a_basic_request()
{
$response = $this->get('/');
$response->assertStatus(200);
}
}
In general, each of your tests should only make one request to your application. Unexpected behavior may occur if multiple requests are executed within a single test method.
For convenience, the CSRF middleware is automatically disabled when running tests.
Customizing Request Headers
You may use the withHeaders
method to customize the request's headers before it is sent to the application. This method allows you to add any custom headers you would like to the request:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic functional test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function test_interacting_with_headers()
{
$response = $this->withHeaders([
'X-Header' => 'Value',
])->post('/user', ['name' => 'Sally']);
$response->assertStatus(201);
}
}
Cookies
You may use the withCookie
or withCookies
methods to set cookie values before making a request. The withCookie
method accepts a cookie name and value as its two arguments, while the withCookies
method accepts an array of name / value pairs:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
public function test_interacting_with_cookies()
{
$response = $this->withCookie('color', 'blue')->get('/');
$response = $this->withCookies([
'color' => 'blue',
'name' => 'Taylor',
])->get('/');
}
}
Session / Authentication
Laravel provides several helpers for interacting 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
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
public function test_interacting_with_the_session()
{
$response = $this->withSession(['banned' => false])->get('/');
}
}
Laravel's session is typically used to maintain state for the currently authenticated user. Therefore, 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
namespace Tests\Feature;
use App\Models\User;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
public function test_an_action_that_requires_authentication()
{
$user = User::factory()->create();
$response = $this->actingAs($user)
->withSession(['banned' => false])
->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, 'web')
Debugging Responses
After making a test request to your application, the dump
, dumpHeaders
, and dumpSession
methods may be used to examine and debug the response contents:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function test_basic_test()
{
$response = $this->get('/');
$response->dumpHeaders();
$response->dumpSession();
$response->dump();
}
}
Alternatively, you may use the dd
, ddHeaders
, and ddSession
methods to dump information about the response and then stop execution:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function test_basic_test()
{
$response = $this->get('/');
$response->ddHeaders();
$response->ddSession();
$response->dd();
}
}
Exception Handling
Sometimes you may want to test that your application is throwing a specific exception. To ensure that the exception does not get caught by Laravel's exception handler and returned as an HTTP response, you may invoke the withoutExceptionHandling
method before making your request:
$response = $this->withoutExceptionHandling()->get('/');
In addition, if you would like to ensure that your application is not utilizing features that have been deprecated by the PHP language or the libraries your application is using, you may invoke the withoutDeprecationHandling
method before making your request. When deprecation handling is disabled, deprecation warnings will be converted to exceptions, thus causing your test to fail:
$response = $this->withoutDeprecationHandling()->get('/');
Testing JSON APIs
Laravel also provides several helpers for testing JSON APIs and their responses. For example, the json
, getJson
, postJson
, putJson
, patchJson
, deleteJson
, and optionsJson
methods may be used to issue JSON 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 /api/user
and assert that the expected JSON data was returned:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic functional test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function test_making_an_api_request()
{
$response = $this->postJson('/api/user', ['name' => 'Sally']);
$response
->assertStatus(201)
->assertJson([
'created' => true,
]);
}
}
In addition, JSON response data may be accessed as array variables on the response, making it convenient for you to inspect the individual values returned within a JSON response:
$this->assertTrue($response['created']);
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.
Asserting Exact JSON Matches
As previously mentioned, the assertJson
method may be used to assert that a fragment of JSON exists within the JSON response. If you would like to verify that a given array exactly matches the JSON returned by your application, you should use the assertExactJson
method:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic functional test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function test_asserting_an_exact_json_match()
{
$response = $this->postJson('/user', ['name' => 'Sally']);
$response
->assertStatus(201)
->assertExactJson([
'created' => true,
]);
}
}
Asserting On JSON Paths
If you would like to verify that the JSON response contains the given data at a specified path, you should use the assertJsonPath
method:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
/**
* A basic functional test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function test_asserting_a_json_paths_value()
{
$response = $this->postJson('/user', ['name' => 'Sally']);
$response
->assertStatus(201)
->assertJsonPath('team.owner.name', 'Darian');
}
}
Fluent JSON Testing
Laravel also offers a beautiful way to fluently test your application's JSON responses. To get started, pass a closure to the assertJson
method. This closure will be invoked with an instance of Illuminate\Testing\Fluent\AssertableJson
which can be used to make assertions against the JSON that was returned by your application. The where
method may be used to make assertions against a particular attribute of the JSON, while the missing
method may be used to assert that a particular attribute is missing from the JSON:
use Illuminate\Testing\Fluent\AssertableJson;
/**
* A basic functional test example.
*
* @return void
*/
public function test_fluent_json()
{
$response = $this->getJson('/users/1');
$response
->assertJson(fn (AssertableJson $json) =>
$json->where('id', 1)
->where('name', 'Victoria Faith')
->missing('password')
->etc()
);
}
Understanding The etc
Method
In the example above, you may have noticed we invoked the etc
method at the end of our assertion chain. This method informs Laravel that there may be other attributes present on the JSON object. If the etc
method is not used, the test will fail if other attributes that you did not make assertions against exist on the JSON object.
The intention behind this behavior is to protect you from unintentionally exposing sensitive information in your JSON responses by forcing you to either explicitly make an assertion against the attribute or explicitly allow additional attributes via the etc
method.
Asserting Attribute Presence / Absence
To assert that an attribute is present or absent, you may use the has
and missing
methods:
$response->assertJson(fn (AssertableJson $json) =>
$json->has('data')
->missing('message')
);
In addition, the hasAll
and missingAll
methods allow asserting the presence or absence of multiple attributes simultaneously:
$response->assertJson(fn (AssertableJson $json) =>
$json->hasAll('status', 'data')
->missingAll('message', 'code')
);
You may use the hasAny
method to determine if at least one of a given list of attributes is present:
$response->assertJson(fn (AssertableJson $json) =>
$json->has('status')
->hasAny('data', 'message', 'code')
);
Asserting Against JSON Collections
Often, your route will return a JSON response that contains multiple items, such as multiple users:
Route::get('/users', function () {
return User::all();
});
In these situations, we may use the fluent JSON object's has
method to make assertions against the users included in the response. For example, let's assert that the JSON response contains three users. Next, we'll make some assertions about the first user in the collection using the first
method. The first
method accepts a closure which receives another assertable JSON string that we can use to make assertions about the first object in the JSON collection:
$response
->assertJson(fn (AssertableJson $json) =>
$json->has(3)
->first(fn ($json) =>
$json->where('id', 1)
->where('name', 'Victoria Faith')
->missing('password')
->etc()
)
);
Scoping JSON Collection Assertions
Sometimes, your application's routes will return JSON collections that are assigned named keys:
Route::get('/users', function () {
return [
'meta' => [...],
'users' => User::all(),
];
})
When testing these routes, you may use the has
method to assert against the number of items in the collection. In addition, you may use the has
method to scope a chain of assertions:
$response
->assertJson(fn (AssertableJson $json) =>
$json->has('meta')
->has('users', 3)
->has('users.0', fn ($json) =>
$json->where('id', 1)
->where('name', 'Victoria Faith')
->missing('password')
->etc()
)
);
However, instead of making two separate calls to the has
method to assert against the users
collection, you may make a single call which provides a closure as its third parameter. When doing so, the closure will automatically be invoked and scoped to the first item in the collection:
$response
->assertJson(fn (AssertableJson $json) =>
$json->has('meta')
->has('users', 3, fn ($json) =>
$json->where('id', 1)
->where('name', 'Victoria Faith')
->missing('password')
->etc()
)
);
Asserting JSON Types
You may only want to assert that the properties in the JSON response are of a certain type. The Illuminate\Testing\Fluent\AssertableJson
class provides the whereType
and whereAllType
methods for doing just that:
$response->assertJson(fn (AssertableJson $json) =>
$json->whereType('id', 'integer')
->whereAllType([
'users.0.name' => 'string',
'meta' => 'array'
])
);
You may specify multiple types using the |
character, or passing an array of types as the second parameter to the whereType
method. The assertion will be successful if the response value is any of the listed types:
$response->assertJson(fn (AssertableJson $json) =>
$json->whereType('name', 'string|null')
->whereType('id', ['string', 'integer'])
);
The whereType
and whereAllType
methods recognize the following types: string
, integer
, double
, boolean
, array
, and null
.
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 Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\RefreshDatabase;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithoutMiddleware;
use Illuminate\Http\UploadedFile;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
public function test_avatars_can_be_uploaded()
{
Storage::fake('avatars');
$file = UploadedFile::fake()->image('avatar.jpg');
$response = $this->post('/avatar', [
'avatar' => $file,
]);
Storage::disk('avatars')->assertExists($file->hashName());
}
}
If you would like to assert that a given file does not exist, you may use the assertMissing
method provided by the Storage
facade:
Storage::fake('avatars');
// ...
Storage::disk('avatars')->assertMissing('missing.jpg');
Fake File Customization
When creating files using the fake
method provided by the UploadedFile
class, you may specify the width, height, and size of the image (in kilobytes) in order to better test your application's 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);
If needed, you may pass a $mimeType
argument to the method to explicitly define the MIME type that should be returned by the file:
UploadedFile::fake()->create(
'document.pdf', $sizeInKilobytes, 'application/pdf'
);
Testing Views
Laravel also allows you to render a view without making a simulated HTTP request to the application. To accomplish this, you may call the view
method within your test. The view
method accepts the view name and an optional array of data. The method returns an instance of Illuminate\Testing\TestView
, which offers several methods to conveniently make assertions about the view's contents:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
public function test_a_welcome_view_can_be_rendered()
{
$view = $this->view('welcome', ['name' => 'Taylor']);
$view->assertSee('Taylor');
}
}
The TestView
class provides the following assertion methods: assertSee
, assertSeeInOrder
, assertSeeText
, assertSeeTextInOrder
, assertDontSee
, and assertDontSeeText
.
If needed, you may get the raw, rendered view contents by casting the TestView
instance to a string:
$contents = (string) $this->view('welcome');
Sharing Errors
Some views may depend on errors shared in the global error bag provided by Laravel. To hydrate the error bag with error messages, you may use the withViewErrors
method:
$view = $this->withViewErrors([
'name' => ['Please provide a valid name.']
])->view('form');
$view->assertSee('Please provide a valid name.');
Rendering Blade & Components
If necessary, you may use the blade
method to evaluate and render a raw Blade string. Like the view
method, the blade
method returns an instance of Illuminate\Testing\TestView
:
$view = $this->blade(
'<x-component :name="$name" />',
['name' => 'Taylor']
);
$view->assertSee('Taylor');
You may use the component
method to evaluate and render a Blade component. Like the view
method, the component
method returns an instance of Illuminate\Testing\TestView
:
$view = $this->component(Profile::class, ['name' => 'Taylor']);
$view->assertSee('Taylor');
Available Assertions
Response Assertions
Laravel's Illuminate\Testing\TestResponse
class provides a variety of custom assertion methods that you may utilize when testing your application. These assertions may be accessed on the response that is returned by the json
, get
, post
, put
, and delete
test methods:
assertCookie assertCookieExpired assertCookieNotExpired assertCookieMissing assertCreated assertDontSee assertDontSeeText assertDownload assertExactJson assertForbidden assertHeader assertHeaderMissing assertJson assertJsonCount assertJsonFragment assertJsonMissing assertJsonMissingExact assertJsonMissingValidationErrors assertJsonPath assertJsonStructure assertJsonValidationErrors assertJsonValidationErrorFor assertLocation assertNoContent assertNotFound assertOk assertPlainCookie assertRedirect assertRedirectContains assertRedirectToSignedRoute assertSee assertSeeInOrder assertSeeText assertSeeTextInOrder assertSessionHas assertSessionHasInput assertSessionHasAll assertSessionHasErrors assertSessionHasErrorsIn assertSessionHasNoErrors assertSessionDoesntHaveErrors assertSessionMissing assertSimilarJson assertStatus assertSuccessful assertUnauthorized assertUnprocessable assertValid assertInvalid assertViewHas assertViewHasAll assertViewIs assertViewMissing
assertCookie
Assert that the response contains the given cookie:
$response->assertCookie($cookieName, $value = null);
assertCookieExpired
Assert that the response contains the given cookie and it is expired:
$response->assertCookieExpired($cookieName);
assertCookieNotExpired
Assert that the response contains the given cookie and it is not expired:
$response->assertCookieNotExpired($cookieName);
assertCookieMissing
Assert that the response does not contains the given cookie:
$response->assertCookieMissing($cookieName);
assertCreated
Assert that the response has a 201 HTTP status code:
$response->assertCreated();
assertDontSee
Assert that the given string is not contained within the response returned by the application. This assertion will automatically escape the given string unless you pass a second argument of false
:
$response->assertDontSee($value, $escaped = true);
assertDontSeeText
Assert that the given string is not contained within the response text. This assertion will automatically escape the given string unless you pass a second argument of false
. This method will pass the response content to the strip_tags
PHP function before making the assertion:
$response->assertDontSeeText($value, $escaped = true);
assertDownload
Assert that the response is a "download". Typically, this means the invoked route that returned the response returned a Response::download
response, BinaryFileResponse
, or Storage::download
response:
$response->assertDownload();
If you wish, you may assert that the downloadable file was assigned a given file name:
$response->assertDownload('image.jpg');
assertExactJson
Assert that the response contains an exact match of the given JSON data:
$response->assertExactJson(array $data);
assertForbidden
Assert that the response has a forbidden (403) HTTP status code:
$response->assertForbidden();
assertHeader
Assert that the given header and value is present on the response:
$response->assertHeader($headerName, $value = null);
assertHeaderMissing
Assert that the given header is not present on the response:
$response->assertHeaderMissing($headerName);