Laravel (5.7) HTTP Tests

Introduction

Laravel provides us with a very fluent API for making requests to our application and examining the output. For instance, consider 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 will make a GET request into the application, while the assertStatus method will assert that the returned response should have the given HTTP status code. Laravel is not limited to this simple assertion, it also contains a variety of assertions for inspecting the response headers, content, JSON structure and more.

Customizing Request Headers

You can use the withHeaders method to customize the request's headers before sending it to the application. This will allow 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,
            ]);
    }

Session / Authentication

Laravel provides us with several helpers for working with the session during HTTP testing. First, you can set the session data to a given array using the withSession method. This is very 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('/');
    }
}

A common use of the session is in maintaining state for the authenticated user. The actingAs helper method will provide a simple way to authenticate a given user as the current user. For instance, you 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 can 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 you with several helpers for testing JSON APIs and their responses. For instance, the json, get, post, put, patch, and delete methods can be used to issue requests with various HTTP verbs. You can also easily pass data and headers to these methods. To get started, let us 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,
            ]);
    }
}

Verifying An Exact JSON Match

If you want to verify that the given array is an exact match for the JSON returned by the application, 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 can be used to generate dummy files or images for testing. When this is combined with the Storage facade's fake method, it greatly simplifies the testing of file uploads. For example, you may combine these two features test an avatar upload form easily:

<?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

Whenever you are creating files using the fake method, you can specify the width, height, and size of the image so as to better test your validation rules:

UploadedFile::fake()->image('avatar.jpg', $width, $height)->size(100);

Aside creating images, you can also create files of any other type using the create method:

UploadedFile::fake()->create('document.pdf', $sizeInKilobytes);

Available Assertions

Response Assertions

Laravel provides you with a variety of custom assertion methods for your PHPUnit tests. These assertions can be accessed on the response that is returned from the json, get, post, put, and delete test methods:

Authentication Assertions

Laravel provides a variety of authentication related assertions for our PHPUnit tests