[ACCEPTED]-How to unit test a Spring MVC controller using @PathVariable?-spring-test

I'd call what you're after an integration 4 test based on the terminology in the Spring 3 reference manual. How about doing something 2 like:

import static org.springframework.test.web.ModelAndViewAssert.*;

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration({/* include live config here
    e.g. "file:web/WEB-INF/application-context.xml",
    "file:web/WEB-INF/dispatcher-servlet.xml" */})
public class MyControllerIntegrationTest {

    @Inject
    private ApplicationContext applicationContext;

    private MockHttpServletRequest request;
    private MockHttpServletResponse response;
    private HandlerAdapter handlerAdapter;
    private MyController controller;

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
       request = new MockHttpServletRequest();
       response = new MockHttpServletResponse();
       handlerAdapter = applicationContext.getBean(HandlerAdapter.class);
       // I could get the controller from the context here
       controller = new MyController();
    }

    @Test
    public void testDoSomething() throws Exception {
       request.setRequestURI("/test.html");
       final ModelAndView mav = handlerAdapter.handle(request, response, 
           controller);
       assertViewName(mav, "view");
       // assert something
    }
}

For more information I've written a 1 blog entry about integration testing Spring MVC annotations.

As of Spring 3.2, there is a proper way 3 to test this, in an elegant and easy way. You 2 will be able to do things like this:

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@WebAppConfiguration
@ContextConfiguration("servlet-context.xml")
public class SampleTests {

  @Autowired
  private WebApplicationContext wac;

  private MockMvc mockMvc;

  @Before
  public void setup() {
    this.mockMvc = webAppContextSetup(this.wac).build();
  }

  @Test
  public void getFoo() throws Exception {
    this.mockMvc.perform(get("/foo").accept("application/json"))
        .andExpect(status().isOk())
        .andExpect(content().mimeType("application/json"))
        .andExpect(jsonPath("$.name").value("Lee"));
  }
}

For 1 further information, take a look at http://blog.springsource.org/2012/11/12/spring-framework-3-2-rc1-spring-mvc-test-framework/

A promising framework for testing Spring 1 MVC https://github.com/SpringSource/spring-test-mvc

The exception message refers to a "feed" variable, which 10 isn't present in your sample code, it's 9 likely being caused by something you haven't 8 shown us.

Also, your test is testing Spring 7 and your own code. Is this really what you 6 want to do?

It's better to assume that Spring 5 works (which it does), and just test your 4 own class, i.e. call MyController.doSomething() directly. That's one 3 benefit of the annotation approach - you 2 don't need to use mock requests and responses, you 1 just use domain POJOs.

I've found that you can manually insert 5 a PathVariable mapping into the request 4 object. This is distinctly non-ideal but 3 appears to work. In your example, something 2 like:

@Test
public void test() {
    MockHttpServletRequest request = new MockHttpServletRequest();
    request.setRequestURI("/test.html");
    HashMap<String, String> pathvars = new HashMap<String, String>();
    pathvars.put("id", "test");
    request.setAttribute(HandlerMapping.URI_TEMPLATE_VARIABLES_ATTRIBUTE, pathvars);
    new AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter().handle(request, new MockHttpServletResponse(), new MyController());
   // assert something
}

I'd definitely be interested in finding 1 a better option.

Provided you are using Spring 3.0.x.

Here I suggest a merger of Emil and scarba05 4 answers using spring-test not spring-test-mvc. Please 3 skip this answer and refer to spring-test-mvc 2 examples if you are using Spring 3.2.x or 1 later

MyControllerWithParameter.java

@Controller
public class MyControllerWithParameter {
@RequestMapping("/testUrl/{pathVar}/some.html")
public String passOnePathVar(@PathVariable String pathVar, ModelMap model){
    model.addAttribute("SomeModelAttribute",pathVar);
    return "viewName";
}
}

MyControllerTest.java

import static org.springframework.test.web.ModelAndViewAssert.assertViewName;
import java.util.HashMap;
import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.mock.web.MockHttpServletRequest;
import org.springframework.mock.web.MockHttpServletResponse;
import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner;
import org.springframework.test.web.ModelAndViewAssert;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.HandlerAdapter;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.HandlerMapping;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter;

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration(locations = 
    {"file:src\\main\\webapp\\WEB-INF\\spring\\services\\servlet-context.xml" 
    })
public class MyControllerTest {

private MockHttpServletRequest request;
private MockHttpServletResponse response;
private HandlerAdapter handlerAdapter;

@Before
public void setUp() throws Exception {
    request = new MockHttpServletRequest();
    response = new MockHttpServletResponse();
    this.handlerAdapter = applicationContext.getBean(AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter.class);
}

//  Container beans
private MyControllerWithParameter myController;
private ApplicationContext applicationContext;
public ApplicationContext getApplicationContext() {
    return applicationContext;
}
@Autowired
public void setApplicationContext(ApplicationContext applicationContext) {
    this.applicationContext = applicationContext;
}
public MyControllerWithParameter getMyController() {
    return myController;
}
@Autowired
public void setMyController(MyControllerWithParameter myController) {
    this.myController = myController;
}

@Test
public void test() throws Exception {
    request.setRequestURI("/testUrl/Irrelavant_Value/some.html");
    HashMap<String, String> pathvars = new HashMap<String, String>();
    // Populate the pathVariable-value pair in a local map
    pathvars.put("pathVar", "Path_Var_Value");
    // Assign the local map to the request attribute concerned with the handler mapping 
    request.setAttribute(HandlerMapping.URI_TEMPLATE_VARIABLES_ATTRIBUTE, pathvars);

    final ModelAndView modelAndView = this.handlerAdapter.handle(request, response, myController);

    ModelAndViewAssert.assertAndReturnModelAttributeOfType(modelAndView, "SomeModelAttribute", String.class);
    ModelAndViewAssert.assertModelAttributeValue(modelAndView, "SomeModelAttribute", "Path_Var_Value");
    ModelAndViewAssert.assertViewName(modelAndView, "viewName");
}

}

I'm not sure my original answer is going 11 to help with @PathVariable. I've just tried 10 testing an @PathVariable and I get the following 9 exception:

org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.support.HandlerMethodInvocationException: Failed 8 to invoke handler method [public org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView 7 test.MyClass.myMethod(test.SomeType)]; nested 6 exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could 5 not find @PathVariable [parameterName] in 4 @RequestMapping

The reason is that the path 3 variables in the request get parsed by an 2 interceptor. The following approach works 1 for me:

import static org.springframework.test.web.ModelAndViewAssert.*;

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration({"file:web/WEB-INF/application-context.xml",
        "file:web/WEB-INF/dispatcher-servlet.xml"})    
public class MyControllerIntegrationTest {

    @Inject
    private ApplicationContext applicationContext;

    private MockHttpServletRequest request;
    private MockHttpServletResponse response;
    private HandlerAdapter handlerAdapter;

    @Before
    public void setUp() throws Exception {
        this.request = new MockHttpServletRequest();
        this.response = new MockHttpServletResponse();

        this.handlerAdapter = applicationContext.getBean(HandlerAdapter.class);
    }

    ModelAndView handle(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
            throws Exception {
        final HandlerMapping handlerMapping = applicationContext.getBean(HandlerMapping.class);
        final HandlerExecutionChain handler = handlerMapping.getHandler(request);
        assertNotNull("No handler found for request, check you request mapping", handler);

        final Object controller = handler.getHandler();
        // if you want to override any injected attributes do it here

        final HandlerInterceptor[] interceptors =
            handlerMapping.getHandler(request).getInterceptors();
        for (HandlerInterceptor interceptor : interceptors) {
            final boolean carryOn = interceptor.preHandle(request, response, controller);
            if (!carryOn) {
                return null;
            }
        }

        final ModelAndView mav = handlerAdapter.handle(request, response, controller);
        return mav;
    }

    @Test
    public void testDoSomething() throws Exception {
        request.setRequestURI("/test.html");
        request.setMethod("GET");
        final ModelAndView mav = handle(request, response);
        assertViewName(mav, "view");
        // assert something else
    }

I've add a new blog post on integration testing spring mvc annotations