Testing APIs in Laravel. Thoughts?

PhotoApiTest.php

<?php


class PhotoApiTest extends TestCase {
    
    public function setUp()
    {
        parent::setUp();

        Route::enableFilters();

        Artisan::call('migrate');
        Artisan::call('db:seed');

        Auth::loginUsingId(1);

        // OR:
        //$this->be(User::find(1));
    }

    public function testMustBeAuthenticated()
    {
        Auth::logout();
        $response = $this->call('GET', 'api/v1/photos');

        $this->assertEquals('Invalid credentials.', $response->getContent());
    }

    public function testProvidesErrorFeedback()
    {
        $response = $this->call('GET', 'api/v1/photos');
        $data = $this->parseJson($response);

        $this->assertEquals(false, $data->error);
    }

    public function testFetchesAllPhotosForUser()
    {
        $response = $this->call('GET', 'api/v1/photos');
        $data = $this->parseJson($response);

        $this->assertIsJson($data);
        $this->assertInternalType('array', $data->photos);
    }

    public function testCreatesPhoto()
    {
        $photo = [
            'caption' => 'My new photo',
            'path'    => 'foo.jpg',
            'user_id' => 1
        ];
        $response = $this->call('POST', 'api/v1/photos', $photo);
        $data = $this->parseJson($response);

        $this->assertEquals(false, $data->error);
        $this->assertEquals('Photo was created', $data->message);
    }

    protected function parseJson(Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse $response)
    {
        return json_decode($response->getContent());
    }

    protected function assertIsJson($data)
    {
        $this->assertEquals(0, json_last_error());
    }

}

Hi there!

I am trying to test my API as you do. But I'm getting a problem.

I am trying to test this function:

public function getStatus()
{
    $data = [
        'logged'    => Auth::check(),
    ];

    if ($data['logged']) 
    {           
        Auth::user()->last_active = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
        Auth::user()->save();
        $data['info'] = Auth::user()->toArray();
        $data['info']['type'] = 'User';
    }
    return Response::json($data);
}

But once it arrives to my test, which is this:

$response = $this->client->request(
                                        'GET',
                                        '/api/status',
                                        array(),
                                        array(),
                                        array(
                                            'CONTENT_TYPE'          => 'application/json',
                                            'Accept' => 'application/json'
                                        )
                                    );
$data = $this->parseJson($response);
$this->assertIsJson($data);

I am getting that $response is an instance of Symfony\Component\DomCrawler\Crawler.

Do you know what should I do to fix this?

Thank you!

You should use $this->call which returns a response object .

good job! nice sample!

While testing API, you may need to check the database value on a different endpoint, which is dependent to previous test case. To overcome database migration each time, this is what can help..

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38573830/how-to-migrate-and-seed-before-the-full-test-suite-in-laravel-with-in-memory-dat

Thanks to you anyway. :)

What do your routes look like? I am trying to do something very similar to you.

Great example!
Do you know how to attach a file for upload AND pass a header like "Authorization: Bearer JhdWQiOiIx..."
Because I didn't find a method on Laravel to test this scenario .

Could you make an update for verify authentication with Token like JWT for Laravel 5 instead ? @JeffreyWay

@JeffreyWay

bump