Validate LocalDate in JSON response with Spring MockMVC

Question

I'm trying to validate a LocalDate object in a JSON result returned by a Spring MVC webservice but I can't figure out how.

At the moment I always run into assertion errors like the following one:

java.lang.AssertionError: JSON path "$[0].startDate" Expected: is <2017-01-01> but: was <[2017,1,1]>

The important part of my test is posted below. Any ideas how to fix the test to pass?

import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.setup.MockMvcBuilders.standaloneSetup;

public class WebserviceTest {

    @Mock
    private Service service;

    @InjectMocks
    private Webservice webservice;

    private MockMvc mockMvc;

    @Before
    public void before() {
        mockMvc = standaloneSetup(webservice).build();
    }

    @Test
    public void testLocalDate() throws Exception {
        // prepare service mock to return a valid result (left out)

        mockMvc.perform(get("/data/2017")).andExpect(status().isOk())
            .andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate", is(LocalDate.of(2017, 1, 1))));
    }
}

The webservice returns a list of view objects looking like this:

public class ViewObject {

    @JsonProperty
    private LocalDate startDate;
}

[edit]

Another try was

.andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate", is(new int[] { 2017, 1, 1 })))

which resulted in

java.lang.AssertionError: JSON path "$[0].startDate" Expected: is [<2017>, <1>, <1>] but: was <[2017,1,1]>

[edit 2] The returned startDate object seems to be of type: net.minidev.json.JSONArray

Abrasion

Answer 1

This is the way to go. Thanks to 'Amit K Bist' to point me in the right direction

...
.andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate[0]", is(2017)))
.andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate[1]", is(1)))
.andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate[2]", is(1)))

Abrasion

Answer 2

This should pass:

.andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate", is(LocalDate.of(2017, 1, 1).toString())));

Wellman

Adding toString worked for me. – Mountain

Answer 3

LocalDate in JSON response will be like "startDate":

"startDate": {
    "year": 2017,
    "month": "JANUARY",
    "dayOfMonth": 1,
    "dayOfWeek": "SUNDAY",
    "era": "CE",
    "dayOfYear": 1,
    "leapYear": false,
    "monthValue": 1,
    "chronology": {
        "id": "ISO",
        "calendarType": "iso8601"
    }
}

So, you should check each attribute like below:

.andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate.year", is(2017)))
                .andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate.dayOfMonth", is(1)))
                .andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate.dayOfYear", is(1)))

Dominic

I did not realize that you are using jsr310 so above will work only for non-jsr310 localdate – Dominic

Sorry: java.lang.AssertionError: No value at JSON path "$[0].startDate.year", exception: Expected to find an object with property ['year'] in path $[0]['startDate'] but found 'net.minidev.json.JSONArray'. This is not a json object according to the JsonProvider: 'com.jayway.jsonpath.spi.json.JsonSmartJsonProvider'. – Abrasion

Answer 4

Because it expects a list of values, you can use it like that.

.andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate", is(List.of(2022, 1, 1))))

Baseboard

Answer 5

Based on the answer of GreenTurle, but with a different falvour:

        .andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate[0]").value(2017))
        .andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate[1]").value(1))
        .andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate[2]").value(1))

You can use .value() to compare the parts of the date instead of is() function.

Panic

Answer 6

I think that at that level you are validating the Json not the parsed object. So you have a string, not a LocalDate.

So basically try changing your code in:

...
.andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate", is("2017-01-01"))));

Into

This results into java.lang.AssertionError: JSON path "$[0].startDate" Expected: is "2017-01-01" but: was <[2017,1,1]> – Abrasion

better compare with org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.JsonPathResultMatchers#value, i.e. .andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].startDate").value("2017-01-01")) – Troat