Unable to mock Service class in Spring MVC Controller tests

Question

I have a Spring 3.2 MVC application and am using the Spring MVC test framework to test GET and POST requests on the actions of my controllers. I am using Mockito to mock the Services but am finding that the mocks are being ignored and that my actual Service layer is being used (and, as a consequence, the database is being hit).

The code in my Controller test:

package name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.controllers;

import static org.mockito.Matchers.isA;
import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.request.MockMvcRequestBuilders.post;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.model;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.redirectedUrl;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.status;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.view;
import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.domain.Policy;
import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.services.PolicyService;

import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.mockito.Mock;
import org.mockito.MockitoAnnotations;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner;
import org.springframework.test.context.web.WebAppConfiguration;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.setup.MockMvcBuilders;
import org.springframework.web.context.WebApplicationContext;

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@WebAppConfiguration
@ContextConfiguration({ "classpath:/applicationContext.xml", "classpath:/tests_persistence-applicationContext.xml" })
public class PolicyControllerTest {

    @Mock
    PolicyService service;

    @Autowired
    private WebApplicationContext wac;

    private MockMvc mockMvc;

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

        // this must be called for the @Mock annotations above to be processed.
        MockitoAnnotations.initMocks(this);
    }

    @Test
    public void createOrUpdateFailsWhenInvalidDataPostedAndSendsUserBackToForm() throws Exception {
        // Post no parameters in this request to force errors
        mockMvc.perform(post("/policies/persist")).andExpect(status().isOk())
            .andExpect(model().attributeHasErrors("policy"))
            .andExpect(view().name("createOrUpdatePolicy"));
    }

    @Test
    public void createOrUpdateSuccessful() throws Exception {

        // Mock the service method to force a known response
        when(service.save(isA(Policy.class))).thenReturn(new Policy());

        mockMvc.perform(
                post("/policies/persist").param("companyName", "Company Name")
                .param("name", "Name").param("effectiveDate", "2001-01-01"))
                .andExpect(status().isMovedTemporarily()).andExpect(model().hasNoErrors())
                .andExpect(redirectedUrl("list"));
    }
}

You'll notice I have two context configuration files; this is a hack because if I'm unable to stop the controller test hitting the actual service layer then that service layer might as well have its repositories pointing at the test database. I'm not at a point where I can't get away with this hack any longer and need to be able to mock out my service layer properly.

Why is the when(service.save(isA(Policy.class))).thenReturn(new Policy()); not kicking in and mocking out the save method in the PolicyService? Am I missing some mockito configuration somewhere? Is there something I need to put in the Spring configuration? My reasearch so far has been limited to Googling "spring mvc test mockito not working" but that has not given me much to go on.

Thanks.

---

Update 1

You were right @tom-verelst, I was referring to the PolicyService service; line in my test so the service inside the MockMvc will of course have been injected by Spring.

I did a bit of research and found a blog post which did a good job of explaining what @InjectMocks is used for.

I then tried annotating private MockMvc mockMvc with @InjectMocks and still got the same problem (i.e. the service inside the MockMvc was not mocked as I was expecting it to be). I have added the stack trace at the point during debugging where the save method on the PolicyServiceImpl is called (as opposed to the desired call to the save method in the mocked service).

Thread [main] (Suspended (breakpoint at line 29 in DomainEntityServiceImpl) PolicyServiceImpl(DomainEntityServiceImpl<T>).save(T) line: 29

NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Method, Object, Object[]) line: not available [native method]
NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Object, Object[]) line: 39
DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Object, Object[]) line: 25
Method.invoke(Object, Object...) line: 597  
AopUtils.invokeJoinpointUsingReflection(Object, Method, Object[]) line: 317
ReflectiveMethodInvocation.invokeJoinpoint() line: 183  
ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed() line: 150  
TransactionInterceptor$1.proceedWithInvocation() line: 96
TransactionInterceptor(TransactionAspectSupport).invokeWithinTransaction(Method, Class, TransactionAspectSupport$InvocationCallback) line: 260  
TransactionInterceptor.invoke(MethodInvocation) line: 94
ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed() line: 172  
JdkDynamicAopProxy.invoke(Object, Method, Object[]) line: 204
$Proxy44.save(DomainEntity) line: not available 
PolicyController.createOrUpdate(Policy, BindingResult) line: 64
NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Method, Object, Object[]) line: not available [native method]
NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Object, Object[]) line: 39
DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Object, Object[]) line: 25
Method.invoke(Object, Object...) line: 597  
ServletInvocableHandlerMethod(InvocableHandlerMethod).invoke(Object...) line: 219
ServletInvocableHandlerMethod(InvocableHandlerMethod).invokeForRequest(NativeWebRequest, ModelAndViewContainer, Object...) line: 132    
ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.invokeAndHandle(ServletWebRequest, ModelAndViewContainer, Object...) line: 104    
RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.invokeHandleMethod(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, HandlerMethod) line: 746   
RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.handleInternal(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, HandlerMethod) line: 687   
RequestMappingHandlerAdapter(AbstractHandlerMethodAdapter).handle(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, Object) line: 80 
TestDispatcherServlet(DispatcherServlet).doDispatch(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) line: 925  
TestDispatcherServlet(DispatcherServlet).doService(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) line: 856   
TestDispatcherServlet(FrameworkServlet).processRequest(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) line: 915   
TestDispatcherServlet(FrameworkServlet).doPost(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) line: 822
TestDispatcherServlet(HttpServlet).service(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) line: 727
TestDispatcherServlet(FrameworkServlet).service(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) line: 796
TestDispatcherServlet.service(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) line: 66
TestDispatcherServlet(HttpServlet).service(ServletRequest, ServletResponse) line: 820
MockFilterChain$ServletFilterProxy.doFilter(ServletRequest, ServletResponse, FilterChain) line: 168
MockFilterChain.doFilter(ServletRequest, ServletResponse) line: 136
MockMvc.perform(RequestBuilder) line: 134   
PolicyControllerTest.createOrUpdateSuccessful() line: 67
NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Method, Object, Object[]) line: not available [native method]
NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Object, Object[]) line: 39
DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Object, Object[]) line: 25
Method.invoke(Object, Object...) line: 597  
FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall() line: 44  
FrameworkMethod$1(ReflectiveCallable).run() line: 15    
FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(Object, Object...) line: 41
InvokeMethod.evaluate() line: 20    
RunBefores.evaluate() line: 28  
RunBeforeTestMethodCallbacks.evaluate() line: 74    
RunAfterTestMethodCallbacks.evaluate() line: 83 
SpringRepeat.evaluate() line: 72    
SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(FrameworkMethod, RunNotifier) line: 231
SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(Object, RunNotifier) line: 88
ParentRunner$3.run() line: 193  
ParentRunner$1.schedule(Runnable) line: 52  
SpringJUnit4ClassRunner(ParentRunner<T>).runChildren(RunNotifier) line: 191
ParentRunner<T>.access$000(ParentRunner, RunNotifier) line: 42
ParentRunner$2.evaluate() line: 184 
RunBeforeTestClassCallbacks.evaluate() line: 61 
RunAfterTestClassCallbacks.evaluate() line: 71  
SpringJUnit4ClassRunner(ParentRunner<T>).run(RunNotifier) line: 236
SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.run(RunNotifier) line: 174  
JUnit4TestMethodReference(JUnit4TestReference).run(TestExecution) line: 50
TestExecution.run(ITestReference[]) line: 38    
RemoteTestRunner.runTests(String[], String, TestExecution) line: 467
RemoteTestRunner.runTests(TestExecution) line: 683  
RemoteTestRunner.run() line: 390    
RemoteTestRunner.main(String[]) line: 197   

More research (Mockito Injecting Null values into a Spring bean when using @Mock?) suggested applying the @InjectMocks to a PolicyController member variable within the test, but as pointed out in one of the answers in the first link, this does nothing because Spring doesn't know anything about it.

Howlond

Answer 1

Thanks to @J Andy's line of thought, I realised that I had been heading down the wrong path on this. In Update 1 I was trying to inject the mock service into the MockMvc but after taking a step back I realised that it's not the MockMvc that was under test, it was the PolicyController I wanted to test.

To give a bit of background, I wanted to avoid a traditional unit test of the @Controllers in my Spring MVC application because I wanted to test things that are only provided by running the controllers within Spring itself (e.g. RESTful calls to controller actions). This can be achieved by using the Spring MVC Test framework which allows you to run your tests within Spring.

You'll see from the code in my initial question that I was running the Spring MVC tests in a WebApplicationContext (i.e. this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(this.wac).build(); ) whereas what I should have been doing was running standalone. Running standalone allows me to directly inject the controller I want to test and, therefore, have control over how the service is injected into the controller (i.e. force a mock service to be used).

This is easier explained in code. So for the following controller:

import javax.validation.Valid;

import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.domain.Benefit;
import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.domain.Policy;
import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.services.DomainEntityService;
import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.services.PolicyService;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.validation.BindingResult;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ModelAttribute;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/policies")
public class PolicyController extends DomainEntityController<Policy> {

    @Autowired
    private PolicyService service;

    @RequestMapping(value = "persist", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    public String createOrUpdate(@Valid @ModelAttribute("policy") Policy policy, BindingResult result) {
        if (result.hasErrors()) {
            return "createOrUpdatePolicyForm";
        }
        service.save(policy);
        return "redirect:list";
    }
}

I now have the following test class in which the service is successfully mocked out and my test database is no longer hit:

package name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.controllers;

import static org.mockito.Matchers.isA;
import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.request.MockMvcRequestBuilders.post;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.model;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.redirectedUrl;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.status;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.view;
import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.domain.Policy;
import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.services.PolicyService;

import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.mockito.InjectMocks;
import org.mockito.Mock;
import org.mockito.MockitoAnnotations;
import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.setup.MockMvcBuilders;

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration({ "classpath:/applicationContext.xml" })
public class PolicyControllerTest {

    @Mock
    PolicyService policyService;

    @InjectMocks
    PolicyController controllerUnderTest;

    private MockMvc mockMvc;

    @Before
    public void setup() {

        // this must be called for the @Mock annotations above to be processed
        // and for the mock service to be injected into the controller under
        // test.
        MockitoAnnotations.initMocks(this);

        this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.standaloneSetup(controllerUnderTest).build();

    }

    @Test
    public void createOrUpdateFailsWhenInvalidDataPostedAndSendsUserBackToForm() throws Exception {
        // POST no data to the form (i.e. an invalid POST)
        mockMvc.perform(post("/policies/persist")).andExpect(status().isOk())
        .andExpect(model().attributeHasErrors("policy"))
        .andExpect(view().name("createOrUpdatePolicy"));
    }

    @Test
    public void createOrUpdateSuccessful() throws Exception {

        when(policyService.save(isA(Policy.class))).thenReturn(new Policy());

        mockMvc.perform(
                post("/policies/persist").param("companyName", "Company Name")
                .param("name", "Name").param("effectiveDate", "2001-01-01"))
                .andExpect(status().isMovedTemporarily()).andExpect(model().hasNoErrors())
                .andExpect(redirectedUrl("list"));
    }
}

I'm still very much learning when it comes to Spring so any comments that will improve my explanation would be welcomed. This blog post was helpful to me in coming up with this solution.

Howlond

Just a note, if you're using any AOP pointcuts they won't fire when running standalone. At least that's what I've found: #19691407 – Beating

Answer 2

I would prefer standalone service of Mockmvc

Mentioned work for me

public class AccessControllerTest {

    private MockMvc mockMvc;

    @Mock
    private AccessControlService accessControlService;

    @InjectMocks
    private AccessController accessController;

    @Before
    public void setup() {
        MockitoAnnotations.initMocks(this);
        this.mockMvc =  MockMvcBuilders.standaloneSetup(accessController).build();
    }

    @Test
    public void validAccessControlRequest() throws Exception {
        Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
        bundle.setAuthorized(false);
        Mockito.when(accessControlService.retrievePatient(any(String.class)))
         .thenReturn(bundle);

        mockMvc.perform(get("/access/user?user=3")).andExpect(status().isOk());
}

Petersham

Or can use MockMvc mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(webApplicationContext).build() to get the MockMvc – Caitiff

after removing @InjectMocks worked for me – Spiffy

Answer 3

If on SpringBoot use Springs own @MockBean. - as the docks say:

Any existing single bean of the same type defined in the context will be replaced by the mock. If no existing bean is defined a new one will be added.

 @RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
 public class ExampleTests {

     @MockBean
     private ExampleService service;

Melany

Yields a nullPointerException for me. – Cosmography

Answer 4

This section, 11.3.6 Spring MVC Test Framework, in Spring document 11. Testing talks about it, but it is not clear in someway.

Let's continue with the example in the document for explanation. The sample testing class looks as follow

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

    @Autowired
    private WebApplicationContext wac;

    private MockMvc mockMvc;

    @Autowired
    private AccountService accountService;

    // ...

}

Suppose you have org.example.AppController as the controller. In the test-servlet-context.xml, you will need to have

<bean class="org.example.AppController">
    <property name="accountService" ref="accountService" />
</bean>

<bean id="accountService" class="org.mockito.Mockito" factory-method="mock">
    <constructor-arg value="org.example.AccountService"/>
</bean>

The document is missing the wiring part for the controller. And you will need change to setter injection for accountService if you are using field injection. Also, be noted that the value(org.example.AccountService here) for constructor-arg is an interface, not a class.

In the setup method in AccountTests, you will have

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

    // You may stub with return values here
    when(accountService.findById(1)).thenReturn(...);
}

The test method may look like

@Test
public void testAccountId(){
    this.mockMvc.perform(...)
    .andDo(print())
    .andExpect(...);  
}

andDo(print()) comes handy, do "import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultHandlers.print;".

Veii

Answer 5

There is another solution with latest spring release using @WebMvcTest. Example below.

@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
@WebMvcTest(CategoryAPI.class)
public class CategoryAPITest {

@Autowired
private MockMvc mvc;

@MockBean
CategoryAPIService categoryAPIService;

@SpyBean
Utility utility;

PcmResponseBean responseBean;

@Before
public void before() {
    PcmResponseBean responseBean = new PcmResponseBean("123", "200", null, null);
    BDDMockito.given(categoryAPIService.saveCategory(anyString())).willReturn(responseBean);
}

@Test
public void saveCategoryTest() throws Exception {
    String category = "{}";
    mvc.perform(post("/api/category/").content(category).contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON))
            .andExpect(status().isOk()).andExpect(jsonPath("messageId", Matchers.is("123")))
            .andExpect(jsonPath("status", Matchers.is("200")));
  }

}

Here we are loading only the CategoryAPI class which is a Spring rest controller class and rest all are mock. Spring has own version of annotation like @MockBean and and @SpyBean similar to mockito @Mock and @Spy.

Unprofitable

Answer 6

This is probably an issue with Spring and Mockito attempting to both inject the beans. One way I can think of avoiding these issues is to use Spring ReflectionTestUtils to manually inject the service mock.

In this case your setup() method would look something like this

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

    // this must be called for the @Mock annotations above to be processed.
    MockitoAnnotations.initMocks(this);

    // TODO: Make sure to set the field name in UUT correctly
    ReflectionTestUtils.setField( mockMvc, "service", service );
}

P.S. Your naming convention are bit off IMHO and I'm assuming that mockMvc is the class you're trying to test (UUT). I'd use following names instead

@Mock PolicyService mockPolicyService;
@InjectMocks Mvc mvc;

Laaland

Answer 7

You're creating a mock for PolicyService, but you're not injecting it into your MockMvc as far as I can tell. This means that the PolicyService defined in your Spring configuration will be called instead of your mock.

Either inject the mock of the PolicyService into your MockMvc by setting it, or take a look at Springockito for injecting mocks.

Bulgaria

Answer 8

Alternative Solution：

1. when using WebApplicationContext, it will find dependencies in the spring container. So if we want mock something, we should do this in the spring container, and that is your context configuration file.

   @Bean public FileResourceService fileResourceService() { FileResourceServiceImpl service = Mockito.mock(FileResourceServiceImpl.class); return service; }

2. when you use this Mock annotation in the test class, it doesn't make any sense for the spring container. They don't know anything about that.

Veliger