Asserting array of arrays with JSONPath and spring mvc

Question

I'm having difficulty figuring out how to assert with jsonPath in a JSON document response in spring mvc. Perhaps there's a better way of accomplishing this than using jsonPath for this particular scenario. I would like to validate that the links array has a rel item of "self" and that "href" attribute of the object of "self" also has an "href" attribute which is equal to "/". The JSON response looks like this:

 {  
   "links":[  
      {  
         "rel":[  
            "self"
         ],
         "href":"/"
      },
      {  
         "rel":[  
            "next"
         ],
         "href":"/1"
      }
   ]
}

I tried this where I can see that it has rel [0] has self but I would prefer to not rely on where in the links array and rel array the self is and actually test what that href is at links[rel][self] is "/". Any ideas?

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

  @Test
  public void givenRootUrl_thenReturnLinkToSelf() throws Exception {
    mockMvc.perform(get("/")).andDo(print()).andExpect(status().isOk())
        .andExpect(jsonPath("$.links[0].rel[0].", is("self")));
  }

Ronn

Answer 1

How about adding several andExpect methods? Something similar to:

mockMvc.perform(get("/")).andDo(print()).andExpect(status().isOk())
    .andExpect(jsonPath("$.links[0].rel[0]", is("self")))
    .andExpect(jsonPath("$.links[0].href[0]", is("/"));

Barone

Do you know if there is a way to do this without hardcoding the array indices (in case the order is different)? – Sancha

Kevin, you can use regexp in your jsonpath, like this $.links[?(@.rel =~ /.*self/i)] or something like this. Please, check full documentation here: github.com/json-path/JsonPath – Barone

This approach won't work for HashSet because the order of elements is not deterministic – Schild

Answer 2

I guess you could do it like this if you don't want to hardcode array index value

MockMvc.perform(get("/"))
.andDo(print()).andExpect(status().isOk())
.andExpect(jsonPath("$.links[*].rel").value(Matchers.containsInAnyOrder(Matchers.containsInAnyOrder(Matchers.is("self")))));

Charterhouse

Answer 3

The Accepted answer looks alright to me. But I am not familiar with junit4. Therefore I will add here how I would test a typical scenario using Junit5.

mockMvc.perform(get("/"))
    .andDo(print())
    .andExpect(status().isOk())
    .andExpect(jsonPath("$.links", hasSize(2)))
    .andExpect(jsonPath("$.links[0].rel[0]")
        .value("self"))
    .andExpect(jsonPath("$.links[0].href[0]")
        .value("/"))

I will here add static imports(in case of a beginner) because when first I was working of I had to figure which imports within several imports.

import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.request.MockMvcRequestBuilders;
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.hasSize;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.jsonPath;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.status;
import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.is;

Hope this is helpful for someone. especially someone new to unit testing :)

Hohenzollern

Answer 4

you can try :

mockMvc.perform(get("/")).andDo(print()).andExpect(status().isOk())
    .andExpect(jsonPath("$.links[*].rel[*]", containsInAnyOrder("self")))
    .andExpect(jsonPath("$.links[*].href[*]", containsInAnyOrder("/")))

Maureenmaureene

Answer 5

I know a very old post and you have probably figured it out already, but for the sake of new devs wondering this question, like me.

You can use the following.

import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.hasItem;
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.hasSize;
.......AdditionalCode
.andExpect(jsonPath("$.path").isArray())
.andExpect(jsonPath("$.path").value(hasSize(2))
.andExpect(jsonPath("$.path").value(hasItem("self!"))

Source => https://mkyong.com/spring-boot/spring-test-how-to-test-a-json-array-in-jsonpath/

Rogozen