Spring WebClient and jsonPath - How to output json result if test fails

Question

We are testing with WebTestClient (SpringBoot) our GraphQL Backend and have problems to see why exactly the test failed. Our code looks like this:

webTestClient
   .post().uri(GQLKonstanten.URL)
   .body(GQLRequestInserter.from(movieDeleteGQL, variables))
   .exchange()
   .expectBody()
   .jsonPath("$.errors").doesNotExist()
   .jsonPath("$.data.movie.id")
   .isEqualTo(movie.getId());

What I get is a stacktrace with the following message:

java.lang.AssertionError: No value at JSON path "$.data.movie.id"

...

Caused by: com.jayway.jsonpath.PathNotFoundException: Missing property in path $['data']['movie']

The error message is completely correct. But to actually SEE what this graphQl Exceution actually command returned I always change the WebClient execution into:

String responseBody = webTestClient
  .post().uri(GQLKonstanten.URL)
  .body(GQLRequestInserter.from(deleteMovieGQL, variables))
  .exchange()
  .expectStatus()
  .isOk()
  .expectBody(String.class)
  .returnResult().getResponseBody();
System.out.print(responseBody);

Then I see the result as

{"data":{"deleteMovie":{"id":7}}}

and I see that I expected "movie" instead of "deleteMovie" property. so I change my test to

.jsonPath("$.data.deleteMovie.id")

Always running the test twice and changing the code is cumbersome.

Is there a better way to let WebTestClient always output the responseBody when the test fails?

Pollaiuolo

have you tested to just use the .log() function? – Vesuvianite

I don't know what log function do you mean. I found a better way with .consumeWith(System.out::println) after expectBody() – Pollaiuolo

Answer 1

Best way I found so far is to add a

.expectBody()
.consumeWith(System.out::println)

It prints out the json result always and not on error only. But it works for me.

Pollaiuolo