(Quick Reference)

9 Creating unit tests for controllers - Reference Documentation

Authors: Alejandro García Granados

Version: 0.4

9 Creating unit tests for controllers

When you create a controller class with the create-controller-class command, it is highly recommended that you also create the corresponding unit tests. You can achieve this by executing the create-unit-test-controller command:

grails create-unit-test-controller [domainClass]

Suppose you have a class named mypackage.Person. With the create-unit-test-controller command, you will get the following unit test files:

test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerIndexSpec.groovy
test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerContentSpec.groovy
test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerListSpec.groovy
test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerCreateSpec.groovy
test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerSaveSpec.groovy
test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerEditSpec.groovy
test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerUpdateSpec.groovy
test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerDeleteSpec.groovy

You can generate each file with the following commands:

File	Command
`test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerIndexSpec.groovy`	create-unit-test-controller-index
`test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerContentSpec.groovy`	create-unit-test-controller-content
`test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerListSpec.groovy`	create-unit-test-controller-list
`test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerCreateSpec.groovy`	create-unit-test-controller-create
`test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerSaveSpec.groovy`	create-unit-test-controller-save
`test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerEditSpec.groovy`	create-unit-test-controller-edit
`test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerUpdateSpec.groovy`	create-unit-test-controller-update
`test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerDeleteSpec.groovy`	create-unit-test-controller-delete

If we open the test/unit/mypackage/PersonControllerSaveSpec.groovy file, we will find something like this:

package mypackageimport grails.test.GrailsMock
import grails.test.mixin.*
import spock.lang.*
@TestFor(PersonController)
@Mock(Person)
class PersonControllerSaveSpec extends Specification {
    def setup() {
        views[ '/person/_form.gsp' ] = getTemplate()
    }
    def "test ok"() {
        when:
            def control = mockPersonService()
            request.method = 'POST'
            setUpParams()
            controller.save()
            control.verify()
        then:
            flash.formMessage == 'default.created.message'
            response.redirectedUrl == "/person/edit/1"
            response.status == 302
    }
    def "test params invalid"() {
        when:
            def control = mockPersonService( false )
            request.method = 'POST'
            setUpParams()
            params.name = null
            controller.save()
            control.verify()
        then:
            response.text == 'OK'
            response.status == 400
    }
    @Ignore( 'See http://jira.grails.org/browse/GRAILS-8426' )
    def "test request method invalid"() {
        when:
            request.method = 'GET'
            controller.save()
        then:
            response.status == 405
    }
    private String getTemplate() {
        '<g:if test="${personInstance}">OK</g:if><g:else>ERROR</g:else>'
    }
    private GrailsMock mockPersonService( save = true ) {
        def control = mockFor( PersonService )
        control.demand.create( 1 ) { Person instance ->
            if ( save ) {
                instance.id = 1
                instance.save( failOnError:true )
            } else throw new IllegalArgumentException( 'error' )
        }
        controller.personService = control.createMock()
        control
    }
    private void setUpParams() {
        def mock = PersonMock.mock( 0 )
        mock.properties.each{ params."${it.key}" = it.value }
    }
}

For versions of Grails prior to 2.3.0, you need to install the Grails Spock Plugin if you want to execute the tests.

The unit tests make use of the Grails Testing API. We strongly recommend you to read the Grails Testing chapter for a further reference.

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9 Creating unit tests for controllers - Reference Documentation

9 Creating unit tests for controllers

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