Demystifying tests in Laravel

Hi and welcome for another article 👋

This one will be a rapid-fire oriented post so that you can both see how easy it is to test your Laravel app, and you can refer to it whenever you want to remember how to test something.

Everytime you want to create a test, and the test class do not exist yet, just run this command.

php artisan make:test LoginTest

And you run your tests using this command.

php artisan test

Without further do, let's get into it!

Folder architecture suggestion
1. Assert a route returns response without errors
1. Assert a user is logged
2. Assert an authenticated user can perform actions
3. Assert a model has been saved after form submission
4. Assert a file has been uploaded
5. Creating a fake model with relationships
6. Assert that a session flash message is visible
7. Assert a validation error message is returned
8. Assert an authorization
9. Assert a command ended without errors
11. Assert a json content is sent
Conclusion

Folder architecture suggestion

If you have a lot of tests, naming can be challenging. To not think of it, and if your test file is focused on a controller, model, ... you can just name the file the same as the entity you test.

your-app/
├── app/
│   ├── Http/
│   │   └── Controllers/
│   │       ├── LoginController.php
│   │       └── PostController.php
│   ├── Models/
│   │   ├── Post.php
│   │   └── User.php
│   ├── Rules/
│   │   └── BarCodeValid.php
│   └── Helpers/
│       └── Color.php
└── tests/
    ├── Feature/
    │   ├── Http/
    │   │   └── Controllers/
    │   │       ├── LoginControllerTest.php
    │   │       └── PostControllerTest.php
    │   ├── Models/
    │   │   ├── PostTest.php
    │   │   └── UserTest.php
    │   └── Rules/
    │       └── BarCodeValidTest.php
    └── Unit/
        └── Helpers/
            └── ColorTest.php

1. Assert a route returns response without errors

namespace Tests\Feature;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithFaker;
use Tests\TestCase;

class ContactUsControllerTest extends TestCase
{
  use WithFaker;

  public function testContactUsPageRendersWell()
  {
    $this
      ->get(route("contact-us.index"))
      ->assertOk();
  }
}

1. Assert a user is logged

namespace Tests\Feature;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithFaker;
use Tests\TestCase;

class LoginControllerTest extends TestCase
{
  use WithFaker;

  public function testUserIsLoggedAfterFormIsSubmitted()
  {
    $password = $this->faker->password();
    $user = User::factory()->create();

    $this->post(route("login"), [
        "email" => $user->email,
        "password" => $password,
      ])
      ->assertValid()
      ->assertRedirect(route("dashboard"));

    $this->assertAuthenticated();
    // or
    $this->assertAuthenticatedAs($user);
  }
}

2. Assert an authenticated user can perform actions

namespace Tests\Feature;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithFaker;
use Tests\TestCase;

class PostControllerTest extends TestCase
{
  use WithFaker;

  public function testAuthenticatedUserCanCreateBlogPost()
  {
    $user = User::factory()->create();

    $this->actingAs($user)
      ->post(route("post.store"), [
        "title" => $this->faker->sentence(),
        "content" => $this->faker->text(),
      ])
      ->assertValid();
  }
}

3. Assert a model has been saved after form submission

namespace Tests\Feature;

use App\Models\Item;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithFaker;
use Tests\TestCase;

class ItemControllerTest extends TestCase
{
  use WithFaker;

  public function testItemSavedAfterUserSubmitsForm()
  {
    $user = User::factory()->create();
    $name = $this->faker->name();

    $this->assertDatabaseMissing(Item::class, [
      "name" => $name,
    ]);

    $this->actingAs($user)
      ->post(route("item.store"), [
        "name" => $name,
      ])
      ->assertValid();

    $this->assertDatabaseHas(Item::class, [
      "name" => $name,
    ]);
  }
}

4. Assert a file has been uploaded

namespace Tests\Feature;

use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Http\UploadedFile;
use Tests\TestCase;

class SettingControllerTest extends TestCase
{
  public function testUserCanUploadItsProfilePicture()
  {
    $user = User::factory()->create();

    $file = UploadedFile::fake()->file("avatar.jpg");

    $this->assertDatabaseMissing(User::class, [
      "user_id" => $user->id,
      "profile_picture" => $file->hashName(),
    ]);

    $this->actingAs($user)
      ->post(route("setting.update"), [
        "profile_picture" => $file,
      ])
      ->assertValid();

    $this->assertDatabaseHas(User::class, [
      "user_id" => $user->id,
      "profile_picture" => $file->hashName(),
    ]);
  }
}

5. Creating a fake model with relationships

namespace Tests\Feature;

use App\Models\Comment;
use App\Models\Post;
use App\Models\User;
use Tests\TestCase;

class PostControllerTest extends TestCase
{
  public function testAuthorCanEditPost()
  {
    $user = User::factory()->create();

    // Creates a post with 5 comments, each comments has 25 likes
    $post = Post::factory()
      ->for($user, "author")
      ->has(
        Comment::factory()
          ->has(Like::factory()->count(25))
          ->count(5)
      )
      ->create();
  }
}

6. Assert that a session flash message is visible

namespace Tests\Feature;

use App\Models\Post;
use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithFaker;
use Tests\TestCase;

class PostControllerTest extends TestCase
{
  use WithFaker;

  public function testAuthorCanEditItsPost()
  {
    $user = User::factory()->create();
    $post = Post::factory()->for($user, "author")->create();

    $this->actingAs($user)
      ->post(route("post.update", $post), [
        "title" => $this->faker->name(),
      ])
      ->assertValid()
      ->assertSessionHas("success", "Post updated.");
  }
}

7. Assert a validation error message is returned

namespace Tests\Feature;

use App\Models\Comment;
use App\Models\Post;
use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithFaker;
use Tests\TestCase;

class PostControllerTest extends TestCase
{
  use WithFaker;

  public function testAuthorSeeErrorIfEditingPostWithSameNameAsOneOfItsOtherPost()
  {
    $user = User::factory()->create();
    $post = Post::factory()->for($user, "author")->create();
    $name = $this->faker->name();

    Post::factory()
      ->for($user, "author")
      ->create([
        "title" => $name,
      ]);

    $this->actingAs($user)
      ->post(route("post.update", $post), [
        "title" => $name,
      ])
      ->assertInvalid([
        "title" => "The title has already been taken.",
      ]);
  }
}

8. Assert an authorization

namespace Tests\Feature;

use App\Models\Post;
use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithFaker;
use Tests\TestCase;

class PostControllerTest extends TestCase
{
  use WithFaker;

  public function testUserCannotSeePostHeOrSheDidNotCreate()
  {
    $user = User::factory()->create();
    $otherUser = User::factory()->create();
    $post = Post::factory()->for($otherUser, "author")->create();

    $this->actingAs($user)
      ->get(route("post.show", $post))
      ->assertForbidden();
  }
}

9. Assert a command ended without errors

namespace Tests\Feature;

use App\Models\User;
use Carbon\Carbon;
use Tests\TestCase;

class NotifyFreePlanEndsTest extends TestCase
{
  public function testUserCannotSeePostHeOrSheDidNotCreate()
  {
    $user = User::factory()
      ->count(15)
      ->create([
        "plan" => "free",
        "subscribed_at" => Carbon::now()->subDays(15),
      ]);

    $this->artisan("notify:free-plan-ends")
      ->assertSuccessful()
      ->expectsOutputToContain("15 users notified.");
  }
}

11. Assert a json content is sent

namespace Tests\Feature;

use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithFaker;
use Tests\TestCase;

class TaskControllerTest extends TestCase
{
  use WithFaker;

  public function testAuthenticatedUserCanCreateTask()
  {
    $user = User::factory()->create();
    $name = $this->faker->name();
    $dueAt = $this->faker->date();

    $this->actingAs($user)
      ->post(route("task.store", [
        "name" => $name,
        "due_at" => $dueAt,
      ])
      ->assertJson([
        "name" => $name,
        "dueAt" => $dueAt,
      ]);
  }
}

Conclusion

I hope this post gave you the motivation to start testing if you did not get used to it yet! When you feel ready, head on the Laravel Test documentation, this is a gold mine and you will find other awesome assertions.

Please also share your snippets in the comments section if you also have some quick and easy ways to test things in Laravel 🙏

Happy testing 🧪