A simple way to test your APIs with Laravel

Software Testing is a complex and deep argument, so this short story is for educational purposes because I think is very important, for our project maintenance and scalability, to test every aspect of our Software Business Logic.

I will show you a “stupid” but simple example of a Feature Test based on a fresh installation of Laravel 10.

The first step is configuring our phpunit.xml file and setting these parameters:

<env name="APP_ENV" value="testing"/>
<env name="BCRYPT_ROUNDS" value="4"/>
<env name="CACHE_DRIVER" value="array"/>
<env name="DB_CONNECTION" value="sqlite"/>
<env name="DB_DATABASE" value=":memory:"/>
<env name="MAIL_MAILER" value="array"/>
<env name="QUEUE_CONNECTION" value="sync"/>
<env name="SESSION_DRIVER" value="array"/>
<env name="TELESCOPE_ENABLED" value="false"/>

Our “fake” business logic is based on the User model (default Laravel model) and, for convenience, is written directly into “web” route file:

// routes/web.php

Route::post('/user', function () {

    // Just for testing scopes
    request()->validate([
        'name' => 'required',
        'email' => 'required|email|unique:users,email',
        'password' => [
            'required',
            Password::min(8)
                    ->mixedCase()
                    ->letters()
                    ->numbers()
                    ->symbols()
                    ->uncompromised()
        ]
    ]);

    $user = new User();
    $user->name = request()->name;
    $user->email = request()->email;
    $user->password = request()->password;
    $user->save();

    // "Dummy" logic
    $savedUser = User::where('email', request()->email)->first();
    return response()->json($savedUser);
});

Now we are ready to create a Test class in our Test Suite:

php artisan make:test UserTest 

In this new class, we will create some test cases about our logic, e.g.:

// tests/Feature/UserTest.php

namespace Tests\Feature;

use Tests\TestCase;
use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Session;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\RefreshDatabase;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\DatabaseMigrations;

class UserTest extends TestCase
{
    use DatabaseMigrations;
    use RefreshDatabase;

    protected $name = 'John Doe';
    protected $email = 'john.doe@gmail.com';
    protected $password = '!C0mp1ex#S3cr3T-Pa55_';
    protected $wrongEmailFormat = 'Simple String';
    protected $weakPassword = '123456';
    protected $compromisedPassword = 'password';

    public function test_is_it_possible_to_create_users(): void
    {
        Session::start();

        $response = $this->post('/user', [
            'name' => $this->name,
            'email' => $this->email,
            'password' => $this->password,
            '_token' => csrf_token()
        ], [
            'Accept' => 'application/json'
        ]);

        $response->assertJsonFragment([
            'id' => 1,
            'name' => $this->name,
            'email' => $this->email,
            'email_verified_at' => NULL
        ]);

        $response->assertStatus(200);

    }


    public function test_user_email_has_to_be_unique(): void
    {
        Session::start();

        $user = new User();
        $user->name = $this->name;
        $user->email = $this->email;
        $user->password = 'Secret';
        $user->save();

        $response = $this->post('/user', [
            'name' => $this->name,
            'email' => $this->email,
            'password' => $this->password,
            '_token' => csrf_token()
        ], [
            'Accept' => 'application/json'
        ]);

        $response->assertStatus(422);

    }

    public function test_user_email_has_to_be_real(): void
    {
        Session::start();

        $response = $this->post('/user', [
            'name' => $this->name,
            'email' => $this->wrongEmailFormat,
            'password' => $this->password,
            '_token' => csrf_token()
        ], [
            'Accept' => 'application/json'
        ]);

        $response->assertStatus(422);

    }

    public function test_user_password_has_to_be_complex(): void
    {
        Session::start();

        $response = $this->post('/user', [
            'name' => $this->name,
            'email' => $this->email,
            'password' => $this->weakPassword,
            '_token' => csrf_token()
        ], [
            'Accept' => 'application/json'
        ]);

        $response->assertStatus(422);

    }

    public function test_user_password_has_to_be_uncompromised(): void
    {
        Session::start();

        $response = $this->post('/user', [
            'name' => $this->name,
            'email' => $this->email,
            'password' => $this->compromisedPassword,
            '_token' => csrf_token()
        ], [
            'Accept' => 'application/json'
        ]);

        $response->assertStatus(422);

    }

}

To run tests:

php artisan test

Other test snippets…

private function createAdminUser()
{
    Role::create(['name' => 'admin']);
    $user = User::factory()->create();
    $user->assignRole('admin');

    return $user;
}

private function mockRequest($user, $endpoint, $method = 'GET', array $payload = [])
{
    return $this->withHeaders([
        'Accepted' => 'application/json',
        'Authorization' => ($user) ? 'Bearer '.$user->createToken('test-token')->plainTextToken : '',
    ])->json($method, $endpoint, $payload);
}

public function test_count_index(): void
{
    Customer::factory()->count(3)->person()->create();

    $response = $this->mockRequest($this->createAdminUser(), '/api/customers');

    $response->assertJsonCount(3);
}

public function test_correct_customers_store(): void
{
    $this->seed();

    $response = $this->mockRequest(
        $this->createAdminUser(),
        '/api/customers',
        'POST',
        [
            'firstname' => 'John',
            'lastname' => 'Doe',
            'phone' => '+012 123456789',
            'email' => 'john@doe.ltd',
        ]
    );

    $response->assertStatus(200);

    $this->assertDatabaseHas('customers', [
        'id' => 1,
        'firstname' => 'John',
        'lastname' => 'Doe',
        'phone' => '+012 123456789',
        'email' => 'john@doe.ltd',
    ]);
}

For more info: https://laravel.com/docs/10.x/testing

Hope you will cover all your code with amazing tests :)