How to perform assertion for a Laravel test with a post request?

Question

I am still very beginner in testing with the laravel framework. Because of this, I performed tests on the endpoints of my api, but for the post request I have problems with the methods assertOk(), assertStatus() and other it returns an error, but when I leave the test without the asserts it returns a warning. Here is my test code

<?php

namespace Tests\Feature;

use Illuminate\Http\Response;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response as HttpResponse;
use Tests\TestCase;

class LocationTest extends TestCase
{
    /**
     * A basic feature test example.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function test_get_all_report()
    {
        Http::fake([
            'http://127.0.0.1:8000/*' => Http::response([
                [
                    "latitude"=> "1.56786467",
                    "longitude"=> "-0.056789685",
                    "message"=> "test test that's a place of risk"  
                ],
                [
                    "latitude"=> "1.56786467",
                    "longitude"=> "-0.056789685",
                    "message"=> "test test that's a place of risk"  
                ]                
            ], 200),
        ]);

        $response = $this->getJson('api/get-all-signal-zone')->assertStatus(200);
    }

    /**
     * A basic feature test example.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function test_get_all_report_catch_error()
    {
        Http::fake([
            'http://127.0.0.1:8000/*' => Http::response([
                [
                    "message"=> "Server error"  
                ]
            ], 500),
        ]);

        $response = $this->getJson('api/get-all-signal-zone')->assertStatus(Response::HTTP_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
    }
    
    /**
     * A basic feature test example.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function test_get_all_report_by_date()
    {
        Http::fake();

        $response = Http::post('http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/get-all-signal-zone-by-date', [
            "date"=> "2022-11-10"
        ]);

    }
}

my route file

<?php

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use App\Http\Controllers\LocationController;
/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| API Routes
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Here is where you can register API routes for your application. These
| routes are loaded by the RouteServiceProvider within a group which
| is assigned the "api" middleware group. Enjoy building your API!
|
*/

Route::middleware('auth:sanctum')->get('/user', function (Request $request) {
    return $request->user();
});

Route::middleware('auth:sanctum')->get('/user', function (Request $request) {
    return $request->user();
});

Route::get('/get-all-signal-zone', [LocationController::class, 'all']);
// Route::get('/get-all-signal-zone-by-date/{date}', [LocationController::class, 'getLocationByDate'])->name('reporting_by_date');
Route::post('/get-all-signal-zone-by-date', [LocationController::class, 'getLocationByDate']);
Route::post('/send-signal-zone', [LocationController::class, 'save']);

And here my controller

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Repositories\Location\LocationRepository;

/**
 * Description of LocationController
 *
 * @author Amoungui
 */
class LocationController extends Controller
{
    public function __construct(LocationRepository $locationRepository) {
        $this->locationRepository = $locationRepository;
    }

    /**
     * Display a listing of the resource.
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function all(){
        return $this->locationRepository->list(); 
    }

    /**
     * View a list of the resource based on a date.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function getLocationByDate(Request $request){
        return $this->locationRepository->getByDate($request->date);
    }

    /**
     * Save a newly created resource in external api.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */    
    public function save(Request $request){
        $response = $this->locationRepository->store($request->all());
        if($response->successful()){
            return response()->json([
                'status' => true,
                'message' => "location submited successfully",
                'data' =>  $request->all()
            ], 201);
        }
        
        return response()->json([
            'data' => null,
            'message' => 'Failed',
        ], 500);
    }
}

I have this error

WARN Tests\Feature\LocationTest ✓ get all report ✓ get all report catch error ! get all report by date → This test did not perform any assertions C:\wamp64\www\backend-11-user-story-reporting-of-a-place-in-danger\tests\Feature\LocationTest.php:61

Tests: 1 risky, 4 passed Time: 0.64s

Answer 1

In Laravel, there is a toolset for mocking anything you need to mock as you can see here. I think you have misunderstood what HTTP::fake() does. This function mocks outgoing HTTP requests in your code and instead returns an answer without executing the request.

if you're mocking your own endpoint (i.e 127.0.0.1:8000/*) you're practically preventing Laravel from sending a request to its endpoint and process it as you're returning a fake answer without ever triggering your controller. So the tests are practically pointless at this state.

The main point of HTTP::fake() (warning, opinion ahead) is to mock calls to external endpoints, for example, if your LocationRepository sends a request to http://not-a-real-location-api.com, you'd want to mock that and assume its response since you don't want your tests triggering actual APIs.

Consider removing the use of Http::fake() entirely since in your case it defeats the purpose of your tests, but just to make this answer whole, note that when Http::fake() is called without parameters it returns a default empty HTTP 200 response.