assertExactJson - False-Positive running

[sfatihk]

• Laravel Version: 5.7.7
• PHP Version: 7.2.9
• Database Driver & Version: MySQL 5.7.19
• PHPUnit : 7.3.5

Description:

I saw this error message when testing my City Model resource show route.
Note: Database freshing after test. And i'm using sqlite for testing but i tested this situation on Mysql; anything change.

---

Error Message

PHPUnit 7.3.5 by Sebastian Bergmann and contributors.

F                                                                   1 / 1 (100%)

Time: 2.46 seconds, Memory: 18.00MB

There was 1 failure:

1) Tests\Unit\app\Http\Controller\Region\CityControllerTest::test_show_func_can_return_true_data
Failed asserting that two strings are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
-'{"data":{"name":"West Fannieland","updated_at":"2018-10-05 20:48:11","created_at":"2018-10-05 20:48:11","id":1},"status":"success"}'
+'{"data":{"created_at":"2018-10-05 20:48:11","id":1,"name":"West Fannieland","updated_at":"2018-10-05 20:48:11"},"status":"success"}'

---

City Model

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class City extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = ['id','name'];
    
}

---

City Controller Show function

public function show(City $city)
    {
        return response()
            ->json([
                "status"=>"success",
                "data"=>$city
            ],200);
    }

---

Test Function

public function test_show_func_can_return_true_data()
    {
        $city = factory(App\City::class)->create();

        $this->json('GET', '/api/cities/'.$city->id)
            ->assertExactJson([
                'status' => 'success',
                'data' => $city
                ]);

    }

---

Beautified JSON response

Expected
{"data":{
    "name":"West Fannieland",
    "updated_at":"2018-10-05 20:48:11",
    "created_at":"2018-10-05 20:48:11",
    "id":1
},"status":"success"}

Actual
{"data":{
    "created_at":"2018-10-05 20:48:11",
    "id":1,
    "name":"West Fannieland",
    "updated_at":"2018-10-05 20:48:11"
},"status":"success"}

Exactly same data but different sorting. Why it acting like this ?

[sfatihk]

it works when I static defined.
All about sorting. Is sorting necessary?

public function test_show_func_can_return_true_data()
    {
        $city = factory(App\City::class)->create([
            "name" => "istanbul",
            "created_at" => "2018-10-15 21:35:46",
            "updated_at" => "2018-10-15 21:35:46"
        ]);

        $this->json('GET', '/api/cities/'.$city->id)
            ->assertExactJson([
                'status' => 'success',
                'data' => [
                    "created_at" => "2018-10-15 21:35:46",
                    "id" => 1,
                    "name" => "istanbul",
                    "updated_at" => "2018-10-15 21:35:46"
                ]
            ]);

    }

[sfatihk]

https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/testing/testing-json-response-in-laravel-54-testing-a-json-array

[svenluijten]

This is because assertExactJson tries to match the given response to the expected array exactly. To test if the given JSON is present (with the attributes in any order), you can use assertJson.

[eric-addcream]

By definition, a json object is unordered.

An object is an unordered collection of zero or more name/value
pairs, where a name is a string and a value is a string, number,
boolean, null, object, or array.

Maybe the assertion should take that into account?

[dbudwin]

I opened an issue the other week related to this as well #25769

I'm also having issues with assertExactJson due to array sorting. However, my issue manifests itself differently.

[alberthuang24]

I have repaired it and you can close the issues @sfatihk

[sfatihk]

Thank you for repair, my friend @HongjiangHuang .
I tested json example in your test case, thats works fine.

But the problem still exists on my test case.

I included your changes #26315, didn't work,
and then i tried on laravel last commit f83eca8, didn't work too .

Best way to test this situation seems like to still write manual json format & sorted values.

I simplified the problem.

public function test_show_func_can_return_true_city(){
  //city model( id, name )
  $city = App\City::create(['name'=>'Istanbul']);
  $city_from_db = App\City::find($city->id);

  $response = new TestResponse((new JsonResponse([$city])));

  $response->assertExactJson([$city_from_db]);
   //->assertJson([$city_from_db]);
  
  //$this->json('GET', '/api/cities/'.$city->id)->assertExactJson(['status' => 'success','data' => $city]);

}

output:

There was 1 failure:

1) Tests\Unit\app\Http\Controller\Region\CityControllerTest::test_show_func_can_return_true_city
Failed asserting that two strings are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
-'[{"id":1,"name":"Istanbul","created_at":"2018-11-13 10:36:30","updated_at":"2018-11-13 10:36:30"}]'
+'[{"created_at":"2018-11-13 10:36:30","id":1,"name":"Istanbul","updated_at":"2018-11-13 10:36:30"}]'

C:\laragon\www\gs-api\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\TestResponse.php:461
C:\laragon\www\gs-api\tests\Unit\app\Http\Controllers\Region\CityControllerTest.php:41

FAILURES!
Tests: 1, Assertions: 1, Failures: 1.

[driesvints]

I really don't see the problem here. I agree that the spec says it should be unordered by why don't you just use assertJson instead?

[alberthuang24]

@sfatihk You can try

public function test_show_func_can_return_true_city(){
  //city model( id, name )
  $city = App\City::create(['name'=>'Istanbul']);
  $city_from_db = App\City::find($city->id);

  $response = new TestResponse((new JsonResponse([$city])));

  $response->assertExactJson([$city_from_db->toArray()]);
}

[sfatihk]

I really don't see the problem here. I agree that the spec says it should be unordered by why don't you just use assertJson instead?

assertjson was printing same error.

@sfatihk You can try

public function test_show_func_can_return_true_city(){
  //city model( id, name )
  $city = App\City::create(['name'=>'Istanbul']);
  $city_from_db = App\City::find($city->id);

  $response = new TestResponse((new JsonResponse([$city])));

  $response->assertExactJson([$city_from_db->toArray()]);
}

Thanks again my friend, @HongjiangHuang
toArray() suggestion and your pr, fixed this issue.