Spring Boot Integration Testing (Slice and Dice)

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You can achieve some amazing results with Spring Boot Test for your Integration Testing. I’ll be covering how to execute different groups (sub-sets) of Integration Tests which cover different layers (or slices) of your application. Applying this layered approach will give you increased flexibility and the opportunity to identity problem areas earlier on.

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Spring Boot Integration Test Slices

Spring Boot Test (1.5.0) now offers a convenient way to run an Integration Test against an isolated layer or “slice” of our application. This is great since it gives us the opportunity to run a scaled down test which can pin-point problem areas early on before we write more encompassing Integration Tests. Once those tests pass, we can move up the application stack with more confidence!

We’ll be running a MongoDB Slice Integration Test (S.I.T ; I just made that up!) via @DataMongoTest which will ensure we can …

Correctly load our Spring ApplicationContext
Inject a MongoTemplate to confirm a proper connection can be established (amongst other things)
Scan our @Document entity classes
Use our @Repository Classes to ensure correct mappings and Queries.

The @…Test annotations (see Spring Boot Reference Guide for full list) are all used for specific slice testing which are supported through the magic of auto-configuration, thus getting your test setup quickly.

Basically, this asserts that the Spring Data MongoDB components are correctly configured and functioning properly. The auto-configuration will handle setting up an embedded MongoDB instance for you if you have the following dependency available in your pom.xml

 <dependency>
   <groupId>de.flapdoodle.embed</groupId>
   <artifactId>de.flapdoodle.embed.mongo</artifactId>
   <scope>test</scope>
 </dependency>

<groupId>de.flapdoodle.embed</groupId>

<artifactId>de.flapdoodle.embed.mongo</artifactId>

</dependency>

The MongoDB Integration Test Slice

The following Test Class asserts that our MongoDB Slice is working properly. Again, this is all possible via the @DataMongoTest annotation.

You can get this source code and more at MVP Java’s GitHub Account

@IfProfileValue(name = ACTIVE_PROFILES_PROPERTY_NAME, value = "it-embedded")
@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
@DataMongoTest
public class MongoSliceIT {

    String collectionName;
    LogRecord logRecToInsert;

    @Autowired
    private MongoTemplate mongoTemplate;

    @Autowired
    private LogRepository logRepository;

    @Before
    public void before() {
        collectionName = "logs";
        logRecToInsert = new LogRecord("INFO", "Test Info Log messge");
    }

    @After
    public void after() {
        mongoTemplate.dropCollection(collectionName);
    }

    @Test
    public void checkMongoTemplate() {
        assertNotNull(mongoTemplate);
        DBCollection createdCollection = mongoTemplate.createCollection(collectionName);
        assertTrue(mongoTemplate.collectionExists(collectionName));
    }

    @Test
    public void checkDocumentAndQuery() {
        mongoTemplate.save(logRecToInsert, collectionName);
        Query query = new Query(new Criteria()
                .andOperator(Criteria.where("level").regex(logRecToInsert.getLevel()),
                        Criteria.where("message").regex(logRecToInsert.getMessage())));

        LogRecord retrievedLogRecord = mongoTemplate.findOne(query, LogRecord.class, collectionName);
        assertNotNull(retrievedLogRecord);
    }

    @Test
    public void checkLogRepository() {
        assertNotNull(logRepository);
        LogRecord savedLogRecord = logRepository.save(logRecToInsert);
        assertNotNull(logRepository.findOne(savedLogRecord.getId()));
    }

}

@IfProfileValue(name = ACTIVE_PROFILES_PROPERTY_NAME, value = "it-embedded")

@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)

@DataMongoTest

public class MongoSliceIT {

String collectionName;

LogRecord logRecToInsert;

@Autowired

private MongoTemplate mongoTemplate;

@Autowired

private LogRepository logRepository;

@Before

public void before() {

collectionName = "logs";

logRecToInsert = new LogRecord("INFO", "Test Info Log messge");

}

@After

public void after() {

mongoTemplate.dropCollection(collectionName);

}

@Test

public void checkMongoTemplate() {

assertNotNull(mongoTemplate);

DBCollection createdCollection = mongoTemplate.createCollection(collectionName);

assertTrue(mongoTemplate.collectionExists(collectionName));

}

@Test

public void checkDocumentAndQuery() {

mongoTemplate.save(logRecToInsert, collectionName);

Query query = new Query(new Criteria()

.andOperator(Criteria.where("level").regex(logRecToInsert.getLevel()),

Criteria.where("message").regex(logRecToInsert.getMessage())));

LogRecord retrievedLogRecord = mongoTemplate.findOne(query, LogRecord.class, collectionName);

assertNotNull(retrievedLogRecord);

}

@Test

public void checkLogRepository() {

assertNotNull(logRepository);

LogRecord savedLogRecord = logRepository.save(logRecToInsert);

assertNotNull(logRepository.findOne(savedLogRecord.getId()));

}

The Integration Test above gets executed if the “it-embedded” Spring Profile has been specified via System Properly. This is verified by the @IfProfileValue annotation which is wired to check the System Property “spring.profiles.active” via its ProfileValueSource implementation; named SystemProfileValueSource. If it hasn’t been activated, then the test is skipped.

Notice that there are no Services, Controllers, Web Server involved here; that’s the point! If that slice doesn’t work, what’s the point of moving on? In any event, @DataMongoTest does not support that by default (more on that below).

Moving up the Application Stack

We can perform wider reaching Integration Tests, such as on a real MongoDB instance running locally or include an embedded Tomcat web server. Maybe you want an additional @Service, @Component or @Controller class?

If you want to widen the @DataMongoTest slice test to include a @Service class then simply add it into the include filter like so ..

@DataMongoTest(includeFilters = @Filter(Service.class))

1	@DataMongoTest(includeFilters = @Filter(Service.class))

Now you’re able to dependency inject a @Service into your Integration Test.

Going All Out with @SpringBootTest

Now that we’re felling confident with the passing Slice Integration Tests, we can go even wider now. We’ll start using the @SpringBootTest annotation which is like a regular Spring TestContext but is more geared towards a Spring Boot environment in order to get your ApplicationContext loaded for your Integration Tests.

It also packs a nice punch since we can use its webEnvironment attribute to load either a mocked or real servlet container environment (or NONE, if that’s what you want). It even provides us with the opportunity to dependency inject a TestRestTemplate into our tests, nice!

Here’s an example with a real embedded Tomcat Servlet Container running on a random port (reduces potential port conflicts) and an embedded MongoDB instance running.

@IfProfileValue(name = ACTIVE_PROFILES_PROPERTY_NAME, value = "it-embedded")
@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)
@EnableAutoConfiguration
public class MongoTomcatIT {

    @Autowired
    private TestRestTemplate restTemplate;

    @Test
    public void ensureLoggingWorks() {
        LogRecord logRecord = new LogRecord("INFO", "This is a test");
        ResponseEntity responseEntity = restTemplate.postForEntity(
                "/log", logRecord, LogRecord.class);
        LogRecord logRecordReturned = responseEntity.getBody();

        assertNotNull("Should have an PK", logRecordReturned.getId());
    }
}

@IfProfileValue(name = ACTIVE_PROFILES_PROPERTY_NAME, value = "it-embedded")

@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)

@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)

@EnableAutoConfiguration

public class MongoTomcatIT {

@Autowired

private TestRestTemplate restTemplate;

@Test

public void ensureLoggingWorks() {

LogRecord logRecord = new LogRecord("INFO", "This is a test");

ResponseEntity responseEntity = restTemplate.postForEntity(

"/log", logRecord, LogRecord.class);

LogRecord logRecordReturned = responseEntity.getBody();

assertNotNull("Should have an PK", logRecordReturned.getId());

}

@SpringBootTest is not part of the spring-boot-test-autoconfigure project, therefore it has no knowledge of auto-configuration. This is why you don’t see it used with @DataMongoTest, which is all about auto-configuration and slices.

By adding the @EnableAutoConfiguration we are allowing the embedded MongoDB instance to be used as we did before. Again, this test only executes if the “it-embedded” Spring Profile was activated via System Property.

Integration Test with a Real MongoDB Instance

Let’s say we also wanted to test another layer, this time with a locally available MongoDB instance running on your developer machine (not embedded). This IntegrationTest would not rely on the auto-configuration magic, so remove the @EnableAutoConfiguration.

@IfProfileValue(name = ACTIVE_PROFILES_PROPERTY_NAME, value = "it")
@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)
public class RealMongoEmbeddTomcatIT {
    @Autowired
    private TestRestTemplate restTemplate;

    @Test
    public void ensureLoggingWorks() {
        LogRecord logRecord = new LogRecord("INFO", "This is a test on real monngoDB");
        ResponseEntity responseEntity = restTemplate.postForEntity(
                "/log", logRecord, LogRecord.class);
        LogRecord logRecordReturned = responseEntity.getBody();

        assertNotNull("Should have an PK", logRecordReturned.getId());
    }
}

@IfProfileValue(name = ACTIVE_PROFILES_PROPERTY_NAME, value = "it")

@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)

@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)

public class RealMongoEmbeddTomcatIT {

@Autowired

private TestRestTemplate restTemplate;

@Test

public void ensureLoggingWorks() {

LogRecord logRecord = new LogRecord("INFO", "This is a test on real monngoDB");

ResponseEntity responseEntity = restTemplate.postForEntity(

"/log", logRecord, LogRecord.class);

LogRecord logRecordReturned = responseEntity.getBody();

assertNotNull("Should have an PK", logRecordReturned.getId());

}

This time we are only executing the test if Spring Profile “it” has been set (signifying a non-embedded mongoDB Integration Test)

Now we have 2 different types of Integration Tests.

Two Tests with Spring Profile “it-embedded“
One Test with Spring Profile “it“

How do we go About Selectively Executing These Tests?

To achieve that flexibility, we need to do the following 3 things …

First you need to setup the mongoDB configuration properties so that they can be read by Spring. The embedded and real mongoDB instances will surely have different IP’s right !

Setup all these MongoDB configuration properties in separate property files which follow the naming convention application-{$profile}.properties This allows Spring to pick up the correct file based on the correct profile activated by you (I’ll show you how to do that in a minute).

For our example, we will have 2 files …

application-it.properties
application-it-embedded.properties

** Obviously you would have more in a real app **

application-it.properties

application-it-embedded.properties

** Obviously you would have more in a real app **

Below is a small example of the application-it.properties file. The spring.autoconfigure.exclude key is specified in order to stop loading the flapdoodle embedded mongoDB. Since its an available test dependency. Spring Boot tries to auto-configure it for you too but we don’t need it. We simply say, no thanks (exclude)!

spring.autoconfigure.exclude=org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.mongo.embedded.EmbeddedMongoAutoConfiguration
mongodb.database=testDB
mongodb.host=localhost
mongodb.port=27017

spring.autoconfigure.exclude=org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.mongo.embedded.EmbeddedMongoAutoConfiguration

mongodb.database=testDB

mongodb.host=localhost

mongodb.port=27017

Secondly, We’ll create a @Configuration Class for Spring Boot to pick up in order to properly build our MongoTemplate. Notice the @Profile (“!it-embedded). That means associate the following Spring @Beans to every Spring Profile but NOT (!) the profile named “it-embedded”. If you don’t do this, you’ll get errors due to auto-configuration.

@Configuration
@Profile("!it-embedded") //or else problems when using @EnableAutoConfiguration
public class MongoConfigProfiles {

    private final MongoProperties mongoProperties;

    public MongoConfigProfiles(MongoProperties mongoProperties) {
        this.mongoProperties = mongoProperties;
    }

    @Bean
    public MongoDbFactory mongoDbFactory() throws Exception {
        MongoClient mongoClient = new MongoClient(mongoProperties.getHost(), mongoProperties.getPort());
        return new SimpleMongoDbFactory(mongoClient, mongoProperties.getDatabase());
    }

    @Bean
    public MongoTemplate mongoTemplate() throws Exception {
        MongoTemplate mongoTemplate = new MongoTemplate(mongoDbFactory());
        return mongoTemplate;
    }
}


@Component
public class MongoProperties {

    private final Environment environment;

    @Autowired
    public MongoProperties(Environment environment) {
        this.environment = environment;
    }

    public String getDatabase() {
        return environment.getProperty("mongodb.database");
    }

    public String getHost() {
        return environment.getProperty("mongodb.host");
    }

    public int getPort() {
        return environment.getProperty("mongodb.port", Integer.class);
    }
}

@Configuration

@Profile("!it-embedded") //or else problems when using @EnableAutoConfiguration

public class MongoConfigProfiles {

private final MongoProperties mongoProperties;

public MongoConfigProfiles(MongoProperties mongoProperties) {

this.mongoProperties = mongoProperties;

}

@Bean

public MongoDbFactory mongoDbFactory() throws Exception {

MongoClient mongoClient = new MongoClient(mongoProperties.getHost(), mongoProperties.getPort());

return new SimpleMongoDbFactory(mongoClient, mongoProperties.getDatabase());

}

@Bean

public MongoTemplate mongoTemplate() throws Exception {

MongoTemplate mongoTemplate = new MongoTemplate(mongoDbFactory());

return mongoTemplate;

}

@Component

public class MongoProperties {

private final Environment environment;

@Autowired

public MongoProperties(Environment environment) {

this.environment = environment;

}

public String getDatabase() {

return environment.getProperty("mongodb.database");

}

public String getHost() {

return environment.getProperty("mongodb.host");

}

public int getPort() {

return environment.getProperty("mongodb.port", Integer.class);

}

The great thing about the @Configuration Class above is that Spring Boot will create the MongoDbFactory and MongoTemplate using the correct application-{$profile}.properties file based on the active Spring profile specified via System Property. That means, we don’t need to duplicate code and add different @Profile (“…”) annotations or use numerous @Value annotations to extract property values.

Lastly, specify the active Spring profile from your project root directory on the CLI (or IDE) …

mvn clean verify -Dspring.profiles.active=it
-OR-
mvn clean verify -Dspring.profiles.active=it-embedded

mvn clean verify -Dspring.profiles.active=it

-OR-

mvn clean verify -Dspring.profiles.active=it-embedded

Once that’s done, it’s up to @IfProfileValue to do its job and you’ll see the correct sub-set of Integration Tests execute. You’re now ready to slice and dice 🙂

Extra extra, read all about it! Get AI (Artificial Intelligence) to write all you Spring Integration tests for you! Check out my post and YouTube video.

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