Laravel phpunit testing controller which returns view with data

Question

Am trying to adapt TDD on laravel, but am getting trouble to test controller which queries a collection of records and returns view with data when I run my test it returns an error message that trying to get the id of undefined property

// my test

namespace Tests\Unit;

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


class JobApplicationTest extends TestCase
{
use WithoutMiddleware;
/** @test */
public function user_can_see_all_open_positions()
{
    // when user visit apply for a job page
    $this->withoutExceptionHandling();
   $response = $this->get(route('positions.open'));
   $response->assertSuccessful();
   $response->assertViewIs('positions.open.index');
   $response->assertViewHas('positions');
}


}

// My controller

 public function open(Request $request)
{

    //TODO support additional filters & searches

    //initialize query
    $query = Position::query()->which()->are()->open();

    //paginate query result
    $positions = $query->paginate(config('app.defaults.pageSize'));

    $data = [
        'route_title' => 'Open Job Positions',
        'route_description' => 'Available Job Positions',
        'positions' => $positions,
    ];

    return view('positions.open.index', $data);
}

so the problem is when I run text it looks view is returned with no data while view references data returned to the controller

error message when running test

1) Tests\Unit\JobApplicationTest::user_can_see_all_open_positions ErrorException: Trying to get property 'id' of non-object (View: /var/www/html/ipf-projects/niajiri/resources/views/pos itions/open/index.blade.php)

<h3> 
    <a href="{{ route('positions.preview', [
        'id'   => $position->id,
        'slug' => str_slug($position->title)
    ]) }}" class="text-navy"> 
         {!! $position->title !!} - {!! $position->organization->name !!} 
    </a>
</h3>

Spholt Spholt · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-21T15:26:44

Within 'positions.open.index' it is trying to access an id property on a non-object.

This could be because your $query does not return any Position objects (i.e. $data->positions returns an empty Collection)

When running unit tests it is likely that it is creating a temporary database (sqlite by default) which will not be populated with any data. Try adding some Positions in your test like so:

/** @test */
public function user_can_see_all_open_positions()
{
   // Create Positions
   Position::create([/* Some data here */]);
   Position::create([/* Some data here */]);

   // when user visit apply for a job page
   $this->withoutExceptionHandling();
   $response = $this->get(route('positions.open'));
   $response->assertSuccessful();
   $response->assertViewIs('positions.open.index');
   $response->assertViewHas('positions');
}

Laravel phpunit testing controller which returns view with data

1 Answers