Question

I am trying to test a controller function that accepts a json payload.

As per the documentation of testAction() this can be done via setting $options[‘data’] to the appropriate string. Its not working for me.
See the documentation quoted here: http://api20.cakephp.org/class/controller-test-case (Please scroll down the the testAction() section).

Here is my test case.

public function testCreate(){
    //Some code here
    $this->testAction('/shippingbatches/create', array('data' => '[3,6]', 'method' => 'post'));
    //Some more code here
}

Here is my controller function

public function create(){        
    debug($this->request); //This debug shows me an empty array in $this->request->data
    ob_flush();
    $order_ids = json_decode($this->request->data);
    //Some more code here
}

The first line of the controller function is showing me an empty array in $this->request->data. If the ‘data’ passed from the testAction() is an actual array it comes in nice & fine. But not when it is set to a string (unlike it says in the documentation).

Here is the output of the debug.

object(Mock_CakeRequest_ef4431a5) {
    params => array(
        'plugin' => null,
        'controller' => 'shippingbatches',
        'action' => 'create',
        'named' => array(),
        'pass' => array(),
        'return' => (int) 1,
        'bare' => (int) 1,
        'requested' => (int) 1
    )
    data => array()
    query => array(
        'case' => 'Controller\ShippingBatchesController'
    )
    url => 'shippingbatches/create'
    base => ''
    webroot => '/'
    here => '/shippingbatches/create'
}

Please help.

Gurpreet

Answer 1

When passing data like that, you must receive it using CakeRequest::input().

public function create() {
    $json = $this->request->input('json_decode', true);  
    debug($json);
}

I should note that I discovered this by reading Cake’s test cases for ControllerTestCase::testAction. Reading test cases can give you insight into how Cake’s internals work and give you hints on writing tests.