Question

In one of my unit tests, I am having some difficulty getting a mocked method to executed. I have the following test code:

void testExample() {
    def mockICFService = new MockFor(ICFService)
    ...

    //Mock the methods
    controller.metaClass.icfList = { def person ->
        println "icfList"
        return [new IC(conceptId:'12345')]
    }
    mockICFService.demand.getAllIC(1..1) { def id, def withHist, def appId ->
        println "mocking service"
        return new Person()
    }
    ...

    def model = controller.detail()
}

Inside of detail in my controller class I create a Person via the ICFService’s getAllIC(). This part works correctly. Later in the function, however, there is a call to icfList (which is defined in the controller). Through println’s I have determined that the call is still being made, although it is returning an empty array. I believe that this is because the array is populated based on data in the servletContext, but in Unit Testing there is no access to that (hence my trying to mock it out).

Does anyone know how to force the test to use the mocked version of controller.icfList instead of calling the actual method in controller?

Answer 1

When I try your code, what blows up for me is the mocked service, and the part that works properly is the mocked-out icfList() method. The opposite of your observation, interestingly. For what it’s worth, here’s what I did:

First replace new MockFor() class instantiation with the mockFor() method. Then you need to inject the mock service into the controller.

def mockICFService = mockFor(ICFService)
controller.iCFService = mockICFService.createMock()

By doing the above, only the mocked versions of icfList() and getAllIC() get called, so you are not using the servletContext at all. Check out the Grails testing documentation for more info.