Laravel testing, get JSON content

Question

In Laravel's unit test, I can test a JSON API like that:

$this->post('/user', ['name' => 'Sally'])
    ->seeJson([
        'created' => true,
    ]);

But what if I want to use the response. How can I get the JSON response (as an array) using $this->post()?

`$this->getResponse()->getContent()` might do the trick. – ceejayoz Aug 25 '15 at 16:01 — ceejayoz, Aug 25 '15 at 16:01

score 99 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 23 '16 at 08:17

99

Proper way to get the content is:

$content = $this->get('/v1/users/1')->decodeResponseJson();

answered Jun 23 '16 at 08:17

Jan Tlapák

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8
10

3

I agree. Works in 5.4. – ken-mills Nov 02 '17 at 19:35
Works in 5.7 too. – Niraj Shah Jan 16 '19 at 23:56
6.3.3: throws an exception that decodeResponseJson() has been deprecated. Would check the doc but we all know how pointless that is... – May 07 '20 at 21:12
The full list of methods you can use is in `Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\TestResponse` class (Laravel 6 lts), in addition to Docs. – Alessandro Mar 19 '21 at 14:46
1

Works for 8.40 too – XeusKing Jan 31 '22 at 03:04

score 51 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 16 '22 at 01:49

51

Currently, in 5.3 this is working...

$content = $this->get('/v1/users/1')->response->getContent();

However, it does break the chain since response returns the response and not the test runner. So, you should make your chainable assertions before fetching the response, like so...

$content = $this->get('/v1/users/1')->seeStatusCode(200)->response->getContent();

edited Nov 16 '22 at 01:49

medilies

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answered Sep 14 '16 at 03:39

Mike McLin

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5

Using in Laravel 7, ``decodeResponseJson`` is the right method. This returns string. – Mehrdad Shokri Mar 26 '20 at 11:05
How can i see what methods are available for `response`? – Robert Mar 01 '21 at 16:07

Kalema Edgar · Answer 3 · 2021-10-24T22:28:04.430

As at Laravel 8, this worked for me. I was returning an automatically generated field (balance) after the POST request has created the entity. The response was in the structure {"attributes":{"balance":12345}}

$response = $this->postJson('api/v1/authors', [
    'firstName' => 'John',
    'lastName' => 'Doe',
])->assertStatus(201);

$balance = $response->decodeResponseJson()['attributes']['balance'];

decodeResponseJson will pick the response and transform it to an array for manipulation. Using getContent() returns json and you will have to use json_decode on the returned data to turn it into an array.

1

Works in Version 8.+ – Austin Jenkins May 27 '21 at 16:25

score 13 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 21 '16 at 16:57

13

I like to use the json method when working with json, instead of ->get()

$data = $this->json('GET', $url)->seeStatusCode(200)->decodeResponseJson();

answered Nov 21 '16 at 16:57

cmac

3,123
6
36
49

score 9 · Answer 5 · edited Sep 14 '16 at 07:33

9

I hit a similar problem and could not get $this->getResponse()->getContent() working with the built in $this->get() method. I tried several variations with no success.

Instead I had to change the call to return the full http response and get the content out of that.

// Original (not working)
$content = $this->get('/v1/users/1')->getContent();

// New (working)
$content = $this->call('GET', '/v1/users/1')->getContent();

edited Sep 14 '16 at 07:33

rap-2-h

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answered Sep 02 '15 at 20:32

Daniel

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The test case doesn't have a `getContent()` method. The `get()` method is a fluent helper that returns the test case (so you can chain multiple assertions). The test case does have a `response` property that will return your response object (instead of the test case). Then you can call `getContent()` on that response object. See my answer for more details. – Mike McLin Sep 14 '16 at 03:43

score 7 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 09 '19 at 18:42

7

Simple way:

$this->getJson('api/threads')->content()

answered Oct 09 '19 at 18:42

Mwthreex

913
1
11
24

2

Use json() here instead of content() to also json decode the response data – BARNZ Oct 23 '19 at 04:30
Also you can use getOriginalContent(), as it return in array. – GrigorAtaryan Nov 27 '21 at 14:00

score 6 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '21 at 16:01

6

Found a better way:

$response = $this->json('POST', '/order', $data);
$responseData = $response->getOriginalContent(); // saves the response as an array
$responseData['value']  // you can now access the array values

This method returns the response json as an array.

edited May 23 '21 at 16:01

Macdonald

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answered Jan 31 '19 at 22:05

Toby

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score 5 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 22 '18 at 07:12

5

Just want to share, I have used the same in $this->json() like:

$response = $this->json('POST', '/order', $data)->response->getContent();

But I added one more line to use json response and decode otherwise decodeResponseJson() was not working for me.

$json = json_decode($response);

answered Sep 22 '18 at 07:12

Shadman

755
2
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19

Might have been a version issue – cmac Dec 28 '18 at 03:35
Same! I prefer `json_decode($response->getContent(), true)` – medilies Nov 14 '22 at 18:38

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 06 '22 at 13:53

0

You can just call:

$data = $response->json();

answered Aug 06 '22 at 13:53

Eleandro Duzentos

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score -1 · Answer 10 · edited May 09 '22 at 14:53

-1

$response = $this->json('POST', '/products', $data);
$data = $response->getData();

edited May 09 '22 at 14:53

Dharman

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answered May 09 '22 at 14:28

Judson Melo Bandeira

1

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the [help center](https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-answer). – Ethan Sep 04 '22 at 19:19

Laravel testing, get JSON content

10 Answers10