Laravel 7 model factory is throwing "InvalidArgumentException: Unknown formatter" exception for faker

Question

I started building a web application using Laravel 8. I have noticed that a couple of things have changed in the Laravel 8 including model factory. Now, I am writing a unit test using factories for models. But it is throwing error when I fake the fields using faker.

This is my test method.

public function testHasRoleReturnsTrue()
{
    $user = User::factory()->create();
}

As you can see, all I am trying to do right now is that I am trying to create a user using factory. This is my factory class for user model.

<?php

namespace Database\Factories;

use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\Factory;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithFaker;
use Illuminate\Support\Str;

class UserFactory extends Factory
{
    /**
     * The name of the factory's corresponding model.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $model = User::class;

    /**
     * Define the model's default state.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function definition()
    {
        return [
            'name' => $this->faker->name,
            'email' => $this->faker->unique()->safeEmail,
            'email_verified_at' => now(),
            'password' => '$2y$10$92IXUNpkjO0rOQ5byMi.Ye4oKoEa3Ro9llC/.og/at2.uheWG/igi', // password
            'remember_token' => Str::random(10),
        ];
    }
}

As you can see I am faking values using faker. When I run the test, I got the following error.

InvalidArgumentException: Unknown formatter "name"

/var/www/vendor/fzaninotto/faker/src/Faker/Generator.php:248
/var/www/vendor/fzaninotto/faker/src/Faker/Generator.php:228
/var/www/vendor/fzaninotto/faker/src/Faker/Generator.php:274
/var/www/database/factories/UserFactory.php:28
/var/www/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Factories/Factory.php:366
/var/www/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Factories/Factory.php:345
/var/www/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Factories/Factory.php:329
/var/www/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Concerns/GuardsAttributes.php:157
/var/www/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Factories/Factory.php:334
/var/www/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Factories/Factory.php:302
/var/www/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Factories/Factory.php:228

I assume that the error is because I am using faker. But I cannot spot any issue in the code. What is wrong with my code and how can I fix it?

is this a unit test?? – zahid hasan emon Oct 11 '20 at 15:15 — zahid hasan emon, Oct 11 '20 at 15:15

Jakub Truneček · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-11T15:58:41.677

12

It's because you are using this in Unit tests. And it is extending PhpUnit's TestCase.

When you extend Laravel's TestCase it should work.

edited Oct 11 '20 at 15:58

answered Oct 11 '20 at 15:30

Jakub Truneček

8,800
3
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35

Thanks. That was the issue. Cheers. – Wai Yan Hein Oct 11 '20 at 15:43
3

If anyone is using PHPStorm you can also update the "PHPUnit 6 Test" template from `Settings > Editor > File and Code Templates`. Just need to correct the `TestCase` import to use `Tests\TestCase`. – Pablo Oct 11 '20 at 23:03
https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/testing they actually use `use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;` to extend their tests class... – JarsOfJam-Scheduler Nov 27 '20 at 09:52
But that's why you cannot use Faker inside Unit tests, maybe it's on purpose. – Jakub Truneček Dec 01 '20 at 08:46
1

Well, currently I am extending TestCase which boots up Laravel application and it is still complaining about unknown formatters. Composer dependencies are updated, in tinker factories work like expected. I am actually without any clues at this point. – davisdev Feb 06 '21 at 11:24

Laravel 7 model factory is throwing "InvalidArgumentException: Unknown formatter" exception for faker

1 Answers1