Using Spring's mockMvc, how do I check if the returned data contains part of a string?

Question

I’m using Spring 3.2.11.RELEASE and JUnit 4.11. Using the Spring mockMvc framework, how do I check if a method returning JSON data contains a particular JSON element? I have

    mockMvc.perform(get("/api/users/" + id))
        .andExpect(status().isOk())
        .andExpect(content().string("{\"id\":\"" + id + "\"}")); 

but this checks for an exact match against the string returned and I’d rather check if the JSON string contains the value contained by my local field “id”.

Solution 1

Looks like you can pass a Hamcrest Matcher instead of a string there. Should be something like:

mockMvc.perform(get("/api/users/" + id))
    .andExpect(status().isOk())
    .andExpect(content().string(org.hamcrest.Matchers.containsString("{\"id\":\"" + id + "\"}"))); 

Solution 2

A more appropriate way to do that is:

mockMvc.perform(get("/api/users/" + id))
    .andExpect(status().isOk())
    .andExpect(jsonPath("$.id", org.hamcrest.Matchers.is(id)));

Solution 3

I know it's been too many years, but still, I hope my answer can be useful for someone =) When I need to check if a json value form a response contains some string I use containsString method:

mockMvc.perform(post("/url")
        .contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE)
        .andExpect(status().isOk())
        .andExpect(jsonPath("$.field1").value(value1))
        .andExpect(jsonPath("$.field2", containsString(value2)));

Solution 4

Another way you can get to the String respone of a mockMVC requst so you can compare or manipulate it in other ways is as follows:

MvcResult result = mockMvc.perform(get("/api/users/" + id))
    .andExpect(status().isOk())
    .andReturn();
String stringResult = result.getResponse().getContentAsString();
boolean doesContain = stringResult.contains("{\"id\":\"" + id + "\"}");

You could also wrap the whole thing in an assertTrue while still using String methods:

assertTrue(mockMvc.perform(get("/api/users/" + id))
    .andExpect(status().isOk())
    .andReturn()
    .getResponse()
    .getContentAsString()
    .contains("{\"id\":\"" + id + "\"}");

I prefer the approved answer, just thought I would submit this as another alternative.

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