Testing

@BootstrapWith is a class-level annotation that is used to configure how the Spring TestContext Framework is bootstrapped. Specifically, @BootstrapWith is used to specify a custom TestContextBootstrapper. Consult the Bootstrapping the TestContext framework section for further details.

@ContextConfiguration defines class-level metadata that is used to determine how to load and configure an ApplicationContext for integration tests. Specifically, @ContextConfiguration declares the application context resource locations or the annotated classes that will be used to load the context.

Resource locations are typically XML configuration files or Groovy scripts located in the classpath; whereas, annotated classes are typically @Configuration classes. However, resource locations can also refer to files and scripts in the file system, and annotated classes can be component classes, etc.

As an alternative or in addition to declaring resource locations or annotated classes, @ContextConfiguration may be used to declare ApplicationContextInitializer classes.

@ContextConfiguration may optionally be used to declare the ContextLoader strategy as well. Note, however, that you typically do not need to explicitly configure the loader since the default loader supports either resource locations or annotated classes as well as initializers.

See Context management and the @ContextConfiguration javadocs for further details.

@WebAppConfiguration is a class-level annotation that is used to declare that the ApplicationContext loaded for an integration test should be a WebApplicationContext. The mere presence of @WebAppConfiguration on a test class ensures that a WebApplicationContext will be loaded for the test, using the default value of "file:src/main/webapp" for the path to the root of the web application (i.e., the resource base path). The resource base path is used behind the scenes to create a MockServletContext which serves as the ServletContext for the test’s WebApplicationContext.

To override the default, specify a different base resource path via the implicit value attribute. Both classpath: and file: resource prefixes are supported. If no resource prefix is supplied the path is assumed to be a file system resource.

Note that @WebAppConfiguration must be used in conjunction with @ContextConfiguration, either within a single test class or within a test class hierarchy. See the @WebAppConfiguration javadocs for further details.

@ContextHierarchy is a class-level annotation that is used to define a hierarchy of ApplicationContexts for integration tests. @ContextHierarchy should be declared with a list of one or more @ContextConfiguration instances, each of which defines a level in the context hierarchy. The following examples demonstrate the use of @ContextHierarchy within a single test class; however, @ContextHierarchy can also be used within a test class hierarchy.

If you need to merge or override the configuration for a given level of the context hierarchy within a test class hierarchy, you must explicitly name that level by supplying the same value to the name attribute in @ContextConfiguration at each corresponding level in the class hierarchy. See Context hierarchies and the @ContextHierarchy javadocs for further examples.

@ActiveProfiles is a class-level annotation that is used to declare which bean definition profiles should be active when loading an ApplicationContext for an integration test.

See Context configuration with environment profiles and the @ActiveProfiles javadocs for examples and further details.

@TestPropertySource is a class-level annotation that is used to configure the locations of properties files and inlined properties to be added to the set of PropertySources in the Environment for an ApplicationContext loaded for an integration test.

Test property sources have higher precedence than those loaded from the operating system’s environment or Java system properties as well as property sources added by the application declaratively via @PropertySource or programmatically. Thus, test property sources can be used to selectively override properties defined in system and application property sources. Furthermore, inlined properties have higher precedence than properties loaded from resource locations.

The following example demonstrates how to declare a properties file from the classpath.

The following example demonstrates how to declare inlined properties.

@DirtiesContext indicates that the underlying Spring ApplicationContext has been dirtied during the execution of a test (i.e., modified or corrupted in some manner — for example, by changing the state of a singleton bean) and should be closed. When an application context is marked dirty, it is removed from the testing framework’s cache and closed. As a consequence, the underlying Spring container will be rebuilt for any subsequent test that requires a context with the same configuration metadata.

@DirtiesContext can be used as both a class-level and method-level annotation within the same class or class hierarchy. In such scenarios, the ApplicationContext is marked as dirty before or after any such annotated method as well as before or after the current test class, depending on the configured methodMode and classMode.

The following examples explain when the context would be dirtied for various configuration scenarios:

If @DirtiesContext is used in a test whose context is configured as part of a context hierarchy via @ContextHierarchy, the hierarchyMode flag can be used to control how the context cache is cleared. By default an exhaustive algorithm will be used that clears the context cache including not only the current level but also all other context hierarchies that share an ancestor context common to the current test; all ApplicationContexts that reside in a sub-hierarchy of the common ancestor context will be removed from the context cache and closed. If the exhaustive algorithm is overkill for a particular use case, the simpler current level algorithm can be specified instead, as seen below.

For further details regarding the EXHAUSTIVE and CURRENT_LEVEL algorithms see the DirtiesContext.HierarchyMode javadocs.

@TestExecutionListeners defines class-level metadata for configuring the TestExecutionListener implementations that should be registered with the TestContextManager. Typically, @TestExecutionListeners is used in conjunction with @ContextConfiguration.

@TestExecutionListeners supports inherited listeners by default. See the javadocs for an example and further details.

@Commit indicates that the transaction for a transactional test method should be committed after the test method has completed. @Commit can be used as a direct replacement for @Rollback(false) in order to more explicitly convey the intent of the code. Analogous to @Rollback, @Commit may also be declared as a class-level or method-level annotation.

@Rollback indicates whether the transaction for a transactional test method should be rolled back after the test method has completed. If true, the transaction is rolled back; otherwise, the transaction is committed (see also @Commit). Rollback semantics for integration tests in the Spring TestContext Framework default to true even if @Rollback is not explicitly declared.

When declared as a class-level annotation, @Rollback defines the default rollback semantics for all test methods within the test class hierarchy. When declared as a method-level annotation, @Rollback defines rollback semantics for the specific test method, potentially overriding class-level @Rollback or @Commit semantics.

@BeforeTransaction indicates that the annotated void method should be executed before a transaction is started for test methods configured to run within a transaction via Spring’s @Transactional annotation. As of Spring Framework 4.3, @BeforeTransaction methods are not required to be public and may be declared on Java 8 based interface default methods.

@AfterTransaction indicates that the annotated void method should be executed after a transaction is ended for test methods configured to run within a transaction via Spring’s @Transactional annotation. As of Spring Framework 4.3, @AfterTransaction methods are not required to be public and may be declared on Java 8 based interface default methods.

@Sql is used to annotate a test class or test method to configure SQL scripts to be executed against a given database during integration tests.

See Executing SQL scripts declaratively with @Sql for further details.

@SqlConfig defines metadata that is used to determine how to parse and execute SQL scripts configured via the @Sql annotation.

@SqlGroup is a container annotation that aggregates several @Sql annotations. @SqlGroup can be used natively, declaring several nested @Sql annotations, or it can be used in conjunction with Java 8’s support for repeatable annotations, where @Sql can simply be declared several times on the same class or method, implicitly generating this container annotation.

@IfProfileValue indicates that the annotated test is enabled for a specific testing environment. If the configured ProfileValueSource returns a matching value for the provided name, the test is enabled. Otherwise, the test will be disabled and effectively ignored.

@IfProfileValue can be applied at the class level, the method level, or both. Class-level usage of @IfProfileValue takes precedence over method-level usage for any methods within that class or its subclasses. Specifically, a test is enabled if it is enabled both at the class level and at the method level; the absence of @IfProfileValue means the test is implicitly enabled. This is analogous to the semantics of JUnit 4’s @Ignore annotation, except that the presence of @Ignore always disables a test.

Alternatively, you can configure @IfProfileValue with a list of values (with OR semantics) to achieve TestNG-like support for test groups in a JUnit 4 environment. Consider the following example:

@ProfileValueSourceConfiguration is a class-level annotation that specifies what type of ProfileValueSource to use when retrieving profile values configured through the @IfProfileValue annotation. If @ProfileValueSourceConfiguration is not declared for a test, SystemProfileValueSource is used by default.

@Timed indicates that the annotated test method must finish execution in a specified time period (in milliseconds). If the text execution time exceeds the specified time period, the test fails.

The time period includes execution of the test method itself, any repetitions of the test (see @Repeat), as well as any set up or tear down of the test fixture.

Spring’s @Timed annotation has different semantics than JUnit 4’s @Test(timeout=…​) support. Specifically, due to the manner in which JUnit 4 handles test execution timeouts (that is, by executing the test method in a separate Thread), @Test(timeout=…​) preemptively fails the test if the test takes too long. Spring’s @Timed, on the other hand, does not preemptively fail the test but rather waits for the test to complete before failing.

@Repeat indicates that the annotated test method must be executed repeatedly. The number of times that the test method is to be executed is specified in the annotation.

The scope of execution to be repeated includes execution of the test method itself as well as any set up or tear down of the test fixture.

@SpringJUnitConfig is a composed annotation that combines @ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class) from JUnit Jupiter with @ContextConfiguration from the Spring TestContext Framework. It can be used at the class level as a drop-in replacement for @ContextConfiguration. With regard to configuration options, the only difference between @ContextConfiguration and @SpringJUnitConfig is that annotated classes may be declared via the value attribute in @SpringJUnitConfig.

See Context management as well as the javadocs for @SpringJUnitConfig and @ContextConfiguration for further details.

@SpringJUnitWebConfig is a composed annotation that combines @ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class) from JUnit Jupiter with @ContextConfiguration and @WebAppConfiguration from the Spring TestContext Framework. It can be used at the class level as a drop-in replacement for @ContextConfiguration and @WebAppConfiguration. With regard to configuration options, the only difference between @ContextConfiguration and @SpringJUnitWebConfig is that annotated classes may be declared via the value attribute in @SpringJUnitWebConfig. In addition, the value attribute from @WebAppConfiguration can only be overridden via the resourcePath attribute in @SpringJUnitWebConfig.

See Context management as well as the javadocs for @SpringJUnitWebConfig, @ContextConfiguration, and @WebAppConfiguration for further details.

@EnabledIf is used to signal that the annotated JUnit Jupiter test class or test method is enabled and should be executed if the supplied expression evaluates to true. Specifically, if the expression evaluates to Boolean.TRUE or a String equal to "true" (ignoring case), the test will be enabled. When applied at the class level, all test methods within that class are automatically enabled by default as well.

Expressions can be any of the following.

Note, however, that a text literal which is not the result of dynamic resolution of a property placeholder is of zero practical value since @EnabledIf("false") is equivalent to @Disabled and @EnabledIf("true") is logically meaningless.

@EnabledIf may be used as a meta-annotation to create custom composed annotations. For example, a custom @EnabledOnMac annotation can be created as follows.

@DisabledIf is used to signal that the annotated JUnit Jupiter test class or test method is disabled and should not be executed if the supplied expression evaluates to true. Specifically, if the expression evaluates to Boolean.TRUE or a String equal to "true" (ignoring case), the test will be disabled. When applied at the class level, all test methods within that class are automatically disabled as well.

Expressions can be any of the following.

Note, however, that a text literal which is not the result of dynamic resolution of a property placeholder is of zero practical value since @DisabledIf("true") is equivalent to @Disabled and @DisabledIf("false") is logically meaningless.

@DisabledIf may be used as a meta-annotation to create custom composed annotations. For example, a custom @DisabledOnMac annotation can be created as follows.

TestContext encapsulates the context in which a test is executed, agnostic of the actual testing framework in use, and provides context management and caching support for the test instance for which it is responsible. The TestContext also delegates to a SmartContextLoader to load an ApplicationContext if requested.

TestContextManager is the main entry point into the Spring TestContext Framework and is responsible for managing a single TestContext and signaling events to each registered TestExecutionListener at well-defined test execution points:

TestExecutionListener defines the API for reacting to test execution events published by the TestContextManager with which the listener is registered. See TestExecutionListener configuration.

ContextLoader is a strategy interface that was introduced in Spring 2.5 for loading an ApplicationContext for an integration test managed by the Spring TestContext Framework. Implement SmartContextLoader instead of this interface in order to provide support for annotated classes, active bean definition profiles, test property sources, context hierarchies, and WebApplicationContext support.

SmartContextLoader is an extension of the ContextLoader interface introduced in Spring 3.1. The SmartContextLoader SPI supersedes the ContextLoader SPI that was introduced in Spring 2.5. Specifically, a SmartContextLoader can choose to process resource locations, annotated classes, or context initializers. Furthermore, a SmartContextLoader can set active bean definition profiles and test property sources in the context that it loads.

Spring provides the following implementations:

Custom TestExecutionListeners can be registered for a test class and its subclasses via the @TestExecutionListeners annotation. See annotation support and the javadocs for @TestExecutionListeners for details and examples.

Registering custom TestExecutionListeners via @TestExecutionListeners is suitable for custom listeners that are used in limited testing scenarios; however, it can become cumbersome if a custom listener needs to be used across a test suite. Since Spring Framework 4.1, this issue is addressed via support for automatic discovery of default TestExecutionListener implementations via the SpringFactoriesLoader mechanism.

Specifically, the spring-test module declares all core default TestExecutionListeners under the org.springframework.test.context.TestExecutionListener key in its META-INF/spring.factories properties file. Third-party frameworks and developers can contribute their own TestExecutionListeners to the list of default listeners in the same manner via their own META-INF/spring.factories properties file.

When the TestContext framework discovers default TestExecutionListeners via the aforementioned SpringFactoriesLoader mechanism, the instantiated listeners are sorted using Spring’s AnnotationAwareOrderComparator which honors Spring’s Ordered interface and @Order annotation for ordering. AbstractTestExecutionListener and all default TestExecutionListeners provided by Spring implement Ordered with appropriate values. Third-party frameworks and developers should therefore make sure that their default TestExecutionListeners are registered in the proper order by implementing Ordered or declaring @Order. Consult the javadocs for the getOrder() methods of the core default TestExecutionListeners for details on what values are assigned to each core listener.

If a custom TestExecutionListener is registered via @TestExecutionListeners, the default listeners will not be registered. In most common testing scenarios, this effectively forces the developer to manually declare all default listeners in addition to any custom listeners. The following listing demonstrates this style of configuration.

The challenge with this approach is that it requires that the developer know exactly which listeners are registered by default. Moreover, the set of default listeners can change from release to release — for example, SqlScriptsTestExecutionListener was introduced in Spring Framework 4.1, and DirtiesContextBeforeModesTestExecutionListener was introduced in Spring Framework 4.2. Furthermore, third-party frameworks like Spring Security register their own default TestExecutionListeners via the aforementioned automatic discovery mechanism.

To avoid having to be aware of and re-declare all default listeners, the mergeMode attribute of @TestExecutionListeners can be set to MergeMode.MERGE_WITH_DEFAULTS. MERGE_WITH_DEFAULTS indicates that locally declared listeners should be merged with the default listeners. The merging algorithm ensures that duplicates are removed from the list and that the resulting set of merged listeners is sorted according to the semantics of AnnotationAwareOrderComparator as described in Ordering TestExecutionListeners. If a listener implements Ordered or is annotated with @Order it can influence the position in which it is merged with the defaults; otherwise, locally declared listeners will simply be appended to the list of default listeners when merged.

For example, if the MyCustomTestExecutionListener class in the previous example configures its order value (for example, 500) to be less than the order of the ServletTestExecutionListener (which happens to be 1000), the MyCustomTestExecutionListener can then be automatically merged with the list of defaults in front of the ServletTestExecutionListener, and the previous example could be replaced with the following.

To load an ApplicationContext for your tests using XML configuration files, annotate your test class with @ContextConfiguration and configure the locations attribute with an array that contains the resource locations of XML configuration metadata. A plain or relative path — for example "context.xml" — will be treated as a classpath resource that is relative to the package in which the test class is defined. A path starting with a slash is treated as an absolute classpath location, for example "/org/example/config.xml". A path which represents a resource URL (i.e., a path prefixed with classpath:, file:, http:, etc.) will be used as is.

@ContextConfiguration supports an alias for the locations attribute through the standard Java value attribute. Thus, if you do not need to declare additional attributes in @ContextConfiguration, you can omit the declaration of the locations attribute name and declare the resource locations by using the shorthand format demonstrated in the following example.

If you omit both the locations and value attributes from the @ContextConfiguration annotation, the TestContext framework will attempt to detect a default XML resource location. Specifically, GenericXmlContextLoader and GenericXmlWebContextLoader detect a default location based on the name of the test class. If your class is named com.example.MyTest, GenericXmlContextLoader loads your application context from "classpath:com/example/MyTest-context.xml".

To load an ApplicationContext for your tests using Groovy scripts that utilize the Groovy Bean Definition DSL, annotate your test class with @ContextConfiguration and configure the locations or value attribute with an array that contains the resource locations of Groovy scripts. Resource lookup semantics for Groovy scripts are the same as those described for XML configuration files.

If you omit both the locations and value attributes from the @ContextConfiguration annotation, the TestContext framework will attempt to detect a default Groovy script. Specifically, GenericGroovyXmlContextLoader and GenericGroovyXmlWebContextLoader detect a default location based on the name of the test class. If your class is named com.example.MyTest, the Groovy context loader will load your application context from "classpath:com/example/MyTestContext.groovy".

To load an ApplicationContext for your tests using annotated classes (see Java-based container configuration), annotate your test class with @ContextConfiguration and configure the classes attribute with an array that contains references to annotated classes.

If you omit the classes attribute from the @ContextConfiguration annotation, the TestContext framework will attempt to detect the presence of default configuration classes. Specifically, AnnotationConfigContextLoader and AnnotationConfigWebContextLoader will detect all static nested classes of the test class that meet the requirements for configuration class implementations as specified in the @Configuration javadocs. In the following example, the OrderServiceTest class declares a static nested configuration class named Config that will be automatically used to load the ApplicationContext for the test class. Note that the name of the configuration class is arbitrary. In addition, a test class can contain more than one static nested configuration class if desired.

It may sometimes be desirable to mix XML configuration files, Groovy scripts, and annotated classes (i.e., typically @Configuration classes) to configure an ApplicationContext for your tests. For example, if you use XML configuration in production, you may decide that you want to use @Configuration classes to configure specific Spring-managed components for your tests, or vice versa.

Furthermore, some third-party frameworks (like Spring Boot) provide first-class support for loading an ApplicationContext from different types of resources simultaneously (e.g., XML configuration files, Groovy scripts, and @Configuration classes). The Spring Framework historically has not supported this for standard deployments. Consequently, most of the SmartContextLoader implementations that the Spring Framework delivers in the spring-test module support only one resource type per test context; however, this does not mean that you cannot use both. One exception to the general rule is that the GenericGroovyXmlContextLoader and GenericGroovyXmlWebContextLoader support both XML configuration files and Groovy scripts simultaneously. Furthermore, third-party frameworks may choose to support the declaration of both locations and classes via @ContextConfiguration, and with the standard testing support in the TestContext framework, you have the following options.

If you want to use resource locations (e.g., XML or Groovy) and @Configuration classes to configure your tests, you will have to pick one as the entry point, and that one will have to include or import the other. For example, in XML or Groovy scripts you can include @Configuration classes via component scanning or define them as normal Spring beans; whereas, in a @Configuration class you can use @ImportResource to import XML configuration files or Groovy scripts. Note that this behavior is semantically equivalent to how you configure your application in production: in production configuration you will define either a set of XML or Groovy resource locations or a set of @Configuration classes that your production ApplicationContext will be loaded from, but you still have the freedom to include or import the other type of configuration.

To configure an ApplicationContext for your tests using context initializers, annotate your test class with @ContextConfiguration and configure the initializers attribute with an array that contains references to classes that implement ApplicationContextInitializer. The declared context initializers will then be used to initialize the ConfigurableApplicationContext that is loaded for your tests. Note that the concrete ConfigurableApplicationContext type supported by each declared initializer must be compatible with the type of ApplicationContext created by the SmartContextLoader in use (i.e., typically a GenericApplicationContext). Furthermore, the order in which the initializers are invoked depends on whether they implement Spring’s Ordered interface or are annotated with Spring’s @Order annotation or the standard @Priority annotation.

It is also possible to omit the declaration of XML configuration files, Groovy scripts, or annotated classes in @ContextConfiguration entirely and instead declare only ApplicationContextInitializer classes which are then responsible for registering beans in the context — for example, by programmatically loading bean definitions from XML files or configuration classes.

@ContextConfiguration supports boolean inheritLocations and inheritInitializers attributes that denote whether resource locations or annotated classes and context initializers declared by superclasses should be inherited. The default value for both flags is true. This means that a test class inherits the resource locations or annotated classes as well as the context initializers declared by any superclasses. Specifically, the resource locations or annotated classes for a test class are appended to the list of resource locations or annotated classes declared by superclasses. Similarly, the initializers for a given test class will be added to the set of initializers defined by test superclasses. Thus, subclasses have the option of extending the resource locations, annotated classes, or context initializers.

If the inheritLocations or inheritInitializers attribute in @ContextConfiguration is set to false, the resource locations or annotated classes and the context initializers, respectively, for the test class shadow and effectively replace the configuration defined by superclasses.

In the following example that uses XML resource locations, the ApplicationContext for ExtendedTest will be loaded from "base-config.xml" and "extended-config.xml", in that order. Beans defined in "extended-config.xml" may therefore override (i.e., replace) those defined in "base-config.xml".

Similarly, in the following example that uses annotated classes, the ApplicationContext for ExtendedTest will be loaded from the BaseConfig and ExtendedConfig classes, in that order. Beans defined in ExtendedConfig may therefore override (i.e., replace) those defined in BaseConfig.

In the following example that uses context initializers, the ApplicationContext for ExtendedTest will be initialized using BaseInitializer and ExtendedInitializer. Note, however, that the order in which the initializers are invoked depends on whether they implement Spring’s Ordered interface or are annotated with Spring’s @Order annotation or the standard @Priority annotation.

Spring 3.1 introduced first-class support in the framework for the notion of environments and profiles (a.k.a., bean definition profiles), and integration tests can be configured to activate particular bean definition profiles for various testing scenarios. This is achieved by annotating a test class with the @ActiveProfiles annotation and supplying a list of profiles that should be activated when loading the ApplicationContext for the test.

Let’s take a look at some examples with XML configuration and @Configuration classes.

When TransferServiceTest is run, its ApplicationContext will be loaded from the app-config.xml configuration file in the root of the classpath. If you inspect app-config.xml you’ll notice that the accountRepository bean has a dependency on a dataSource bean; however, dataSource is not defined as a top-level bean. Instead, dataSource is defined three times: in the production profile, the dev profile, and the default profile.

By annotating TransferServiceTest with @ActiveProfiles("dev") we instruct the Spring TestContext Framework to load the ApplicationContext with the active profiles set to {"dev"}. As a result, an embedded database will be created and populated with test data, and the accountRepository bean will be wired with a reference to the development DataSource. And that’s likely what we want in an integration test.

It is sometimes useful to assign beans to a default profile. Beans within the default profile are only included when no other profile is specifically activated. This can be used to define fallback beans to be used in the application’s default state. For example, you may explicitly provide a data source for dev and production profiles, but define an in-memory data source as a default when neither of these is active.

The following code listings demonstrate how to implement the same configuration and integration test but using @Configuration classes instead of XML.

In this variation, we have split the XML configuration into four independent @Configuration classes:

As with the XML-based configuration example, we still annotate TransferServiceTest with @ActiveProfiles("dev"), but this time we specify all four configuration classes via the @ContextConfiguration annotation. The body of the test class itself remains completely unchanged.

It is often the case that a single set of profiles is used across multiple test classes within a given project. Thus, to avoid duplicate declarations of the @ActiveProfiles annotation it is possible to declare @ActiveProfiles once on a base class, and subclasses will automatically inherit the @ActiveProfiles configuration from the base class. In the following example, the declaration of @ActiveProfiles (as well as other annotations) has been moved to an abstract superclass, AbstractIntegrationTest.

@ActiveProfiles also supports an inheritProfiles attribute that can be used to disable the inheritance of active profiles.

Furthermore, it is sometimes necessary to resolve active profiles for tests programmatically instead of declaratively — for example, based on:

To resolve active bean definition profiles programmatically, simply implement a custom ActiveProfilesResolver and register it via the resolver attribute of @ActiveProfiles. The following example demonstrates how to implement and register a custom OperatingSystemActiveProfilesResolver. For further information, refer to the corresponding javadocs.

Spring 3.1 introduced first-class support in the framework for the notion of an environment with a hierarchy of property sources, and since Spring 4.1 integration tests can be configured with test-specific property sources. In contrast to the @PropertySource annotation used on @Configuration classes, the @TestPropertySource annotation can be declared on a test class to declare resource locations for test properties files or inlined properties. These test property sources will be added to the set of PropertySources in the Environment for the ApplicationContext loaded for the annotated integration test.

Declaring test property sources

Test properties files can be configured via the locations or value attribute of @TestPropertySource as shown in the following example.

Both traditional and XML-based properties file formats are supported — for example, "classpath:/com/example/test.properties" or "file:///path/to/file.xml".

Each path will be interpreted as a Spring Resource. A plain path — for example, "test.properties" — will be treated as a classpath resource that is relative to the package in which the test class is defined. A path starting with a slash will be treated as an absolute classpath resource, for example: "/org/example/test.xml". A path which references a URL (e.g., a path prefixed with classpath:, file:, http:, etc.) will be loaded using the specified resource protocol. Resource location wildcards (e.g. */.properties) are not permitted: each location must evaluate to exactly one .properties or .xml resource.

Inlined properties in the form of key-value pairs can be configured via the properties attribute of @TestPropertySource as shown in the following example. All key-value pairs will be added to the enclosing Environment as a single test PropertySource with the highest precedence.

The supported syntax for key-value pairs is the same as the syntax defined for entries in a Java properties file:

Default properties file detection

If @TestPropertySource is declared as an empty annotation (i.e., without explicit values for the locations or properties attributes), an attempt will be made to detect a default properties file relative to the class that declared the annotation. For example, if the annotated test class is com.example.MyTest, the corresponding default properties file is "classpath:com/example/MyTest.properties". If the default cannot be detected, an IllegalStateException will be thrown.

Precedence

Test property sources have higher precedence than those loaded from the operating system’s environment or Java system properties as well as property sources added by the application declaratively via @PropertySource or programmatically. Thus, test property sources can be used to selectively override properties defined in system and application property sources. Furthermore, inlined properties have higher precedence than properties loaded from resource locations.

In the following example, the timezone and port properties as well as any properties defined in "/test.properties" will override any properties of the same name that are defined in system and application property sources. Furthermore, if the "/test.properties" file defines entries for the timezone and port properties those will be overridden by the inlined properties declared via the properties attribute.

Inheriting and overriding test property sources

@TestPropertySource supports boolean inheritLocations and inheritProperties attributes that denote whether resource locations for properties files and inlined properties declared by superclasses should be inherited. The default value for both flags is true. This means that a test class inherits the locations and inlined properties declared by any superclasses. Specifically, the locations and inlined properties for a test class are appended to the locations and inlined properties declared by superclasses. Thus, subclasses have the option of extending the locations and inlined properties. Note that properties that appear later will shadow (i.e.., override) properties of the same name that appear earlier. In addition, the aforementioned precedence rules apply for inherited test property sources as well.

If the inheritLocations or inheritProperties attribute in @TestPropertySource is set to false, the locations or inlined properties, respectively, for the test class shadow and effectively replace the configuration defined by superclasses.

In the following example, the ApplicationContext for BaseTest will be loaded using only the "base.properties" file as a test property source. In contrast, the ApplicationContext for ExtendedTest will be loaded using the "base.properties" and "extended.properties" files as test property source locations.

In the following example, the ApplicationContext for BaseTest will be loaded using only the inlined key1 property. In contrast, the ApplicationContext for ExtendedTest will be loaded using the inlined key1 and key2 properties.

Spring 3.2 introduced support for loading a WebApplicationContext in integration tests. To instruct the TestContext framework to load a WebApplicationContext instead of a standard ApplicationContext, simply annotate the respective test class with @WebAppConfiguration.

The presence of @WebAppConfiguration on your test class instructs the TestContext framework (TCF) that a WebApplicationContext (WAC) should be loaded for your integration tests. In the background the TCF makes sure that a MockServletContext is created and supplied to your test’s WAC. By default the base resource path for your MockServletContext will be set to "src/main/webapp". This is interpreted as a path relative to the root of your JVM (i.e., normally the path to your project). If you’re familiar with the directory structure of a web application in a Maven project, you’ll know that "src/main/webapp" is the default location for the root of your WAR. If you need to override this default, simply provide an alternate path to the @WebAppConfiguration annotation (e.g., @WebAppConfiguration("src/test/webapp")). If you wish to reference a base resource path from the classpath instead of the file system, just use Spring’s classpath: prefix.

Please note that Spring’s testing support for WebApplicationContexts is on par with its support for standard ApplicationContexts. When testing with a WebApplicationContext you are free to declare XML configuration files, Groovy scripts, or @Configuration classes via @ContextConfiguration. You are of course also free to use any other test annotations such as @ActiveProfiles, @TestExecutionListeners, @Sql, @Rollback, etc.

The following examples demonstrate some of the various configuration options for loading a WebApplicationContext.

The above example demonstrates the TestContext framework’s support for convention over configuration. If you annotate a test class with @WebAppConfiguration without specifying a resource base path, the resource path will effectively default to "file:src/main/webapp". Similarly, if you declare @ContextConfiguration without specifying resource locations, annotated classes, or context initializers, Spring will attempt to detect the presence of your configuration using conventions (i.e., "WacTests-context.xml" in the same package as the WacTests class or static nested @Configuration classes).

This example demonstrates how to explicitly declare a resource base path with @WebAppConfiguration and an XML resource location with @ContextConfiguration. The important thing to note here is the different semantics for paths with these two annotations. By default, @WebAppConfiguration resource paths are file system based; whereas, @ContextConfiguration resource locations are classpath based.

In this third example, we see that we can override the default resource semantics for both annotations by specifying a Spring resource prefix. Contrast the comments in this example with the previous example.

Once the TestContext framework loads an ApplicationContext (or WebApplicationContext) for a test, that context will be cached and reused for all subsequent tests that declare the same unique context configuration within the same test suite. To understand how caching works, it is important to understand what is meant by unique and test suite.

An ApplicationContext can be uniquely identified by the combination of configuration parameters that is used to load it. Consequently, the unique combination of configuration parameters is used to generate a key under which the context is cached. The TestContext framework uses the following configuration parameters to build the context cache key:

For example, if TestClassA specifies {"app-config.xml", "test-config.xml"} for the locations (or value) attribute of @ContextConfiguration, the TestContext framework will load the corresponding ApplicationContext and store it in a static context cache under a key that is based solely on those locations. So if TestClassB also defines {"app-config.xml", "test-config.xml"} for its locations (either explicitly or implicitly through inheritance) but does not define @WebAppConfiguration, a different ContextLoader, different active profiles, different context initializers, different test property sources, or a different parent context, then the same ApplicationContext will be shared by both test classes. This means that the setup cost for loading an application context is incurred only once (per test suite), and subsequent test execution is much faster.

Since Spring Framework 4.3, the size of the context cache is bounded with a default maximum size of 32. Whenever the maximum size is reached, a least recently used (LRU) eviction policy is used to evict and close stale contexts. The maximum size can be configured from the command line or a build script by setting a JVM system property named spring.test.context.cache.maxSize. As an alternative, the same property can be set programmatically via the SpringProperties API.

Since having a large number of application contexts loaded within a given test suite can cause the suite to take an unnecessarily long time to execute, it is often beneficial to know exactly how many contexts have been loaded and cached. To view the statistics for the underlying context cache, simply set the log level for the org.springframework.test.context.cache logging category to DEBUG.

In the unlikely case that a test corrupts the application context and requires reloading — for example, by modifying a bean definition or the state of an application object — you can annotate your test class or test method with @DirtiesContext (see the discussion of @DirtiesContext in Spring Testing Annotations). This instructs Spring to remove the context from the cache and rebuild the application context before executing the next test. Note that support for the @DirtiesContext annotation is provided by the DirtiesContextBeforeModesTestExecutionListener and the DirtiesContextTestExecutionListener which are enabled by default.

When writing integration tests that rely on a loaded Spring ApplicationContext, it is often sufficient to test against a single context; however, there are times when it is beneficial or even necessary to test against a hierarchy of ApplicationContexts. For example, if you are developing a Spring MVC web application you will typically have a root WebApplicationContext loaded via Spring’s ContextLoaderListener and a child WebApplicationContext loaded via Spring’s DispatcherServlet. This results in a parent-child context hierarchy where shared components and infrastructure configuration are declared in the root context and consumed in the child context by web-specific components. Another use case can be found in Spring Batch applications where you often have a parent context that provides configuration for shared batch infrastructure and a child context for the configuration of a specific batch job.

Since Spring Framework 3.2.2, it is possible to write integration tests that use context hierarchies by declaring context configuration via the @ContextHierarchy annotation, either on an individual test class or within a test class hierarchy. If a context hierarchy is declared on multiple classes within a test class hierarchy it is also possible to merge or override the context configuration for a specific, named level in the context hierarchy. When merging configuration for a given level in the hierarchy the configuration resource type (i.e., XML configuration files or annotated classes) must be consistent; otherwise, it is perfectly acceptable to have different levels in a context hierarchy configured using different resource types.

The following JUnit 4 based examples demonstrate common configuration scenarios for integration tests that require the use of context hierarchies.

Test-managed transactions are transactions that are managed declaratively via the TransactionalTestExecutionListener or programmatically via TestTransaction (see below). Such transactions should not be confused with Spring-managed transactions (i.e., those managed directly by Spring within the ApplicationContext loaded for tests) or application-managed transactions (i.e., those managed programmatically within application code that is invoked via tests). Spring-managed and application-managed transactions will typically participate in test-managed transactions; however, caution should be taken if Spring-managed or application-managed transactions are configured with any propagation type other than REQUIRED or SUPPORTS (see the discussion on transaction propagation for details).

Annotating a test method with @Transactional causes the test to be run within a transaction that will, by default, be automatically rolled back after completion of the test. If a test class is annotated with @Transactional, each test method within that class hierarchy will be run within a transaction. Test methods that are not annotated with @Transactional (at the class or method level) will not be run within a transaction. Furthermore, tests that are annotated with @Transactional but have the propagation type set to NOT_SUPPORTED will not be run within a transaction.

Note that AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests and AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests are preconfigured for transactional support at the class level.

The following example demonstrates a common scenario for writing an integration test for a Hibernate-based UserRepository. As explained in Transaction rollback and commit behavior, there is no need to clean up the database after the createUser() method is executed since any changes made to the database will be automatically rolled back by the TransactionalTestExecutionListener. See PetClinic Example for an additional example.

By default, test transactions will be automatically rolled back after completion of the test; however, transactional commit and rollback behavior can be configured declaratively via the @Commit and @Rollback annotations. See the corresponding entries in the annotation support section for further details.

Since Spring Framework 4.1, it is possible to interact with test-managed transactions programmatically via the static methods in TestTransaction. For example, TestTransaction may be used within test methods, before methods, and after methods to start or end the current test-managed transaction or to configure the current test-managed transaction for rollback or commit. Support for TestTransaction is automatically available whenever the TransactionalTestExecutionListener is enabled.

The following example demonstrates some of the features of TestTransaction. Consult the javadocs for TestTransaction for further details.

Occasionally you need to execute certain code before or after a transactional test method but outside the transactional context — for example, to verify the initial database state prior to execution of your test or to verify expected transactional commit behavior after test execution (if the test was configured to commit the transaction). TransactionalTestExecutionListener supports the @BeforeTransaction and @AfterTransaction annotations exactly for such scenarios. Simply annotate any void method in a test class or any void default method in a test interface with one of these annotations, and the TransactionalTestExecutionListener ensures that your before transaction method or after transaction method is executed at the appropriate time.

TransactionalTestExecutionListener expects a PlatformTransactionManager bean to be defined in the Spring ApplicationContext for the test. In case there are multiple instances of PlatformTransactionManager within the test’s ApplicationContext, a qualifier may be declared via @Transactional("myTxMgr") or @Transactional(transactionManager = "myTxMgr"), or TransactionManagementConfigurer can be implemented by an @Configuration class. Consult the javadocs for TestContextTransactionUtils.retrieveTransactionManager() for details on the algorithm used to look up a transaction manager in the test’s ApplicationContext.

The following JUnit 4 based example displays a fictitious integration testing scenario highlighting all transaction-related annotations. The example is not intended to demonstrate best practices but rather to demonstrate how these annotations can be used. Consult the annotation support section for further information and configuration examples. Transaction management for @Sql contains an additional example using @Sql for declarative SQL script execution with default transaction rollback semantics.

Spring provides the following options for executing SQL scripts programmatically within integration test methods.

ScriptUtils provides a collection of static utility methods for working with SQL scripts and is mainly intended for internal use within the framework. However, if you require full control over how SQL scripts are parsed and executed, ScriptUtils may suit your needs better than some of the other alternatives described below. Consult the javadocs for individual methods in ScriptUtils for further details.

ResourceDatabasePopulator provides a simple object-based API for programmatically populating, initializing, or cleaning up a database using SQL scripts defined in external resources. ResourceDatabasePopulator provides options for configuring the character encoding, statement separator, comment delimiters, and error handling flags used when parsing and executing the scripts, and each of the configuration options has a reasonable default value. Consult the javadocs for details on default values. To execute the scripts configured in a ResourceDatabasePopulator, you can invoke either the populate(Connection) method to execute the populator against a java.sql.Connection or the execute(DataSource) method to execute the populator against a javax.sql.DataSource. The following example specifies SQL scripts for a test schema and test data, sets the statement separator to "@@", and then executes the scripts against a DataSource.

Note that ResourceDatabasePopulator internally delegates to ScriptUtils for parsing and executing SQL scripts. Similarly, the executeSqlScript(..) methods in AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests and AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests internally use a ResourceDatabasePopulator for executing SQL scripts. Consult the javadocs for the various executeSqlScript(..) methods for further details.

In addition to the aforementioned mechanisms for executing SQL scripts programmatically, SQL scripts can also be configured declaratively in the Spring TestContext Framework. Specifically, the @Sql annotation can be declared on a test class or test method to configure the resource paths to SQL scripts that should be executed against a given database either before or after an integration test method. Note that method-level declarations override class-level declarations and that support for @Sql is provided by the SqlScriptsTestExecutionListener which is enabled by default.

Path resource semantics

Each path will be interpreted as a Spring Resource. A plain path — for example, "schema.sql" — will be treated as a classpath resource that is relative to the package in which the test class is defined. A path starting with a slash will be treated as an absolute classpath resource, for example: "/org/example/schema.sql". A path which references a URL (e.g., a path prefixed with classpath:, file:, http:, etc.) will be loaded using the specified resource protocol.

The following example demonstrates how to use @Sql at the class level and at the method level within a JUnit Jupiter based integration test class.

Default script detection

If no SQL scripts are specified, an attempt will be made to detect a default script depending on where @Sql is declared. If a default cannot be detected, an IllegalStateException will be thrown.

Declaring multiple @Sql sets

If multiple sets of SQL scripts need to be configured for a given test class or test method but with different syntax configuration, different error handling rules, or different execution phases per set, it is possible to declare multiple instances of @Sql. With Java 8, @Sql can be used as a repeatable annotation. Otherwise, the @SqlGroup annotation can be used as an explicit container for declaring multiple instances of @Sql.

The following example demonstrates the use of @Sql as a repeatable annotation using Java 8. In this scenario the test-schema.sql script uses a different syntax for single-line comments.

The following example is identical to the above except that the @Sql declarations are grouped together within @SqlGroup for compatibility with Java 6 and Java 7.

Script execution phases

By default, SQL scripts will be executed before the corresponding test method. However, if a particular set of scripts needs to be executed after the test method — for example, to clean up database state — the executionPhase attribute in @Sql can be used as seen in the following example. Note that ISOLATED and AFTER_TEST_METHOD are statically imported from Sql.TransactionMode and Sql.ExecutionPhase respectively.

Script configuration with @SqlConfig

Configuration for script parsing and error handling can be configured via the @SqlConfig annotation. When declared as a class-level annotation on an integration test class, @SqlConfig serves as global configuration for all SQL scripts within the test class hierarchy. When declared directly via the config attribute of the @Sql annotation, @SqlConfig serves as local configuration for the SQL scripts declared within the enclosing @Sql annotation. Every attribute in @SqlConfig has an implicit default value which is documented in the javadocs of the corresponding attribute. Due to the rules defined for annotation attributes in the Java Language Specification, it is unfortunately not possible to assign a value of null to an annotation attribute. Thus, in order to support overrides of inherited global configuration, @SqlConfig attributes have an explicit default value of either "" for Strings or DEFAULT for Enums. This approach allows local declarations of @SqlConfig to selectively override individual attributes from global declarations of @SqlConfig by providing a value other than "" or DEFAULT. Global @SqlConfig attributes are inherited whenever local @SqlConfig attributes do not supply an explicit value other than "" or DEFAULT. Explicit local configuration therefore overrides global configuration.

The configuration options provided by @Sql and @SqlConfig are equivalent to those supported by ScriptUtils and ResourceDatabasePopulator but are a superset of those provided by the <jdbc:initialize-database/> XML namespace element. Consult the javadocs of individual attributes in @Sql and @SqlConfig for details.

Transaction management for @Sql

By default, the SqlScriptsTestExecutionListener will infer the desired transaction semantics for scripts configured via @Sql. Specifically, SQL scripts will be executed without a transaction, within an existing Spring-managed transaction — for example, a transaction managed by the TransactionalTestExecutionListener for a test annotated with @Transactional — or within an isolated transaction, depending on the configured value of the transactionMode attribute in @SqlConfig and the presence of a PlatformTransactionManager in the test’s ApplicationContext. As a bare minimum however, a javax.sql.DataSource must be present in the test’s ApplicationContext.

If the algorithms used by SqlScriptsTestExecutionListener to detect a DataSource and PlatformTransactionManager and infer the transaction semantics do not suit your needs, you may specify explicit names via the dataSource and transactionManager attributes of @SqlConfig. Furthermore, the transaction propagation behavior can be controlled via the transactionMode attribute of @SqlConfig — for example, if scripts should be executed in an isolated transaction. Although a thorough discussion of all supported options for transaction management with @Sql is beyond the scope of this reference manual, the javadocs for @SqlConfig and SqlScriptsTestExecutionListener provide detailed information, and the following example demonstrates a typical testing scenario using JUnit Jupiter and transactional tests with @Sql. Note that there is no need to clean up the database after the usersTest() method is executed since any changes made to the database (either within the test method or within the /test-data.sql script) will be automatically rolled back by the TransactionalTestExecutionListener (see transaction management for details).

The Spring TestContext Framework offers full integration with JUnit 4 through a custom runner (supported on JUnit 4.12 or higher). By annotating test classes with @RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class) or the shorter @RunWith(SpringRunner.class) variant, developers can implement standard JUnit 4 based unit and integration tests and simultaneously reap the benefits of the TestContext framework such as support for loading application contexts, dependency injection of test instances, transactional test method execution, and so on. If you would like to use the Spring TestContext Framework with an alternative runner such as JUnit 4’s Parameterized or third-party runners such as the MockitoJUnitRunner, you may optionally use Spring’s support for JUnit rules instead.

The following code listing displays the minimal requirements for configuring a test class to run with the custom Spring Runner. @TestExecutionListeners is configured with an empty list in order to disable the default listeners, which otherwise would require an ApplicationContext to be configured through @ContextConfiguration.

The org.springframework.test.context.junit4.rules package provides the following JUnit 4 rules (supported on JUnit 4.12 or higher).

SpringClassRule is a JUnit TestRule that supports class-level features of the Spring TestContext Framework; whereas, SpringMethodRule is a JUnit MethodRule that supports instance-level and method-level features of the Spring TestContext Framework.

In contrast to the SpringRunner, Spring’s rule-based JUnit support has the advantage that it is independent of any org.junit.runner.Runner implementation and can therefore be combined with existing alternative runners like JUnit 4’s Parameterized or third-party runners such as the MockitoJUnitRunner.

In order to support the full functionality of the TestContext framework, a SpringClassRule must be combined with a SpringMethodRule. The following example demonstrates the proper way to declare these rules in an integration test.

The org.springframework.test.context.junit4 package provides the following support classes for JUnit 4 based test cases (supported on JUnit 4.12 or higher).

AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests is an abstract base test class that integrates the Spring TestContext Framework with explicit ApplicationContext testing support in a JUnit 4 environment. When you extend AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests, you can access a protected applicationContext instance variable that can be used to perform explicit bean lookups or to test the state of the context as a whole.

AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests is an abstract transactional extension of AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests that adds some convenience functionality for JDBC access. This class expects a javax.sql.DataSource bean and a PlatformTransactionManager bean to be defined in the ApplicationContext. When you extend AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests you can access a protected jdbcTemplate instance variable that can be used to execute SQL statements to query the database. Such queries can be used to confirm database state both prior to and after execution of database-related application code, and Spring ensures that such queries run in the scope of the same transaction as the application code. When used in conjunction with an ORM tool, be sure to avoid false positives. As mentioned in JDBC Testing Support, AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests also provides convenience methods which delegate to methods in JdbcTestUtils using the aforementioned jdbcTemplate. Furthermore, AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests provides an executeSqlScript(..) method for executing SQL scripts against the configured DataSource.

The Spring TestContext Framework offers full integration with the JUnit Jupiter testing framework introduced in JUnit 5. By annotating test classes with @ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class), developers can implement standard JUnit Jupiter based unit and integration tests and simultaneously reap the benefits of the TestContext framework such as support for loading application contexts, dependency injection of test instances, transactional test method execution, and so on.

Furthermore, thanks to the rich extension API in JUnit Jupiter, Spring is able to provide the following features above and beyond the feature set that Spring supports for JUnit 4 and TestNG.

The following code listing demonstrates how to configure a test class to use the SpringExtension in conjunction with @ContextConfiguration.

Since annotations in JUnit 5 can also be used as meta-annotations, Spring is able to provide @SpringJUnitConfig and @SpringJUnitWebConfig composed annotations to simplify the configuration of the test ApplicationContext and JUnit Jupiter.

For example, the following example uses @SpringJUnitConfig to reduce the amount of configuration used in the previous example.

Similarly, the following example uses @SpringJUnitWebConfig to create a WebApplicationContext for use with JUnit Jupiter.

See the documentation for @SpringJUnitConfig and @SpringJUnitWebConfig in Spring JUnit Jupiter Testing Annotations for further details.

The SpringExtension implements the ParameterResolver extension API from JUnit Jupiter which allows Spring to provide dependency injection for test constructors, test methods, and test lifecycle callback methods.

Specifically, the SpringExtension is able to inject dependencies from the test’s ApplicationContext into test constructors and methods annotated with @BeforeAll, @AfterAll, @BeforeEach, @AfterEach, @Test, @RepeatedTest, @ParameterizedTest, etc.

The org.springframework.test.context.testng package provides the following support classes for TestNG based test cases.

AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests is an abstract base test class that integrates the Spring TestContext Framework with explicit ApplicationContext testing support in a TestNG environment. When you extend AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests, you can access a protected applicationContext instance variable that can be used to perform explicit bean lookups or to test the state of the context as a whole.

AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests is an abstract transactional extension of AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests that adds some convenience functionality for JDBC access. This class expects a javax.sql.DataSource bean and a PlatformTransactionManager bean to be defined in the ApplicationContext. When you extend AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests you can access a protected jdbcTemplate instance variable that can be used to execute SQL statements to query the database. Such queries can be used to confirm database state both prior to and after execution of database-related application code, and Spring ensures that such queries run in the scope of the same transaction as the application code. When used in conjunction with an ORM tool, be sure to avoid false positives. As mentioned in JDBC Testing Support, AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests also provides convenience methods which delegate to methods in JdbcTestUtils using the aforementioned jdbcTemplate. Furthermore, AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests provides an executeSqlScript(..) method for executing SQL scripts against the configured DataSource.

The fluent API in the example above requires a few static imports such as MockMvcRequestBuilders.*, MockMvcResultMatchers.*, and MockMvcBuilders.*. An easy way to find these classes is to search for types matching "MockMvc*". If using Eclipse, be sure to add them as "favorite static members" in the Eclipse preferences under Java → Editor → Content Assist → Favorites. That will allow use of content assist after typing the first character of the static method name. Other IDEs (e.g. IntelliJ) may not require any additional configuration. Just check the support for code completion on static members.

There are two main options for creating an instance of MockMvc. The first is to load Spring MVC configuration through the TestContext framework, which loads the Spring configuration and injects a WebApplicationContext into the test to use to build a MockMvc instance:

The second is to simply create a controller instance manually without loading Spring configuration. Instead basic default configuration, roughly comparable to that of the MVC JavaConfig or the MVC namespace, is automatically created and can be customized to a degree:

Which setup option should you use?

The "webAppContextSetup" loads your actual Spring MVC configuration resulting in a more complete integration test. Since the TestContext framework caches the loaded Spring configuration, it helps keep tests running fast, even as you introduce more tests in your test suite. Furthermore, you can inject mock services into controllers through Spring configuration in order to remain focused on testing the web layer. Here is an example of declaring a mock service with Mockito:

You can then inject the mock service into the test in order set up and verify expectations:

The "standaloneSetup" on the other hand is a little closer to a unit test. It tests one controller at a time: the controller can be injected with mock dependencies manually, and it doesn’t involve loading Spring configuration. Such tests are more focused on style and make it easier to see which controller is being tested, whether any specific Spring MVC configuration is required to work, and so on. The "standaloneSetup" is also a very convenient way to write ad-hoc tests to verify specific behavior or to debug an issue.

Just like with any "integration vs. unit testing" debate, there is no right or wrong answer. However, using the "standaloneSetup" does imply the need for additional "webAppContextSetup" tests in order to verify your Spring MVC configuration. Alternatively, you may choose to write all tests with "webAppContextSetup" in order to always test against your actual Spring MVC configuration.

No matter which MockMvc builder you use all MockMvcBuilder implementations provide some common and very useful features. For example you can declare an Accept header for all requests and expect a status of 200 as well as a Content-Type header in all responses as follows:

In addition 3rd party frameworks (and applications) may pre-package setup instructions like the ones through a MockMvcConfigurer. The Spring Framework has one such built-in implementation that helps to save and re-use the HTTP session across requests. It can be used as follows:

See ConfigurableMockMvcBuilder for a list of all MockMvc builder features or use the IDE to explore the available options.

It’s easy to perform requests using any HTTP method:

You can also perform file upload requests that internally use MockMultipartHttpServletRequest so that there is no actual parsing of a multipart request but rather you have to set it up:

You can specify query parameters in URI template style:

Or you can add Servlet request parameters representing either query of form parameters:

If application code relies on Servlet request parameters and doesn’t check the query string explicitly (as is most often the case) then it doesn’t matter which option you use. Keep in mind however that query params provided with the URI template will be decoded while request parameters provided through the param(…​) method are expected to already be decoded.

In most cases it’s preferable to leave out the context path and the Servlet path from the request URI. If you must test with the full request URI, be sure to set the contextPath and servletPath accordingly so that request mappings will work:

Looking at the above example, it would be cumbersome to set the contextPath and servletPath with every performed request. Instead you can set up default request properties:

The above properties will affect every request performed through the MockMvc instance. If the same property is also specified on a given request, it overrides the default value. That is why the HTTP method and URI in the default request don’t matter since they must be specified on every request.

Expectations can be defined by appending one or more .andExpect(..) calls after performing a request:

MockMvcResultMatchers.* provides a number of expectations, some of which are further nested with more detailed expectations.

Expectations fall in two general categories. The first category of assertions verifies properties of the response: for example, the response status, headers, and content. These are the most important results to assert.

The second category of assertions goes beyond the response. These assertions allow one to inspect Spring MVC specific aspects such as which controller method processed the request, whether an exception was raised and handled, what the content of the model is, what view was selected, what flash attributes were added, and so on. They also allow one to inspect Servlet specific aspects such as request and session attributes.

The following test asserts that binding or validation failed:

Many times when writing tests, it’s useful to dump the results of the performed request. This can be done as follows, where print() is a static import from MockMvcResultHandlers:

As long as request processing does not cause an unhandled exception, the print() method will print all the available result data to System.out. Spring Framework 4.2 introduced a log() method and two additional variants of the print() method, one that accepts an OutputStream and one that accepts a Writer. For example, invoking print(System.err) will print the result data to System.err; while invoking print(myWriter) will print the result data to a custom writer. If you would like to have the result data logged instead of printed, simply invoke the log() method which will log the result data as a single DEBUG message under the org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result logging category.

In some cases, you may want to get direct access to the result and verify something that cannot be verified otherwise. This can be achieved by appending .andReturn() after all other expectations:

If all tests repeat the same expectations you can set up common expectations once when building the MockMvc instance:

Note that common expectations are always applied and cannot be overridden without creating a separate MockMvc instance.

When JSON response content contains hypermedia links created with Spring HATEOAS, the resulting links can be verified using JsonPath expressions:

When XML response content contains hypermedia links created with Spring HATEOAS, the resulting links can be verified using XPath expressions:

When setting up a MockMvc instance, you can register one or more Servlet Filter instances:

Registered filters will be invoked through via the MockFilterChain from spring-test, and the last filter will delegate to the DispatcherServlet.

As mentioned earlier Spring MVC Test is built on the Servlet API mock objects from the spring-test module and does not use a running Servlet container. Therefore there are some important differences compared to full end-to-end integration tests with an actual client and server running.

The easiest way to think about this is starting with a blank MockHttpServletRequest. Whatever you add to it is what the request will be. Things that may catch you by surprise are that there is no context path by default, no jsessionid cookie, no forwarding, error, or async dispatches, and therefore no actual JSP rendering. Instead, "forwarded" and "redirected" URLs are saved in the MockHttpServletResponse and can be asserted with expectations.

This means if you are using JSPs you can verify the JSP page to which the request was forwarded, but there won’t be any HTML rendered. In other words, the JSP will not be invoked. Note however that all other rendering technologies which don’t rely on forwarding such as Thymeleaf and Freemarker will render HTML to the response body as expected. The same is true for rendering JSON, XML, and other formats via @ResponseBody methods.

Alternatively you may consider the full end-to-end integration testing support from Spring Boot via @WebIntegrationTest. See the Spring Boot reference.

There are pros and cons for each approach. The options provided in Spring MVC Test are different stops on the scale from classic unit testing to full integration testing. To be certain, none of the options in Spring MVC Test fall under the category of classic unit testing, but they are a little closer to it. For example, you can isolate the web layer by injecting mocked services into controllers, in which case you’re testing the web layer only through the DispatcherServlet but with actual Spring configuration, just like you might test the data access layer in isolation from the layers above. Or you can use the standalone setup focusing on one controller at a time and manually providing the configuration required to make it work.

Another important distinction when using Spring MVC Test is that conceptually such tests are on the inside of the server-side so you can check what handler was used, if an exception was handled with a HandlerExceptionResolver, what the content of the model is, what binding errors there were, etc. That means it’s easier to write expectations since the server is not a black box as it is when testing it through an actual HTTP client. This is generally an advantage of classic unit testing, that it’s easier to write, reason about, and debug but does not replace the need for full integration tests. At the same time it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that the response is the most important thing to check. In short, there is room here for multiple styles and strategies of testing even within the same project.

The framework’s own tests include many sample tests intended to demonstrate how to use Spring MVC Test. Browse these examples for further ideas. Also the spring-mvc-showcase has full test coverage based on Spring MVC Test.

The most obvious question that comes to mind is, "Why do I need this?". The answer is best found by exploring a very basic sample application. Assume you have a Spring MVC web application that supports CRUD operations on a Message object. The application also supports paging through all messages. How would you go about testing it?

With Spring MVC Test, we can easily test if we are able to create a Message.

What if we want to test our form view that allows us to create the message? For example, assume our form looks like the following snippet:

How do we ensure that our form will produce the correct request to create a new message? A naive attempt would look like this:

This test has some obvious drawbacks. If we update our controller to use the parameter message instead of text, our form test would continue to pass even though the HTML form is out of synch with the controller. To resolve this we can combine our two tests.

This would reduce the risk of our test incorrectly passing, but there are still some problems.

The overall problem is that testing a web page does not involve a single interaction. Instead, it is a combination of how the user interacts with a web page and how that web page interacts with other resources. For example, the result of a form view is used as the input to a user for creating a message. In addition, our form view may potentially utilize additional resources which impact the behavior of the page, such as JavaScript validation.

This section describes how to integrate MockMvc and HtmlUnit. Use this option if you want to use the raw HtmlUnit libraries.

In the previous sections, we have seen how to use MockMvc in conjunction with the raw HtmlUnit APIs. In this section, we will leverage additional abstractions within the Selenium WebDriver to make things even easier.

In the previous section, we saw how to use MockMvc with WebDriver. In this section, we will use Geb to make our tests even Groovy-er.

Just like with server-side tests, the fluent API for client-side tests requires a few static imports. Those are easy to find by searching "MockRest*". Eclipse users should add "MockRestRequestMatchers.*" and "MockRestResponseCreators.*" as "favorite static members" in the Eclipse preferences under Java → Editor → Content Assist → Favorites. That allows using content assist after typing the first character of the static method name. Other IDEs (e.g. IntelliJ) may not require any additional configuration. Just check the support for code completion on static members.

Spring MVC Test’s own tests include example tests of client-side REST tests.