Laravel - input not passing over through unit test - php

Question

I'm receiving the below error when running my unit tests. Seems that it doesn't like passing in the Input::get to the constructor, however when running the script within the browser the action works fine so I know it's not the controller code. If I take out any of the 'task_update' code the test passes with just the find even with the Input - so not sure why it accepts the Input for one method.
ErrorException: Argument 1 passed to Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model::__construct() must be of the type array, null given, called
My Controller is:
public function store()
{
$task_update = new TaskUpdate(Input::get('tasks_updates'));
$task = $this->task->find(Input::get('tasks_updates')['task_id']);
$output = $task->taskUpdate()->save($task_update);
if (!!$output->id) {
return Redirect::route('tasks.show', $output->task_id)
->with('flash_task_update', 'Task has been updated');
}
}
And the test is - I'm setting the input for task_updates array but just isn't being picked up:
Input::replace(['tasks_updates' => array('description' => 'Hello')]);
$mockClass = $this->mock;
$mockClass->task_id = 1;
$this->mock->shouldReceive('save')
->once()
->andReturn($mockClass);
$response = $this->call('POST', 'tasksUpdates');
$this->assertRedirectedToRoute('tasks.show', 1);
$this->assertSessionHas('flash_task_update');

Answer 1

I believe the "call" function is blowing away the work done by Input::replace.
the call function can actually take a $parameters parameter which should fix your problem.
if you look in \Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\TestCase#call, you'll see the function:
/**
* Call the given URI and return the Response.
*
* #param string $method
* #param string $uri
* #param array $parameters
* #param array $files
* #param array $server
* #param string $content
* #param bool $changeHistory
* #return \Illuminate\Http\Response
*/
public function call()
{
call_user_func_array(array($this->client, 'request'), func_get_args());
return $this->client->getResponse();
}
If you do:
$response = $this->call('POST', 'tasksUpdates', array('your data here'));
I think it should work.

Answer 2

I do prefer to do both Input::replace($input) and $this->call('POST', 'path', $input).
Example AuthControllerTest.php:
public function testStoreSuccess()
{
$input = array(
'email' => 'email#gmail.com',
'password' => 'password',
'remember' => true
);
// Input::replace($input) can be used for testing any method which
// directly gets the parameters from Input class
Input::replace($input);
// Here the Auth::attempt gets the parameters from Input class
Auth::shouldReceive('attempt')
->with(
array(
'email' => Input::get('email'),
'password' => Input::get('password')
),
Input::get('remember'))
->once()
->andReturn(true);
// guarantee we have passed $input data via call this route
$response = $this->call('POST', 'api/v1/login', $input);
$content = $response->getContent();
$data = json_decode($response->getContent());
//... assertions
}