Mock Retrofit using Dagger and Mockito

Retrofit is one of the most popular REST client for Android, if you never use it, it is high time to start. There are a lot of articles and tutorial talking about Retrofit. I just would like to show how to mock a REST server during develop of app and i…Retrofit is one of the most popular REST client for Android, if you never use it, it is high time to start. There are a lot of articles and tutorial talking about Retrofit. I just would like to show how to mock a REST server during develop of app and i…

Retrofit is one of the most popular REST client for Android, if you never use it, it is high time to start. There are a lot of articles and tutorial talking about Retrofit. I just would like to show how to mock a REST server during develop of app and in unit test when you are using Dagger as DI.

The example app will query the Echo REST serwer with:
http://echo.jsontest.com/message/sample_message/quantity/11the server responds with

{
    "message": "sample_message",
    "quantity": "11"
}

ApplicationI suggest to no using TDD this time and start from the app. Let’s look at the most significant part of implementation.

  • Interface of the service accordingly with Retrofit convention:
    public interface EchoService {
        @Headers("Content-Type: form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8")
        @GET("/message/{message}/quantity/{quantity}")
        EchoResponse getMessageAndQuantity(
                @Path("message") String message, 
                @Path("quantity") int quantity
        );
    }
  • Dagger provider that provides Retrofit service adapter
    @Module(
            injects = MainActivity.class,
            library = true,
            complete = false
    )
    public class RestServicesModule {
    
        @Provides
        @Named("realService")
        EchoService provideLogoutService() {
            return new RestAdapter.Builder()
                    .setServer("http://echo.jsontest.com")
                    .build()
                    .create(EchoService.class);
        }
    }

    As you can see I have also add @Named annotation. Of course it is not obligatory but I use it to inject real and mocked adapter, both in the same class. Check out the whole example on my Github to find out what I mean.

  • A piece of code that makes the query
@Inject
@Named("realService")
EchoService realService;

//some code

@Override
protected EchoResponse doInBackground(Void... params) {
    return realService.getMessageAndQuantity("example", "32");
}

In that way we make a call to server synchronously. It is not the most sophisticated example I can imagine, but the simplest showing how it works.

During develop of app I often would like to mock the server to get some kind of response (for example to check apps behaviour in some corner case) or just develop though server is down. Moreover it would be nice to be able to turn off/on mock in very simple and fast way.Thus I have write second Dagger module that provides mocked service adapter:

@Module(
        injects = MainActivity.class,
        library = true,
        complete = false
)
public class RestServicesMockModule {

    @Provides
    @Named("mockService")
    EchoService provideLogoutService(Client client) {
        return new RestAdapter.Builder()
                .setServer("http://echo.jsontest.com")
                .setClient(client)
                .build()
                .create(EchoService.class);
    }

    @Provides
    @Singleton
    Client provideMockClient() {
        return new RetrofitClientMock();
    }
}

//You certain noticed additional piece of code that set the Retrofit Client - in a nutshell the Client handle communication over the Internet. Thus we pass custom implementation of client. To keep clarify, implementation of the custom CLient is as simple as possible - always return the same response:
public class RetrofitClientMock implements Client {

    private static final int HTTP_OK_STATUS = 200;

    private static final String LOGIN_VALID_RESP = "{\n"
            + " \"message\": \"mock message\",\n"
            + " \"quantity\": \"11\"\n"
            + "}";

    @Override
    public Response execute(Request request) throws IOException {
        return createResponseWithCodeAndJson(HTTP_OK_STATUS, LOGIN_VALID_RESP);
    }

    private Response createResponseWithCodeAndJson(int responseCode, String json) {
        return new Response(responseCode, "nothing", Collections.EMPTY_LIST,
                new TypedByteArray("application/json", json.getBytes()));
    }
}
//You can activate the mock by adding the mock module to Dagger injector initialization.

Unit TestsDuring develop of app, you can send requests the server all time(or most of time) so it is possible to live without mocked serwer, it sucks but is possible. Unfortunately you are not able to write good tests without the mock. Below there are two unit tests. Actually they do not test anything but in simple way shows how to mock Retrofit service using Mockito and Dagger.

@RunWith(RobolectricTestRunner.class)
public class EchoServiceTest {

    @Inject
    protected EchoService loginService;

    @Inject
    protected Client client;

    @Before
    public void setUp() throws Exception {
        Injector.add(new AndroidModule(),
                new RestServicesModule(),
                new RestServicesMockModule(),
                new TestModule());
        Injector.inject(this);
    }

    @Test
    public void shouldReturnOfferInAsyncMode() throws IOException {
//given
        int expectedQuantity = 765;
        String responseContent = "{" +
                " \"message\": \"mock message\"," +
                " \"quantity\": \"" + expectedQuantity + "\"" +
                "}";
        mockResponseWithCodeAndContent(200, responseContent);

//when
        EchoResponse echoResponse = loginService.getMessageAndQuantity("test", "test");

//then
        assertThat(echoResponse.getQuantity()).isEqualTo(expectedQuantity);
    }

    @Test
    public void shouldReturnOfferInAsyncModea() throws IOException {
//given
        int expectedQuantity = 2;
        String responseContent = "{" +
                " \"message\": \"mock message\"," +
                " \"quantity\": \"" + expectedQuantity + "\"" +
                "}";
        mockResponseWithCodeAndContent(200, responseContent);

//when
        EchoResponse echoResponse = loginService.getMessageAndQuantity("test", "test");

//then
        assertThat(echoResponse.getQuantity()).isEqualTo(expectedQuantity);
    }


    protected void mockResponseWithCodeAndContent(int httpCode, String content) throws IOException {
        Response response = createResponseWithCodeAndJson(httpCode, content);
        when(client.execute(Matchers.anyObject())).thenReturn(response);
    }

    private Response createResponseWithCodeAndJson(int responseCode, String json) {
        return new Response(responseCode, "nothing", Collections.EMPTY_LIST, new TypedByteArray("application/json", json.getBytes()));
    }
}

And Dagger module for the tests:

@Module(
        injects = OfferDetailAdapterTest.class,
        overrides = true,
        library = true,
        complete = false

)
public class TestModule {

    @Provides
    EchoService provideLogoutService(Client client) {
        return new RestAdapter.Builder().setServer("http://echo.jsontest.com").setClient(client).build().create(EchoService.class);
    }

    @Provides
    @Singleton
    Client provideMockClient() {
        return mock(Client.class);
    }
}

 

Please notice very important detail. The mock Client provider method is annotated with @Singleton, it is obligatory to successfully mock the server in Test. If you miss @Singleton, then in runtime, there will be two instances of Client class. One in Test and another in instance of Activity class. Thus you operations on the client in Test class will have not any influence for behaviour in tested class.

The source code of the example you can find on my Github

You May Also Like

How to use mocks in controller tests

Even since I started to write tests for my Grails application I couldn't find many articles on using mocks. Everyone is talking about tests and TDD but if you search for it there isn't many articles.

Today I want to share with you a test with mocks for a simple and complete scenario. I have a simple application that can fetch Twitter tweets and present it to user. I use REST service and I use GET to fetch tweets by id like this: http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/show/236024636775735296.json. You can copy and paste it into your browser to see a result.

My application uses Grails 2.1 with spock-0.6 for tests. I have TwitterReaderService that fetches tweets by id, then I parse a response into my Tweet class.


class TwitterReaderService {
Tweet readTweet(String id) throws TwitterError {
try {
String jsonBody = callTwitter(id)
Tweet parsedTweet = parseBody(jsonBody)
return parsedTweet
} catch (Throwable t) {
throw new TwitterError(t)
}
}

private String callTwitter(String id) {
// TODO: implementation
}

private Tweet parseBody(String jsonBody) {
// TODO: implementation
}
}

class Tweet {
String id
String userId
String username
String text
Date createdAt
}

class TwitterError extends RuntimeException {}

TwitterController plays main part here. Users call show action along with id of a tweet. This action is my subject under test. I've implemented some basic functionality. It's easier to focus on it while writing tests.


class TwitterController {
def twitterReaderService

def index() {
}

def show() {
Tweet tweet = twitterReaderService.readTweet(params.id)
if (tweet == null) {
flash.message = 'Tweet not found'
redirect(action: 'index')
return
}

[tweet: tweet]
}
}

Let's start writing a test from scratch. Most important thing here is that I use mock for my TwitterReaderService. I do not construct new TwitterReaderService(), because in this test I test only TwitterController. I am not interested in injected service. I know how this service is supposed to work and I am not interested in internals. So before every test I inject a twitterReaderServiceMock into controller:


import grails.test.mixin.TestFor
import spock.lang.Specification

@TestFor(TwitterController)
class TwitterControllerSpec extends Specification {
TwitterReaderService twitterReaderServiceMock = Mock(TwitterReaderService)

def setup() {
controller.twitterReaderService = twitterReaderServiceMock
}
}

Now it's time to think what scenarios I need to test. This line from TwitterReaderService is the most important:


Tweet readTweet(String id) throws TwitterError

You must think of this method like a black box right now. You know nothing of internals from controller's point of view. You're only interested what can be returned for you:

  • a TwitterError can be thrown
  • null can be returned
  • Tweet instance can be returned

This list is your test blueprint. Now answer a simple question for each element: "What do I want my controller to do in this situation?" and you have plan test:

  • show action should redirect to index if TwitterError is thrown and inform about error
  • show action should redirect to index and inform if tweet is not found
  • show action should show found tweet

That was easy and straightforward! And now is the best part: we use twitterReaderServiceMock to mock each of these three scenarios!

In Spock there is a good documentation about interaction with mocks. You declare what methods are called, how many times, what parameters are given and what should be returned. Remember a black box? Mock is your black box with detailed instruction, e.g.: I expect you that if receive exactly one call to readTweet with parameter '1' then you should throw me a TwitterError. Rephrase this sentence out loud and look at this:


1 * twitterReaderServiceMock.readTweet('1') >> { throw new TwitterError() }

This is a valid interaction definition on mock! It's that easy! Here is a complete test that fails for now:


import grails.test.mixin.TestFor
import spock.lang.Specification

@TestFor(TwitterController)
class TwitterControllerSpec extends Specification {
TwitterReaderService twitterReaderServiceMock = Mock(TwitterReaderService)

def setup() {
controller.twitterReaderService = twitterReaderServiceMock
}

def "show should redirect to index if TwitterError is thrown"() {
given:
controller.params.id = '1'
when:
controller.show()
then:
1 * twitterReaderServiceMock.readTweet('1') >> { throw new TwitterError() }
0 * _._
flash.message == 'There was an error on fetching your tweet'
response.redirectUrl == '/twitter/index'
}
}

| Failure: show should redirect to index if TwitterError is thrown(pl.refaktor.twitter.TwitterControllerSpec)
| pl.refaktor.twitter.TwitterError
at pl.refaktor.twitter.TwitterControllerSpec.show should redirect to index if TwitterError is thrown_closure1(TwitterControllerSpec.groovy:29)

You may notice 0 * _._ notation. It says: I don't want any other mocks or any other methods called. Fail this test if something is called! It's a good practice to ensure that there are no more interactions than you want.

Ok, now I need to implement controller logic to handle TwitterError.


class TwitterController {

def twitterReaderService

def index() {
}

def show() {
Tweet tweet

try {
tweet = twitterReaderService.readTweet(params.id)
} catch (TwitterError e) {
log.error(e)
flash.message = 'There was an error on fetching your tweet'
redirect(action: 'index')
return
}

[tweet: tweet]
}
}

My tests passes! We have two scenarios left. Rule stays the same: TwitterReaderService returns something and we test against it. So this line is the heart of each test, change only returned values after >>:


1 * twitterReaderServiceMock.readTweet('1') >> { throw new TwitterError() }

Here is a complete test for three scenarios and controller that passes it.


import grails.test.mixin.TestFor
import spock.lang.Specification

@TestFor(TwitterController)
class TwitterControllerSpec extends Specification {

TwitterReaderService twitterReaderServiceMock = Mock(TwitterReaderService)

def setup() {
controller.twitterReaderService = twitterReaderServiceMock
}

def "show should redirect to index if TwitterError is thrown"() {
given:
controller.params.id = '1'
when:
controller.show()
then:
1 * twitterReaderServiceMock.readTweet('1') >> { throw new TwitterError() }
0 * _._
flash.message == 'There was an error on fetching your tweet'
response.redirectUrl == '/twitter/index'
}

def "show should inform about not found tweet"() {
given:
controller.params.id = '1'
when:
controller.show()
then:
1 * twitterReaderServiceMock.readTweet('1') >> null
0 * _._
flash.message == 'Tweet not found'
response.redirectUrl == '/twitter/index'
}


def "show should show found tweet"() {
given:
controller.params.id = '1'
when:
controller.show()
then:
1 * twitterReaderServiceMock.readTweet('1') >> new Tweet()
0 * _._
flash.message == null
response.status == 200
}
}

class TwitterController {

def twitterReaderService

def index() {
}

def show() {
Tweet tweet

try {
tweet = twitterReaderService.readTweet(params.id)
} catch (TwitterError e) {
log.error(e)
flash.message = 'There was an error on fetching your tweet'
redirect(action: 'index')
return
}

if (tweet == null) {
flash.message = 'Tweet not found'
redirect(action: 'index')
return
}

[tweet: tweet]
}
}

The most important thing here is that we've tested controller-service interaction without logic implementation in service! That's why mock technique is so useful. It decouples your dependencies and let you focus on exactly one subject under test. Happy testing!