Mocking a static method referencing a request object.

[olivier nguyen]

Hi all,

I am writing a unit test for a service (ex: AddressService) that calls a static method from this helper class:

class AccountUtils {

    /* ... Some code ... */    

    static getUserLocale() {

        Locale locale = RequestContextUtils.getLocale(RequestContextHolder.requestAttributes.request)

String languageCode = locale.getLanguage()

supportedLanguagesSet.contains(languageCode) ? locale : Locale.ENGLISH

    }

}

Here is the message I get when running the test:

services.AddressService  - Cannot get property 'request' on null object

Anybody ever ran into this?

Thanks a lot,

-Olivier

[Noam Tenne]

Hi Olivier,

Can you show us how you prepare the different interactions and mocks?

Cheers,

Noam

[olivier nguyen]

Hi Noam, thank you for proposing your help.

I am pasting all the code ...

Thought: I think the error is due to the use of a static method in the AddressService's transform method.

I read that testing code using static method can be a sign of code smell and that it makes unit testing much more difficult that it should be.

Looking forward to your inputs! 

class AddressService {

def lookupService

def provinceService

def addressFormatHelper

def transform(acsAddress, country) {

def address = new Address()

try {

address.addressFormat = addressFormatHelper.getAddressFormat(country)

if (address) {

address.address1 = acsAddress.getAddress1()

/* other address fields */

address.country = lookupService.getCountry(acsAddress.getCountry(), AccountUtils.getUserLocale().getLanguage())

}

} catch (all) {

log.error "$all.message"

}

address

}

}

class AddressServiceSpec extends BaseUnitSpec {

def testTransform() {

setup:

def servletRequest = new MockHttpServletRequest()

service.lookupService = Mock(LookupService)

service.provinceService  = Mock(ProvinceService)

service.addressFormatHelper = Mock(AddressFormatHelper)

def utils = Mock(AccountUtils)

utils.getUserLocale() >> new Locale("en")

AcsAddress acsAddress = new AcsAddress()

acsAddress.address1 = "Street Addres 1"

/* other fields */

service.provinceService.find(_,_) >> Mock(Province)

service.lookupService.getCountry(_,_) >> "United States"

service.addressFormatHelper.getAddressFormat(_) >> Mock(AddressFormat)

when:

def address = service.transform (acsAddress, "US")

then:

address.address1 == acsAddress.address1

}

}