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Nullpointer Exception when using JUnit 5 @Nested tests

See original GitHub issue

Hello Spring REST Docs Team!

It seems that JUnit 5’s @Nested tests don’t work with auto-configured Spring REST Docs.

Executing the following simple test class will result in a NullPointerException:

package example;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Nested;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.restdocs.AutoConfigureRestDocs;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.servlet.AutoConfigureMockMvc;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit.jupiter.SpringExtension;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc;

import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.equalTo;
import static org.springframework.restdocs.mockmvc.MockMvcRestDocumentation.document;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.request.MockMvcRequestBuilders.get;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.jsonPath;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.status;

@SpringBootTest
@AutoConfigureMockMvc
@AutoConfigureRestDocs
@ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class)
class FailingTest {

    @Autowired
    MockMvc mockMvc;

    @Nested
    class NestedTests {

        @Test
        void testAndDocumentation() throws Exception {
            mockMvc.perform(get("/hello"))
                    .andExpect(status().is2xxSuccessful())
                    .andExpect(jsonPath("message", equalTo("Hello World!")))
                    .andDo(document("hello-get-200"));
        }

    }

}

The resulting stacktrace:

java.lang.NullPointerException
	at org.springframework.restdocs.ManualRestDocumentation.beforeOperation(ManualRestDocumentation.java:89)
	at org.springframework.restdocs.mockmvc.MockMvcRestDocumentationConfigurer$ConfigurerApplyingRequestPostProcessor.postProcessRequest(MockMvcRestDocumentationConfigurer.java:100)
	at org.springframework.test.web.servlet.request.MockHttpServletRequestBuilder.postProcessRequest(MockHttpServletRequestBuilder.java:755)
	at org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc.perform(MockMvc.java:154)
	at example.FailingTest$NestedTests.testAndDocumentation(FailingTest.java:33)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
	at org.junit.platform.commons.util.ReflectionUtils.invokeMethod(ReflectionUtils.java:436)
	at org.junit.jupiter.engine.execution.ExecutableInvoker.invoke(ExecutableInvoker.java:115)
	at org.junit.jupiter.engine.descriptor.TestMethodTestDescriptor.lambda$invokeTestMethod$6(TestMethodTestDescriptor.java:170)
	at org.junit.jupiter.engine.execution.ThrowableCollector.execute(ThrowableCollector.java:40)
	at org.junit.jupiter.engine.descriptor.TestMethodTestDescriptor.invokeTestMethod(TestMethodTestDescriptor.java:166)
	at org.junit.jupiter.engine.descriptor.TestMethodTestDescriptor.execute(TestMethodTestDescriptor.java:113)
	at org.junit.jupiter.engine.descriptor.TestMethodTestDescriptor.execute(TestMethodTestDescriptor.java:58)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.lambda$executeRecursively$3(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:112)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.SingleTestExecutor.executeSafely(SingleTestExecutor.java:66)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.executeRecursively(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:108)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.execute(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:79)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.lambda$executeRecursively$2(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:120)
	at java.util.stream.ForEachOps$ForEachOp$OfRef.accept(ForEachOps.java:184)
	at java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline$2$1.accept(ReferencePipeline.java:175)
	at java.util.Iterator.forEachRemaining(Iterator.java:116)
	at java.util.Spliterators$IteratorSpliterator.forEachRemaining(Spliterators.java:1801)
	at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.copyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:481)
	at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.wrapAndCopyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:471)
	at java.util.stream.ForEachOps$ForEachOp.evaluateSequential(ForEachOps.java:151)
	at java.util.stream.ForEachOps$ForEachOp$OfRef.evaluateSequential(ForEachOps.java:174)
	at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.evaluate(AbstractPipeline.java:234)
	at java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline.forEach(ReferencePipeline.java:418)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.lambda$executeRecursively$3(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:120)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.SingleTestExecutor.executeSafely(SingleTestExecutor.java:66)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.executeRecursively(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:108)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.execute(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:79)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.lambda$executeRecursively$2(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:120)
	at java.util.stream.ForEachOps$ForEachOp$OfRef.accept(ForEachOps.java:184)
	at java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline$2$1.accept(ReferencePipeline.java:175)
	at java.util.Iterator.forEachRemaining(Iterator.java:116)
	at java.util.Spliterators$IteratorSpliterator.forEachRemaining(Spliterators.java:1801)
	at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.copyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:481)
	at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.wrapAndCopyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:471)
	at java.util.stream.ForEachOps$ForEachOp.evaluateSequential(ForEachOps.java:151)
	at java.util.stream.ForEachOps$ForEachOp$OfRef.evaluateSequential(ForEachOps.java:174)
	at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.evaluate(AbstractPipeline.java:234)
	at java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline.forEach(ReferencePipeline.java:418)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.lambda$executeRecursively$3(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:120)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.SingleTestExecutor.executeSafely(SingleTestExecutor.java:66)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.executeRecursively(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:108)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.execute(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:79)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.lambda$executeRecursively$2(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:120)
	at java.util.stream.ForEachOps$ForEachOp$OfRef.accept(ForEachOps.java:184)
	at java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline$2$1.accept(ReferencePipeline.java:175)
	at java.util.Iterator.forEachRemaining(Iterator.java:116)
	at java.util.Spliterators$IteratorSpliterator.forEachRemaining(Spliterators.java:1801)
	at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.copyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:481)
	at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.wrapAndCopyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:471)
	at java.util.stream.ForEachOps$ForEachOp.evaluateSequential(ForEachOps.java:151)
	at java.util.stream.ForEachOps$ForEachOp$OfRef.evaluateSequential(ForEachOps.java:174)
	at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.evaluate(AbstractPipeline.java:234)
	at java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline.forEach(ReferencePipeline.java:418)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.lambda$executeRecursively$3(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:120)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.SingleTestExecutor.executeSafely(SingleTestExecutor.java:66)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.executeRecursively(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:108)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor$NodeExecutor.execute(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:79)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor.execute(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:55)
	at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestEngine.execute(HierarchicalTestEngine.java:43)
	at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncher.execute(DefaultLauncher.java:170)
	at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncher.execute(DefaultLauncher.java:154)
	at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncher.execute(DefaultLauncher.java:90)
	at com.intellij.junit5.JUnit5IdeaTestRunner.startRunnerWithArgs(JUnit5IdeaTestRunner.java:74)
	at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.IdeaTestRunner$Repeater.startRunnerWithArgs(IdeaTestRunner.java:47)
	at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.prepareStreamsAndStart(JUnitStarter.java:242)
	at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.main(JUnitStarter.java:70)

Tested with Spring Boot 2.0.1.BUILD-SNAPSHOT, Spring REST Docs 2.0.0.RELEASE and JUnit 5.1.0 on 2018-03-14 at around 11:00 PM.

I created a simple example application (thx start.spring.io 😉 ) to reproduce the issue: https://github.com/slu-it/bug-spring-restdocs-nested-tests

Note: This might be related to the following issue I opened in Spring Boot: https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/issues/12470

Issue Analytics

State:
Created 6 years ago
Comments:6 (4 by maintainers)

Top GitHub Comments

3reactions

wilkinsonacommented, Mar 15, 2018

Thanks for the sample. The NullPointerException is occurring because your inner test class isn’t a Spring Boot test. I see you’ve corrected that in AlsoFailingTest that fails for a different reason. It’s failing due to what is either a bug in or a limitation of the testing support provided by Spring Framework. I’ve opened https://jira.spring.io/browse/SPR-16595.

Note that these problems are specific to @AutoConfigureMockMvc and @AutoConfigureRestDocs. If you configure MockMvc and REST Docs without relying on Boot’s test auto-configuration, this should work.

1reaction

wilkinsonacommented, Mar 19, 2019

The configuration you’ve tried doesn’t match the recommendations above.

The NullPointerException is occurring because your inner test class isn’t a Spring Boot test

With the configuration that you’ve shared, NestedTests creates a new application context so the bean that should set REST Docs up correctly isn’t found.

You can avoid the problem by configuring your nested class like this:

@Nested
@SpringBootTest
@AutoConfigureMockMvc
@AutoConfigureRestDocs
class NestedTests {

	@Autowired
	MockMvc mockMvc;

	@Test
	public void sampleNested() throws Exception {
		this.mockMvc.perform(get("/"))
			.andExpect(status().isOk())
			.andDo(document("sample"));
	}

}

You need to inject MockMvc again as, despite the apparently identical configuration, NestedTests still creates a second application context and you need the MockMvc instance from that context not the context of SampleJUnit5ApplicationTests.

This doesn’t feel right to me, but it’s out of the control of Spring REST Docs. @sbrannen how are nested tests expected to work in Framework 5.1? What configuration is required to have a nested test reuse the context, test execution listeners, etc from its outer class?