How to use any_should_be_actual_alias_to_anyObject method of org.mockitousage.matchers.CustomMatcherDoesYieldCCETest class

You don't normally set properties on your mocked objects; instead, you do some specific thing when it's invoked.

when(slingHttpRequest.getAttribute("search")).thenReturn(someObject);

For Java 8 and above, it's easy:

when(mock.process(Matchers.anyList()));

For Java 7 and below, the compiler needs a bit of help. Use anyListOf(Class<T> clazz):

when(mock.process(Matchers.anyListOf(Bar.class)));

This took me a while to figure out, so I am answering my own question.

AFAIK, you need to "undo" each mock. Mockito.reset() will not work with Class<?> references. At the end of the test method, add:

// Undo the mock above because we need to call PathUtils.removeFile() within @After.
PowerMockito.doCallRealMethod().when(PathUtils.class);
PathUtils.removeFile(Mockito.any(File.class));

You are using mockito anyString() while calling the test method, it should be used only for verifying a mock object to ensure a certain method is called with any string parameter inside the test, but not to invoke the test itself. For your test use empty string "" instead to anyString().

Adding RETURNS_DEEP_STUBS did the trick:

A a = Mockito.mock(A.class, Mockito.RETURNS_DEEP_STUBS);

To answer your question directly, you cannot use Mockito to stub a method called from the constructor. Mockito needs an instance of the class before you can begin mocking, and you haven't given yourself a way to create an instance for testing.

More generally, as mentioned in Effective Java item 17, you should not call overridable methods from constructors. If you do so, for instance, you could provide an override in a subclass that refers to a final field but that runs before the final field is set. It probably won't get you in trouble here, but it's a bad habit in Java.

Luckily, you can restructure your code to do this very easily:

public class MyClass {
  public MyClass() {
    this(true);
  }

  /** For testing. */
  MyClass(boolean runSetup) {
    if (runSetup) {
      setup();
    }
  }

  /* ... */
}

To make it even more obvious, you can make the one-parameter MyClass constructor private, and provide a public static factory method:

/* ... */
  public static MyClass createForTesting() {
    return new MyClass(false);
  }

  private MyClass(boolean runSetup) {
/* ... */

Though some developers think it is a bad practice to write any code in methods that is used mostly for tests, remember that you are in charge of the design of your code, and tests are one of few consumers you absolutely know you will need to accommodate. Though it's still a good idea to avoid explicit test setup in "production" code, creating extra methods or overloads for the sake of testing will usually make your code cleaner overall and can drastically improve your test coverage and readability.

You are mocking the object that you're testing. That makes no sense. You should create a real WithDefinitions object and call its real method to test it. If you mock it, by definition, all its methods are replaced by mock implementations that do nothing.

Replace

WithDefinitions withDefinitions = Mockito.mock(WithDefinitions.class);

by something like

WithDefinitions withDefinitions = new WithDefinitions();

This is the best comparison I've seen, of multiple Java mocking frameworks, including EasyMock and mockito. [The original page is offline; this link is to an archived copy.]

It includes EasyMock, Mockito, jMock, SevenMock, JMockit, rMock, Unitils.

I used EasyMock first, but have moved to Mockito. Unit tests created with EasyMock were sometimes fragile and hard to debug. Mockito is easy, partly because it distinguishes between stubbing and verification. Here's a Mockito-oriented comparison of it and EasyMock: http://code.google.com/p/mockito/wiki/MockitoVSEasyMock.

Thanks to @J Andy's line of thought, I realised that I had been heading down the wrong path on this. In Update 1 I was trying to inject the mock service into the MockMvc but after taking a step back I realised that it's not the MockMvc that was under test, it was the PolicyController I wanted to test.

To give a bit of background, I wanted to avoid a traditional unit test of the @Controllers in my Spring MVC application because I wanted to test things that are only provided by running the controllers within Spring itself (e.g. RESTful calls to controller actions). This can be achieved by using the Spring MVC Test framework which allows you to run your tests within Spring.

You'll see from the code in my initial question that I was running the Spring MVC tests in a WebApplicationContext (i.e. this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(this.wac).build(); ) whereas what I should have been doing was running standalone. Running standalone allows me to directly inject the controller I want to test and, therefore, have control over how the service is injected into the controller (i.e. force a mock service to be used).

This is easier explained in code. So for the following controller:

import javax.validation.Valid;

import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.domain.Benefit;
import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.domain.Policy;
import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.services.DomainEntityService;
import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.services.PolicyService;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.validation.BindingResult;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ModelAttribute;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/policies")
public class PolicyController extends DomainEntityController<Policy> {

    @Autowired
    private PolicyService service;

    @RequestMapping(value = "persist", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    public String createOrUpdate(@Valid @ModelAttribute("policy") Policy policy, BindingResult result) {
        if (result.hasErrors()) {
            return "createOrUpdatePolicyForm";
        }
        service.save(policy);
        return "redirect:list";
    }
}

I now have the following test class in which the service is successfully mocked out and my test database is no longer hit:

package name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.controllers;

import static org.mockito.Matchers.isA;
import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.request.MockMvcRequestBuilders.post;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.model;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.redirectedUrl;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.status;
import static org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers.view;
import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.domain.Policy;
import name.hines.steven.medical_claims_tracker.services.PolicyService;

import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.mockito.InjectMocks;
import org.mockito.Mock;
import org.mockito.MockitoAnnotations;
import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.setup.MockMvcBuilders;

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration({ "classpath:/applicationContext.xml" })
public class PolicyControllerTest {

    @Mock
    PolicyService policyService;

    @InjectMocks
    PolicyController controllerUnderTest;

    private MockMvc mockMvc;

    @Before
    public void setup() {

        // this must be called for the @Mock annotations above to be processed
        // and for the mock service to be injected into the controller under
        // test.
        MockitoAnnotations.initMocks(this);

        this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.standaloneSetup(controllerUnderTest).build();

    }

    @Test
    public void createOrUpdateFailsWhenInvalidDataPostedAndSendsUserBackToForm() throws Exception {
        // POST no data to the form (i.e. an invalid POST)
        mockMvc.perform(post("/policies/persist")).andExpect(status().isOk())
        .andExpect(model().attributeHasErrors("policy"))
        .andExpect(view().name("createOrUpdatePolicy"));
    }

    @Test
    public void createOrUpdateSuccessful() throws Exception {

        when(policyService.save(isA(Policy.class))).thenReturn(new Policy());

        mockMvc.perform(
                post("/policies/persist").param("companyName", "Company Name")
                .param("name", "Name").param("effectiveDate", "2001-01-01"))
                .andExpect(status().isMovedTemporarily()).andExpect(model().hasNoErrors())
                .andExpect(redirectedUrl("list"));
    }
}

I'm still very much learning when it comes to Spring so any comments that will improve my explanation would be welcomed. This blog post was helpful to me in coming up with this solution.