In this post, we will explore the issue of loading the WebApplicationContext. The common issue is not loading the WebApplicationContext into the spring boot test environment. WebApplicationContext provides a web-based environment to run test cases.
The WebApplicationContext is not required to run a spring boot console test. The web-based spring boot application requires WebApplicationContext to run the Junit test cases.
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: WebApplicationContext is required
at org.springframework.util.Assert.notNull(Assert.java:198)
at org.springframework.test.web.servlet.setup.DefaultMockMvcBuilder.<init>(DefaultMockMvcBuilder.java:52)
at org.springframework.test.web.servlet.setup.MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(MockMvcBuilders.java:51)
at com.test.StudentTestController.setup(StudentTestController.java:28)
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.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:50)
at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:12)
at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:47)
at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunBefores.evaluate(RunBefores.java:24)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runLeaf(ParentRunner.java:325)
at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:78)
at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:57)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:290)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:71)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:288)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:58)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:268)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:363)
at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.run(JUnitCore.java:137)
at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.run(JUnitCore.java:115)
at org.junit.vintage.engine.execution.RunnerExecutor.execute(RunnerExecutor.java:40)
at java.util.stream.ForEachOps$ForEachOp$OfRef.accept(ForEachOps.java:184)
at java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline$3$1.accept(ReferencePipeline.java:193)
at java.util.Iterator.forEachRemaining(Iterator.java:116)
at java.util.Spliterators$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$OfRef.evaluateSequential(ForEachOps.java:174)
at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.evaluate(AbstractPipeline.java:234)
at java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline.forEach(ReferencePipeline.java:418)
at org.junit.vintage.engine.VintageTestEngine.executeAllChildren(VintageTestEngine.java:80)
at org.junit.vintage.engine.VintageTestEngine.execute(VintageTestEngine.java:71)
at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncher.execute(DefaultLauncher.java:229)
at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncher.lambda$execute$6(DefaultLauncher.java:197)
at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncher.withInterceptedStreams(DefaultLauncher.java:211)
at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncher.execute(DefaultLauncher.java:191)
at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncher.execute(DefaultLauncher.java:137)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit5.runner.JUnit5TestReference.run(JUnit5TestReference.java:89)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.TestExecution.run(TestExecution.java:41)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:541)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:763)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.run(RemoteTestRunner.java:463)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.main(RemoteTestRunner.java:209)
Root Cause
The root cause of this exception is not to load WebApplicationContext in the spring boot test environment. WebApplicationContext is required to execute any web-based test request in the web-based spring boot application. This issue is due either to a web-based environment that is not available or to a WebApplicationContext that is not created properly
How to Reproduce this issue
There are two ways to replicate this issue. This issue will be reproduced in the code below.
package com.yawintutor;
import org.junit.Before;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.setup.MockMvcBuilders;
import org.springframework.web.context.WebApplicationContext;
@SpringBootTest
public class StudentTestController{
@Autowired
private WebApplicationContext webApplicationContext;
private MockMvc mockMvc;
@Before
public void setup() {
mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(webApplicationContext).build();
}
}Solution 1
Using @RunWith(SpringRunner.class) in the spring boot test classes that connect JUnit library to Spring Boot Test Environment. SpringJUnit4ClassRunner is the main test class on Junit. SpringRunner is an alias of SpringJUnit4ClassRunner class
To load the WebApplicationContext, the spring boot test class must have annotation @RunWith(SpringRunner.class) before the class. If the annotation is not added in your test case, add the annotation as shown in the below example.
@SpringBootTest
@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
public class StudentTestController{
@Autowired
private WebApplicationContext webApplicationContext;Solution 2
The WebApplicationContext variable must have annotation with @Autowired. Otherwise, WebApplicationContext may not load in the test environment. The below code explain the WebApplicationContext.
package com.yawintutor;
import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringRunner;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.setup.MockMvcBuilders;
import org.springframework.web.context.WebApplicationContext;
@SpringBootTest
@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
public class StudentTestController{
@Autowired
private WebApplicationContext webApplicationContext;
private MockMvc mockMvc;
@Before
public void setup() {
mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(webApplicationContext).build();
}
}