Testing Mastery: JUnit, Mockito & Integration Tests · Leçon

Espionner des objets réels

Découvrez comment utiliser les espions de Mockito pour simuler partiellement des objets réels, appeler leurs méthodes réelles tout en vérifiant les interactions.

Espionner des objets réels est une leçon Testing Mastery: JUnit, Mockito & Integration Tests gratuite sur CoddyKit. Ceci est la leçon 3 sur 4. Tu peux lire la leçon complète ci-dessous gratuitement — puis la pratiquer en direct dans le navigateur avec un éditeur de code intégré et un tuteur IA 24/7. Elle fait partie du parcours d'apprentissage Testing Mastery: JUnit, Mockito & Integration Tests, et ta progression se synchronise sur le web et l'application CoddyKit. Le cours Testing Mastery: JUnit, Mockito & Integration Tests comprend 4 leçons au total.

Certaines parties de cette leçon n'ont pas encore été traduites et s'affichent en anglais.

What are Mockito Spies?

In Mockito, you've learned to create mocks to fully control object behavior. But what if you only want to change a few methods while keeping the original behavior for others?

That's where spies come in! A spy wraps a real object, allowing you to:

Call the object's actual methods by default.
Override (stub) specific methods to return predefined values.
Verify interactions with the real object.

Think of it as 'partial mocking' – using the real thing, but with a few tweaks.

Creating Your First Spy

Creating a spy is straightforward. Instead of Mockito.mock(), you use Mockito.spy() and pass in an instance of the real object you want to spy on.

Let's define a simple DataService class we'll use for our examples. This service will perform some operations.

import org.mockito.Mockito;

public class DataService {
    public String fetchData(String id) {
        return "Real data for " + id;
    }

    public int processData(String data) {
        return data.length();
    }
}

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        DataService realService = new DataService();
        DataService spyService = Mockito.spy(realService);

        System.out.println("Spy created successfully!");
    }
}

Spies Call Real Methods

The key characteristic of a spy is that, by default, it will call the actual methods of the object it's wrapping. This is different from a mock, which has no real implementation and returns default values.

Let's see our spyService call a real method:

import org.mockito.Mockito;

public class DataService {
    public String fetchData(String id) {
        System.out.println("--- Calling REAL fetchData for ID: " + id + " ---");
        return "Real data for " + id;
    }

    public int processData(String data) {
        return data.length();
    }
}

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        DataService realService = new DataService();
        DataService spyService = Mockito.spy(realService);

        String result = spyService.fetchData("123");
        System.out.println("Result from spy: " + result);

        int processed = spyService.processData("Hello");
        System.out.println("Processed data length: " + processed);
    }
}

Stubbing a Spy: Overriding Behavior

While spies call real methods by default, you can still stub them to return specific values or throw exceptions, just like with mocks. This lets you control parts of the object's behavior.

However, when stubbing a spy, it's often safer to use doReturn().when() syntax:

Mockito.when(spy.method()).thenReturn(value) might execute the real method first if it's called during the when() part.
Mockito.doReturn(value).when(spy).method() avoids calling the real method during stubbing, which is crucial if the real method has side effects or throws exceptions.

Stubbing a Spy in Action

Let's stub our spyService's fetchData method to return a custom value for a specific ID, while other calls still go to the real method:

import org.mockito.Mockito;

public class DataService {
    public String fetchData(String id) {
        System.out.println("--- Calling REAL fetchData for ID: " + id + " ---");
        return "Real data for " + id;
    }

    public int processData(String data) {
        return data.length();
    }
}

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        DataService realService = new DataService();
        DataService spyService = Mockito.spy(realService);

        // Stubbing the spy for a specific input
        Mockito.doReturn("Mocked data for specific ID")
               .when(spyService)
               .fetchData("specialId");

        // This call will return the mocked data
        String result1 = spyService.fetchData("specialId");
        System.out.println("Result for specialId: " + result1);

        // This call will go to the real method
        String result2 = spyService.fetchData("regularId");
        System.out.println("Result for regularId: " + result2);
    }
}

Verifying Spy Interactions

Just like with mocks, you can use Mockito.verify() to ensure that certain methods were called on your spy. This is powerful for confirming that your code interacts with the real object as expected.

verify() works exactly the same for spies as it does for mocks. You can check:

If a method was called.
How many times it was called.
With what arguments it was called.

Verifying Spy Calls Example

Let's verify that our fetchData method was called on the spy, even when it executed its real implementation:

import org.mockito.Mockito;

public class DataService {
    public String fetchData(String id) {
        System.out.println("--- Calling REAL fetchData for ID: " + id + " ---");
        return "Real data for " + id;
    }

    public int processData(String data) {
        return data.length();
    }
}

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        DataService realService = new DataService();
        DataService spyService = Mockito.spy(realService);

        // Call a method on the spy (it will execute the real method)
        spyService.fetchData("user1");
        spyService.processData("data1");
        spyService.fetchData("user2");

        // Verify interactions
        Mockito.verify(spyService).fetchData("user1");
        Mockito.verify(spyService, Mockito.times(2)).fetchData(Mockito.anyString());
        Mockito.verify(spyService).processData("data1");

        System.out.println("Verification successful!");
    }
}

Spies vs. Mocks: The Key Difference

It's crucial to understand when to use a spy versus a traditional mock:

Mocks: Create a completely fake object. All methods are 'empty' and return default values unless you explicitly stub them. Ideal for isolating the unit under test.
Spies: Wrap a real object. All methods execute their actual implementation unless you explicitly stub them. Useful when you want to use most of the real object's behavior but control a few specific interactions.

Prefer mocks for true unit isolation. Use spies when dealing with complex objects where only a few methods need to be controlled, or for legacy code.

When to Use Spies

Spies are particularly useful in scenarios where:

You're testing a class that interacts with a complex dependency, and you only need to override a small part of that dependency's behavior.
You have a legacy class with many methods, and creating a full mock would be tedious, but you need to ensure some methods are called or return specific values.
You want to test partial behavior of a real object without fully replacing it.

However, use them sparingly. Over-reliance on spies can lead to less isolated tests that are harder to maintain.

Quick Check: Spy Behavior

Consider a Logger class with a log(String message) method that prints to console. If you spy on a new Logger() object, what happens when you call spyLogger.log("Test") without any stubbing?

Recap: Spying on Real Objects

You've successfully learned about Mockito spies!

Spies wrap real objects, allowing you to use their actual methods by default.
You create them with Mockito.spy(realObject).
You can stub specific methods using doReturn().when(spy).method() to override their behavior.
You can verify interactions on spies using Mockito.verify(), just like with mocks.
Use spies carefully, primarily when partial control over a real object is needed, rather than full isolation.

This flexibility helps you write more targeted tests for complex scenarios.

Questions Fréquemment Posées

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Toutes les leçons de ce cours

Configurer les valeurs de retour
Correspondance des arguments avec Mockito
Espionner des objets réels
Lever des exceptions et gérer les appels consécutifs

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