Testing updating user profile data - testing

Question

I make http tests in my Laravel 5.7 application with profile page(which has "Profile View" page and "Profile Details" editor ), like :
$newUser->save();
$testing_user_id = $newUser->id;
$newUserGroup = new UserGroup();
$newUserGroup->group_id = USER_ACCESS_USER;
$newUserGroup->user_id = $newUser->id;
$userGroup= Group::find($newUserGroup->group_id);
$newUserSessionData = [
[
'loggedUserAccessGroups' => ['group_id' => $newUserGroup->group_id, 'group_name' => !empty($userGroup) ? $userGroup->name : ''],
'logged_user_ip' => '0',
]
];
$newUserGroup->save();
// 3. OPEN PROFILE PAGE BLOCK START
$response = $this->actingAs($newUser)
->withSession($newUserSessionData)
->get('/profile/view');
// 3. OPEN PROFILE PAGE BLOCK END
// 4. MAKING CHECKING PROFILE FOR USER CREATED AT 2) BLOCK START
$response->assertStatus(200); // to use HTTP_RESPONSE_OK
$response->assertSee(htmlspecialchars("Profile : " . $newUser->username, ENT_QUOTES));
// 4. MAKING CHECKING PROFILE FOR USER CREATED AT 2) BLOCK END
// 5. OPEN PROFILE DETAILS VIEW PAGE BLOCK START
$response = $this->actingAs($newUser)
->withSession($newUserSessionData)
->get('profile/view');
$response->assertStatus(200);
$response->assertSee(htmlspecialchars("Profile : " . $newUser->username, ENT_QUOTES));
// 5. OPEN PROFILE DETAILS VIEW PAGE BLOCK END
// 6. OPEN PROFILE DETAILS EDITOR PAGE BLOCK START
$response = $this->actingAs($newUser)
->withSession($newUserSessionData)
->get('profile/edit-details'); // http://local-votes.com/profile/edit-details
$response->assertStatus(HTTP_RESPONSE_OK);
$response->assertSee(htmlspecialchars("Profile : Details"));
// 6. OPEN PROFILE DETAILS EDITOR PAGE BLOCK END
// 7. MODIFY PROFILE DETAILS PAGE BLOCK START
$response = $this->actingAs($newUser)
->withSession($newUserSessionData)
->post('profile/edit-details-post', [
'first_name' => 'Modified : ' . $newUser->first_name,
'last_name' => 'Modified : ' . $newUser->last_name,
'phone' => 'Modified : ' . $newUser->phone,
'website' => 'Modified : ' . $newUser->website,
'_token' => $csrf_token
]);
// $response->assertStatus(205); // ???
// 7. MODIFY PROFILE DETAILS PAGE BLOCK END
////////////////////////
// 8. OPEN PROFILE DETAILS VIEW PAGE AFTER MODIFICATIONS BLOCK START
$response = $this->actingAs($newUser)
->withSession($newUserSessionData)
->get('profile/view');
$response->assertStatus(200);
$response->assertSee( htmlspecialchars('Modified : ' . $newUser->last_name) );
// 8. OPEN PROFILE DETAILS VIEW PAGE AFTER MODIFICATIONS BLOCK END
New user is added and Profile View page is opened ok, but there are problems at step // 7. MODIFY PROFILE DETAILS PAGE BLOCK START
as I see in sql trace new user is inserted but not updated.
In my control app/Http/Controllers/ProfileController.php update method is defined with validation request :
public function update_details(ProfileUserDetailsRequest $request)
{
$userProfile = Auth::user();
$requestData = $request->all();
$userProfile->first_name = $requestData['first_name'];
$userProfile->last_name = $requestData['last_name'];
$userProfile->phone = $requestData['phone'];
$userProfile->website = $requestData['website'];
$userProfile->updated_at = now();
$userProfile->save();
$this->setFlashMessage('Profile updated successfully !', 'success', 'Profile');
return Redirect::route('profile-view');
} // public function update_details(ProfileUserDetailsRequest $request)
1) Can the reason be in ProfileUserDetailsRequest and how to deal this ?
My profile details editor works ok.
My route defined as :
Route::group(array('prefix' => 'profile', 'middleware' => ['auth', 'isVerified']), function(){
Route::post('edit-details-post', array(
'as' => 'profile-edit-details-post',
'uses' => 'ProfileController#update_details'
));
At first I tried PUT, but after that I tried POST - the same without results.
2) Can you advice some proper way of User Profile details checking on // 7. MODIFY PROFILE DETAILS PAGE BLOCK START step ?
MODIFIED BLOCK # 2 :
I tried patch method, but it does not work anyway.
I have debugging method in my app/Http/Controllers/ProfileController.php
public function update_details(ProfileUserDetailsRequest $request)
{
method and when test is run I see that it is not triggered.
I use the same update_details method updating my form in brauser and it work ok(I see debugging info too).
I suppose that could be csrf issue and in header of my test file I wrote:
<?php
namespace Tests\Feature;
use Tests\TestCase;
use DB;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithFaker;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithoutMiddleware; // Prevent all middleware from being executed for this test class.
public function testProfilePage()
{
$csrf_token = csrf_token();
...
$response = $this->actingAs($newUser)
->withSession($newUserSessionData)
->patch('profile/edit-details-post', [
'first_name' => 'Modified : ' . $newUser->first_name,
'last_name' => 'Modified : ' . $newUser->last_name,
'phone' => 'Modified : ' . $newUser->phone,
'website' => 'Modified : ' . $newUser->website,
// '_token' => $csrf_token / I TRIED TO UNCOMMENT THIS LINE TOO
]);
$response->assertStatus(205); // making this check I see that code 419 was returned
Can decision be to add in file app/Http/Middleware/VerifyCsrfToken.php
class VerifyCsrfToken extends Middleware
{
/**
* The URIs that should be excluded from CSRF verification.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $except = [
// ???
];
If in command line I run tests as
vendor/bin/phpunit tests/Feature/ProfilepageTest.php
What have I to add in except?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Other than the PATCH instead of POST following are my recommendations to test your code.
Instead of ProfileUserDetailsRequest try to use simple Request.
Try to log $request variable in your update function and check if the _token and _method are available, method should be PATCH and the request variables are posted correctly.
Make a model of user table and try to update the user with that model using
$user = User::find(Auth::user()->id);
…
$user->save();
Sessions are initiated with a middleware, i think if you are disabling the middleware, session will not work.

Answer 2

If you are using an IDE like Visual Studio Code to run your code then try using a debugger like xdebug. Place a breakpoint in your update_details method and see if it is getting to save and save is executing. If it is then we know save is not updating correctly.
It looks like what you are doing is correct according to the documentation for update:
https://laravel.com/docs/5.7/eloquent#updates example from docs below:
$flight = App\Flight::find(1);
$flight->name = 'New Flight Name';
$flight->save();
Off the top of my head my only guess as to why it would fail is maybe getting the user off of the auth object causes problems. Take the id from the user in the auth object and use find() to grab the user then update its values and save and see if that works.