How in feature testing use data from factory? - laravel-5

Question

In laravel 5.8 app with tests I make posting data with some dummy data, like:
$newVoteCategoryRow= [
'id' => null,
'name' => $new_vote_category_row_name,
'meta_description' => 'vote category meta_description on ' . now(),
'meta_keywords' => [ 'vote category meta_description on ' . now(), 'meta_keywords' ],
'active' => true,
'in_subscriptions' => true,
];
$response = $this->actingAs($loggedUser)->post('/admin/vote-categories', $newVoteCategoryRow);
$this->assertCount( $vote_categories_count+1, VoteCategory::all() );
it works ok, but actually I have factory for VoteCategory table in /database/factories/VoteCategoryFactory.php, defined :
<?php
use Faker\Generator as Faker;
use \Cviebrock\EloquentSluggable\Services\SlugService;
use App\VoteCategory;
$factory->define(App\VoteCategory::class, function (Faker $faker) {
$name= 'Vote category ' . $faker->word;
$slug = SlugService::createSlug(VoteCategory::class, 'slug', $name);
return [
'name' => $name,
'slug' => $slug,
'active' => true,
'in_subscriptions' => false,
'meta_description' => $faker->text,
'meta_keywords' => $faker->words(4),
];
});
and my question is if there is a way in post request instead of $newVoteCategoryRow array use my factory, not adding row in database but
reading data from factory for post request ?

Answer 1

to achieve that you just need to use your factory within the test case method:
to create VoteCategory u have to methods, the first one is make and this one will create an instance of VoteCategory without persisting it within the database, and the create method will persist the new VoteCategory within the database.
in your case, you want to create a new instance without adding it to the database, for that you just need to use make:
$newVoteCategoryRow = factory('App\VoteCategory')->make(); // add this line to your test case method.
$response = $this->actingAs($loggedUser)->post('/admin/vote-categories', $newVoteCategoryRow->toArray());
$this->assertCount( $vote_categories_count+1, VoteCategory::all());
for more information, you can check the doc Laravel 5.8: using-factories