Phoenix: How to test controller actions from the console? - terminal

Question

I have created a new controller action and I would like to test it from the console to make sure it works.
How can I execute the action after running iex -S mix phx.server in the terminal? It seems to me that in order to do this, I need to create a conn struct as well as a user struct (since I am using Guardian).
My controller code looks like this:
defmodule HelloWeb.AssetController do
use HelloWeb, :controller
use Guardian.Phoenix.Controller
action_fallback HelloWeb.FallbackController
def new_action(conn, %{"id" => id}, user, _claims) do
# Stuff I want to test
end
# Other actions omitted
end
How can I test new_action from IEx?

Answer 1

You can use phoenix test helpers to achieve something like what's done in the ExUnit tests in iex:
iex(22)> conn = Phoenix.ConnTest.build_conn() |>
...(22)> Phoenix.Controller.put_view(HelloWeb.AssetView)
%Plug.Conn{...}
# This assumes you have at least one user created in the dev database
iex(23)> [user | _] = HelloWeb.Schemas.User |> HelloWeb.Repo.all
iex(23)> HelloWeb.AssetController.new_action(conn, %{"id" => some_id}, user, [])
# You can inspect this conn to see if what's rendered is OK
%Plug.Conn{...}