Testing using mockmvc how to deal with unordered array - spring

Question

How do I test for the correct test results when my returned array is unordered? My test fails because the order they are in the array is different on each test run. How can I fix this or account for an unordered array?
mockMvc.perform(delete("/deleteSomeObject" + "/objIdLong" + "/objFKeyString"))
.
.
.andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].id.objIdLong", is(533252)))
.andExpect(jsonPath("$[0].id.objFKeyString", is("SomeString")))
.andExpect(jsonPath("$[1].id.objIdLong", is(642654252)))
.andExpect(jsonPath("$[1].id.objFKeyString", is("ThisString")))
.andExpect(jsonPath("$[2].id.objIdLong", is(4624352)))
.andExpect(jsonPath("$[2].id.objFKeyString", is("SomeOtherString")));

Answer 1

You could use the 'any element' instruction and to prevent false positives where one element has the expected objIdLong and another element has the expected objFKeyString you could combine the accessors.
Something like this:
.andExpect(jsonPath('$.id[?(#.objIdLong == 533252 && #.objFKeyString == \'SomeString\')]').exists())
.andExpect(jsonPath('$.id[?(#.objIdLong == 642654252 && #.objFKeyString == \'ThisString\')]').exists())
.andExpect(jsonPath('$.id[?(#.objIdLong == 4624352 && #.objFKeyString == \'SomeOtherString\')]').exists())
These assertions will be deemed true as long as the returned JSON contains:
An id sub document with objIdLong=533252 and objFKeyString="SomeString"
An id sub document with objIdLong=642654252 and objFKeyString="ThisString"
An id sub document with objIdLong=4624352 and objFKeyString="SomeOtherString"

Answer 2

At the time of writing there was an easier way of doing it .andExpect(content().json(expected_response))
.json(expected_response) validation has an option to do a strict or a lenient checking. This is helpful for arrays where you do not care about response ordering which can change. If you want to turn strict checking it on you can turn it on like .json(expected_response,true) . Also you can load your whole response from a file reader and do a direct assert without having to tediously write json path. Here is a complete example.
#Test
#DisplayName("invalid fields")
void invalidfields() throws Exception {
String request = getResourceFileAsString("test-data/http-request/invalid-fields.json");
String response_file_path = "test-data/http-response/error-messages/invalid-fields.json";
String expected_response = getResourceFileAsString(response_file_path);
mockMvc.perform(evaluateRulesOnData(TRACKING_ID.toString(), request))
.andExpect(status().isBadRequest())
.andExpect(content().json(expected_response));
}
helper function to load test files from classpath
public static String getResourceFileAsString(String fileName) throws IOException {
Resource resource = new ClassPathResource(fileName);
File file = resource.getFile();
return new String(Files.readAllBytes(file.toPath()));
}
The expected response has an array with many elements in the list which are matched despite being in random order during each test run.