Testing @MessageMapping WebSocket methods of Spring MVC controllers

Question

I am currently experimenting with the support for WebSockets added in Spring 4.0, as described in this guide. As demonstrated in the guide, methods annotated with @MessageMapping can be added to any Spring MVC controller, which may also contain @RequestMapping methods.

The spring-test module has support for writing integration tests for @RequestMapping methods (as described here) in a very simple and fluid way:

@Test
public void getAccount() throws Exception {
    this.mockMvc.perform(get("/accounts/1").accept(MediaType.parseMediaType("application/json;charset=UTF-8")))
        .andExpect(status().isOk())
        .andExpect(content().contentType("application/json"))
        .andExpect(jsonPath("$.name").value("Lee"));
}

Is there similar support for testing @MessageMapping methods using WebSockets? I have not found anything in any of the Spring modules, and none of the WebSocket guides contain any tests. If not, would I need to actually deploy the application and use a WebSocketConnectionManager to connect a test client? Or is there some API I can build on from spring-test?

This sample project contains such a small test client, but I would prefer to integrate this into the actual tests without requiring me to deploy the application and hardcode the deployed path in the tests.

Answer 1

There is nothing like Spring MVC Test for @MessageMapping methods yet. However, a similar approach to testing should be possible even without the fluent API. There is a ticket in JIRA (see https://jira.spring.io/browse/SPR-11266) to provide documentation so watch that ticket for more details in the very near future.