Laravel - input not passing over through unit test

Question

I'm receiving the below error when running my unit tests. Seems that it doesn't like passing in the Input::get to the constructor, however when running the script within the browser the action works fine so I know it's not the controller code. If I take out any of the 'task_update' code the test passes with just the find even with the Input - so not sure why it accepts the Input for one method.

ErrorException: Argument 1 passed to Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model::__construct() must be of the type array, null given, called

My Controller is:

public function store()
{
    $task_update = new TaskUpdate(Input::get('tasks_updates'));

    $task = $this->task->find(Input::get('tasks_updates')['task_id']);

    $output = $task->taskUpdate()->save($task_update);

    if (!!$output->id) {
        return Redirect::route('tasks.show', $output->task_id)
                        ->with('flash_task_update', 'Task has been updated');
    }
}

And the test is - I'm setting the input for task_updates array but just isn't being picked up:

    Input::replace(['tasks_updates' => array('description' => 'Hello')]);

    $mockClass = $this->mock;
    $mockClass->task_id = 1;

    $this->mock->shouldReceive('save')
               ->once()
               ->andReturn($mockClass);

    $response = $this->call('POST', 'tasksUpdates');

    $this->assertRedirectedToRoute('tasks.show', 1);
    $this->assertSessionHas('flash_task_update');

Answer 1

I believe the "call" function is blowing away the work done by Input::replace.

the call function can actually take a $parameters parameter which should fix your problem.

if you look in \Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\TestCase@call, you'll see the function:

/**
 * Call the given URI and return the Response.
 *
 * @param  string  $method
 * @param  string  $uri
 * @param  array   $parameters
 * @param  array   $files
 * @param  array   $server
 * @param  string  $content
 * @param  bool    $changeHistory
 * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
 */
public function call()
{
    call_user_func_array(array($this->client, 'request'), func_get_args());

    return $this->client->getResponse();
}

If you do:

$response = $this->call('POST', 'tasksUpdates', array('your data here'));

I think it should work.