Laravel Lighthouse GraphQL unit tests: "Variable not defined"

Question

I know my question title might not be the most informative, so please let me know if I can improve it somehow :).

I'm trying to figure out how to pass GraphQL variables in a PHP unit test without writing them inline in the query.

Here is a demo code. I cannot give the exact real source code as it belongs to a customer project. I hope that this simplified version will be able to show the problem.

class MyGraphQLTest extends Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\TestCase
{
    use Tests\CreatesApplication;
    use \Nuwave\Lighthouse\Testing\MakesGraphQLRequests;

    public function testSomething()
    {
        // Query an article with a specific id defined in this variable
        $this->graphQL(/** @lang GraphQL */ '
                {
                    article(id: $test_id) {
                        id,
                        name
                    }
                }',
            [
                'test_id' => 5, // Does not work, the variable is not passed for some strange reason.
            ]
        )->assertJson([
            'data' => [
                'article' => [ // We should receive an article with id 5 and title 'Test Article'
                    'id' => 5,
                    'name' => 'Test Article',
                ]
            ]
        ]);
    }
}

According to this Lighthouse: Testing with PHPUnit guide, variables should be able to be passed as an array as a second argument to the ->graphQL() method.

When I run the test with php vendor/bin/phpunit, I get the following error response:

[{
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Variable \"$test_id\" is not defined.",
            "extensions": {
                "category": "graphql"
            },
            "locations": *removed as not needed in this question*
        }
    ]
}].

Lighthouse is the newest version: 4.15.0

Thank you for your support! :)

user_13627689 · Answer

There is something you forgot in your GraphQL query. You must have an query wrapper that will receive parameters and then pass to your query with variables defined. Like this:

query Articles($test_id: Int! /* or ID! if you prefer */){
    {
        article(id: $test_id) {
            id,
            name
        }
    }
}

If you are using multiple parameters, consider creating an Input in your GraphQL Server and then in your query you can simply refer to your Input.

// Consider following Input in your server
input ArticleSearch {
    article_category: String!
    article_rate: Int!
}

// you can then
query Articles($input: ArticleSearch){
    {
        article(input: $input) {
            id,
            name
        }
    }
}

Laravel Lighthouse GraphQL unit tests: "Variable not defined"

1 Answers