How do you test database notifications?

Level 80

@pimski I think we’re going to need to see some more code.

Level 13

Why? User is standard and the notification is generated with the artisan command "make:notification"

I did change the via method to:

public function via($notifiable)
    {
        return ['database'];
    }

1 like

https://laravel.com/docs/5.6/mocking#notification-fake

Level 20

You can mock the notification being sent:

use App\Notifications\ExportFinished;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Notification;

...

Notification::fake();

$user->notify(new ExportFinished);

Notification::assertSentTo($user, ExportFinished::class);

Should work just the same regardless of delivery method (email, database).

1 like

Level 13

Hi @Nash thanks for the reply. I already managed to test there 'is' a notification. However, my next step was to check the contents of the notification (as stored in the database). And this is what isn't working.

The posted code does work when I check it in the browser. So my guess there is some test-magic going on that prevents the notification from actually being saved in the database. How can one actually save notifications in the database in tests?

Level 20

You can access the notification and check the contents:

Notification::assertSentTo(
    $user, 
    ExportFinished::class, 
    function ($notification, $channels) {
        dd($notification); // <-- this is your notification
    }
);

Level 13

Aha. So the way to check a notification is by using the Notification facade? And not by checking the notifications relationship on the user? Even if you don't use Notification::fake() in your test...

Level 20

Aha. So the way to check a notification is by using the Notification facade? And not by checking the notifications relationship on the user? Even if you don't use Notification::fake() in your test...

@pimski No, this is related to my previous example using Notification::fake(). I just pointed out that you can access the notification and check the contents just fine. You don't need to manually query the DB for that.

Level 13

@Nash I understood that, and got my test working, so thanks for that! I was just wondering if code like this is never possible:

$user->notify(new MyDatabaseNotification());
$this->assertCount(1, $user->notifications);

To me this feels more natural. But maybe I just need to change my test-mindset

Opinodo

5 years ago

Level 10

I had exact same issue. If you are not using Notification::fake() you'll get to see your notification once you fresh-load them:

 $user->notify(new MyDatabaseNotification());

 $user->load('notifications'); // Comment this line and the test will fail.

 $this->assertCount(1, $user->notifications);
 $this->assertDatabaseCount('notifications', 1);