What should I test at witch level?

@bugsysha I have two similar controllers what do exatly the same with similar data modelst. For example:

Models/Category:

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Category extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = [
        'name',
    ];
}

Models/Status:

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Status extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = [
        'name',
    ];
}

These are pretty simple examples, but good to understand the problem.

Controllers are a very basic CRUD style controller.

Now If I try to test these controllers on routes I will get back same result, but if I made a mistake on the delete route and changed the controllers name I'll get back same result, but the delete will be happening on wrong controller, and finally in wrong table.

But if I try to get back model from the database to test it's gone from the right table... so it sounds like an integration test, not a route unit test.

So the question is maybe philosophic, but what should I test on a route if I want to write only a unit test for routes?

@netdjw When it comes to what you describe here, I'd say you should do a feature test and hit the database.

For a delete it could look something like this

    /**
     * @test
     */
    public function after_deleting_an_artist_the_user_is_redirected_to_the_artists_index_view_and_success_message_is_shown()
    {
        $this->signIn();

        $artist = Artist::factory()->create();

        $response = $this->delete('/artists/' . $artist->id);

        $response->assertStatus(302);
        $response->assertLocation('/artists');

        $response = $this->get('/artists');
        $response->assertSee($artist->name . ' successfully deleted.');
    }

You could then if you want add asserts to check if the database has that record or not.

@netdjw I find that when following laravel conventions many things realy don't need testing, for example saving data using the save method is already tested through the laravel team.

However, one of the testing videos by @jeffreyway talked about how testing enables you to see where you can refactor code. Especially in some complex code.

So a simple save I probably won't test whereas if I have some complex code where multiple if's or a multiple search is involved, then I think it's good to do test.

Not so much:

• Does the code work
• Rather looking for a better way to refactor if needed.

Just my thoughts on testing.

Edit

To add, even if you test everything, you still need to test for real. For example a few years ago when I setup paypal for a customer, I tested for real if the transaction worked by me making a purchase.

As I have seen cases where a test passes but somehow for real doesn't work correctly, just keep real World test a higher priority than mock test.

So the question is maybe philosophic, but what should I test on a route if I want to write only a unit test for routes?

@netdjw nothing. No unit tests for routes. Routes are a concept that is tightly coupled with requests, controllers, and so on. So if you look at the Laravel documentation, you will see that it states that you should never mock Request object. From that you see that no unit tests for Routes should be done.