JsonUnit is a library that simplifies JSON comparison in unit tests. It's strongly inspired by XmlUnit. The usage is simple:
import static net.javacrumbs.jsonunit.JsonAssert.assertJsonEquals;
...
// compares two JSON documents
assertJsonEquals("{\"test\":1}", "{\n\"foo\": 1\n}");
// compares only part
assertJsonPartEquals("2", "{\"test\":[{\"value\":1},{\"value\":2}]}", "test[1].value");
// compares only the structure, not the values
assertJsonStructureEquals("[{\"test\":1}, {\"test\":2}]",
"[{\n\"test\": 1\n}, {\"TEST\": 4}]")
When the values are compared, order of elements and whitespaces are ignored.
You use Hamcrest matchers in the following way
import static net.javacrumbs.jsonunit.JsonMatchers.*;
import static org.junit.Assert.*;
...
assertThat("{\"test\":1}", jsonEquals("{\"test\": 1}"));
assertThat("{\"test\":1}", jsonPartEquals("test", 1));
assertThat("{\"test\":[1, 2, 3]}", jsonPartEquals("test[0]", 1));
Sometimes you need to ignore certain values when comparing. It is possible to use ${json-unit.ignore} placeholder like this
assertJsonEquals("{\"test\":\"${json-unit.ignore}\"}",
"{\n\"test\": {\"object\" : {\"another\" : 1}}}");
Fluent (FEST or AssertJ like) assertions are supported by a special module json-unit-fluent
import static net.javacrumbs.jsonunit.fluent.JsonFluentAssert.assertThatJson;
...
// compares entire documents
assertThatJson("{\"test\":1}").isEqualTo("{\"test\":2}");
// compares only parts of the document
assertThatJson("{\"test1\":2, \"test2\":1}")
.node("test1").isEqualTo(2)
.node("test2").isEqualTo(2);
assertThatJson("{\"root\":{\"test\":[1,2,3}}")
.node("root.test[0]").isEqualTo(1);
// compares only the structure
assertThatJson("{\"test\":1}").hasSameStructureAs("{\"test\":21}");
// ignores a value
assertThatJson("{\"test\":1}").isEqualTo("{\"test\":\"${json-unit.ignore}\"}");
// ignores a value with a different placeholder
assertThatJson("{\"test\":1}").ignoring("##IGNORE##").isEqualTo("{\"test\":\"##IGNORE##\"}")
There are multiple options how you can configure the comparison
TREATING_NULL_AS_ABSENT - fields with null values are equivalent to absent fields. For example, this test passes
assertJsonEquals("{\"test\":{\"a\":1}}",
"{\"test\":{\"a\":1, \"b\": null, \"c\": null}}",
when(TREATING_NULL_AS_ABSENT));
IGNORING_ARRAY_ORDER - ignores order in arrays
assertJsonEquals("{\"test\":[1,2,3]}",
"{\"test\":[3,2,1]}",
when(IGNORING_ARRAY_ORDER));
IGNORING_EXTRA_FIELDS - ignores extra fileds in the compared value
assertJsonEquals("{\"test\":{\"b\":2}}",
"{\"test\":{\"a\":1, \"b\":2, \"c\":3}}",
when(IGNORING_EXTRA_FIELDS));
IGNORE_VALUES - ignores values and compares only types
assertJsonEquals("{\"test\":{\"a\":1,\"b\":2,\"c\":3}}",
"{\"test\":{\"a\":3,\"b\":2,\"c\":1}}",
when(IGNORING_VALUES));
It is possible to combine options.
assertJsonEquals("{\"test\":[{\"key\":1},{\"key\":2},{\"key\":3}]}",
"{\"test\":[{\"key\":3},{\"key\":2, \"extraField\":2},{\"key\":1}]}",
when(IGNORING_ARRAY_ORDER, IGNORING_EXTRA_FIELDS));
In Hamcrest assertion you can set the option like this
assertThat("{\"test\":{\"a\":1, \"b\":2, \"c\":3}}",
jsonEquals("{\"test\":{\"b\":2}}").when(IGNORING_EXTRA_FIELDS));
For standard asserts and Hamcrest matchers, it is possible to set the configuration globally
JsonAssert.setOptions(IGNORING_ARRAY_ORDER, IGNORING_EXTRA_FIELDS);
In fluent assertion, you can set options in the following way
assertThatJson("{\"test\":{\"a\":1, \"b\":2, \"c\":3}}")
.when(IGNORING_EXTRA_FIELDS).isEqualTo("{\"test\":{\"b\":2}}");
Numbers are by default compared in the following way:
- If the type differs, the number is different. So 1 and 1.0 are different (int vs. float)
- Floating number comparison is exact
You can change this behavior by setting tolerance
assertJsonEquals("1", "\n1.009\n", withTolerance(0.01));
or globally
JsonAssert.setTolerance(0.01);
or for fluent assertions
assertThatJson("{\"test\":1.00001}").node("test").withTolerance(0.001).isEqualTo(1);
Although the differences are printed out by the assert statement, sometimes you use JsonUnit with other libraries like
Jadler that do not print the differences between documents. In such case, you can switch on the
logging. JsonUnit uses SLF4J. The only thing you need to do is to configure your logging
framework to log net.javacrumbs.jsonunit.difference
on DEBUG level.
JsonUnit is accessible in Maven central repository. In order for it to work, you need either, Jackson 1.x or Jackson 2.x or Gson on the classpath.
<dependency>
<groupId>net.javacrumbs.json-unit</groupId>
<artifactId>json-unit</artifactId>
<version>1.5.0</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
To use fluent assertions:
<dependency>
<groupId>net.javacrumbs.json-unit</groupId>
<artifactId>json-unit-fluent</artifactId>
<version>1.5.0</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
JsonUnit is licensed under Apache 2.0 licence.