Mocking a Void Method with EasyMock

1. Overview

Mocking frameworks are used to mock interaction with dependencies so as to test our classes in isolation. Typically, we mock the dependencies to return the various possible values. This way, we can ensure our class can handle each of those values.

But, sometimes we might have to mock dependency methods that do not return anything.

In this tutorial, we will see when and how to mock void methods using EasyMock.

2. Maven Dependency

First, let’s add the EasyMock dependency to our pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.easymock</groupId>
    <artifactId>easymock</artifactId>
    <version>4.0.2</version>
    <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

3. When to Mock a void Method

When we test classes with dependencies, we would normally want to cover all values returned by the dependency. But sometimes, the dependency methods do not return a value. So, if nothing is returned, why would we want to mock a void method?

Even though void methods do not return a value, they might have side-effects.  An example of this is the Session.save() method. When we save a new entity, the save() method generates an id and sets it on the entity passed.

For this reason, we have to mock the void method to simulate the various processing outcomes.

Another time the mocking might come in handy is when testing exceptions thrown by the void method.

4. How to Mock a void Method

Now, let’s see how we can mock a void method using EasyMock.

Let’s suppose, we have to mock the void method of a WeatherService class that takes a location and sets the minimum and maximum temperature:

public interface WeatherService {
    void populateTemperature(Location location);
}

4.1. Creating the Mock Object

Let’s start by creating a mock for the WeatherService:

@Mock
private WeatherService mockWeatherService;

Here, we’ve done this using the EasyMock annotation @Mock. But, we can do this using the EasyMock.mock() method as well.

Next, we’ll record the expected interactions with the mock by calling populateTemperature():

mockWeatherService.populateTemperature(EasyMock.anyObject(Location.class));

Now, if we don’t want to simulate the processing of this method, this call itself is sufficient to mock the method.

4.2. Throwing an Exception

First, let’s take the case where we want to test whether our class can handle exceptions thrown by the void method. For this, we’ll have to mock the method in such a way that it throws these exceptions.

In our example, the method throws ServiceUnavailableException:

EasyMock.expectLastCall().andThrow(new ServiceUnavailableException());

As seen above, this involves simply calling the andThrow(Throwable) method.

4.3. Simulating Method Behavior

As mentioned earlier, we might sometimes need to simulate the behavior of the void method.

In our case, this would involve populating the minimum and maximum temperatures of the locations passed:

EasyMock.expectLastCall()
  .andAnswer(() -> {
      Location passedLocation = (Location) EasyMock.getCurrentArguments()[0];
      passedLocation.setMaximumTemparature(new BigDecimal(MAX_TEMP));
      passedLocation.setMinimumTemperature(new BigDecimal(MAX_TEMP - 10));
      return null;
  });

Here, we’ve used the andAnswer(IAnswer) method to define the behavior of the populateTemperature() method when called. Then, we’ve used the EasyMock.getCurrentArguments() method – that returns the arguments passed to the mock method – to modify the locations passed.

Note that we have returned null at the end. This is because we are mocking a void method.

It’s also worth noting that this approach is not restricted to mocking void methods only. We can also use it for methods that return a value. There, it comes in handy when we want to mock the method to return values based on the arguments passed.

4.4. Replaying the Mocked Method

Lastly, we’ll use the EasyMock.replay() method to change the mock to “replay” mode, so that the recorded actions can be replayed when called:

EasyMock.replay(mockWeatherService);

Consequently, when we call the test method, the custom behavior defined should be executed.

5. Conclusion

In this tutorial, we saw how to mock void methods using EasyMock.

And of course, the code used in this article can be found over on GitHub.