Testing Laravel API resources with dependency injections and custom requests

Question

Type hinted route parameter does not instantiate when called from a test.

I have a Laravel API Resource Route::apiResource('users', 'Api\UserController');

Here's my update method in the controller:

public function update(UpdateUserRequest $request, User $user)
{
    //
}

Inside the UpdateUserRequest:

public function rules()
{
    dd($this->route("user"));
}

If I call this endpoint from Postman, I get the full user object back. However, if I call it from a test:

    $response = $this->actingAs($this->user)->
        json('POST', '/api/users/'.$this->user->id, [
            '_method' => 'PUT',
            'data' => [
                // ...
            ]
        ]);

I just get the string "1", not the instantiated User object.

Answer 1

Well, one thing that worked, and I don't know if this is the correct or the "Laravel" way of doing things is to force instantiate the model in the custom request constructor, and to bind the instance inside the test:

In the UpdateUserRequest:

private $user;

public function __construct(User $user)
{
    $this->user = $user;
}

In the Test:

$this->user = factory(\App\Models\User::class)->create();
$this->app->instance(\App\Models\User::class, $this->user);