How to test a RestClientException with MockRestServiceServer

Question

While testing a RestClient-Implementation I want to simulate a RestClientException that may be thrown by some RestTemplate-methods in that implementation f.e. the delete-method:

@Override
public ResponseEntity<MyResponseModel> documentDelete(String id) {
    template.setErrorHandler(new MyResponseErrorHandler());
    ResponseEntity<MyResponseModel> response = null;
    try {
        String url = baseUrl + "/document/id/{id}";
        response = template.exchange(url, DELETE, null, MyResponseModel.class, id);
    } catch (RestClientException ex) {
        return handleException(ex);
    }
    return response;
}

How can I achieve this?

I define the mock-server in this way:

@Before
public void setUp() {
    mockServer = MockRestServiceServer.createServer(template);
    client = new MyRestClient(template, serverUrl + ":" + serverPort);
}

Answer 1

You can test throwing runtime exceptions from the MockRestServiceServer, although this class, as of Spring 5.0.0.RC4, is not designed for it (which means it may not work for more complex use cases):

RestTemplate yourApi;
MockRestServiceServer server = MockRestServiceServer.createServer(yourApi);

server.expect(requestTo("http://..."))
    .andRespond((response) -> { throw new ResourceAccessException(
        new ConnectException("Connection reset")); });

It seems to work in tests:

• where there's only one RestTemplate call,
• where the exception is thrown as a result of the last expectation.

I wasn't able to expect two consecutive exceptions; the MockRestSeriviceServer (more concrete, the SimpleRequestExpectationManager) throws IllegalStateException on replaying the second expectation.