Using Spring's mockMvc, how do I check if the returned data contains part of a string?

I’m using Spring 3.2.11.RELEASE and JUnit 4.11. Using the Spring mockMvc framework, how do I check if a method returning JSON data contains a particular JSON element? I have


mockMvc.perform(get("/api/users/" + id))
.andExpect(status().isOk())
.andExpect(content().string("{\"id\":\"" + id + "\"}"));

but this checks for an exact match against the string returned and I’d rather check if the JSON string contains the value contained by my local field “id”.

Looks like you can pass a Hamcrest Matcher instead of a string there. Should be something like:

mockMvc.perform(get("/api/users/" + id))
.andExpect(status().isOk())
.andExpect(content().string(org.hamcrest.Matchers.containsString("{\"id\":\"" + id + "\"}")));

Another way you can get to the String respone of a mockMVC requst so you can compare or manipulate it in other ways is as follows:

MvcResult result = mockMvc.perform(get("/api/users/" + id))
.andExpect(status().isOk())
.andReturn();
String stringResult = result.getResponse().getContentAsString();
boolean doesContain = stringResult.contains("{\"id\":\"" + id + "\"}");

You could also wrap the whole thing in an assertTrue while still using String methods:

assertTrue(mockMvc.perform(get("/api/users/" + id))
.andExpect(status().isOk())
.andReturn()
.getResponse()
.getContentAsString()
.contains("{\"id\":\"" + id + "\"}");

I prefer the approved answer, just thought I would submit this as another alternative.

A more appropriate way to do that is:

mockMvc.perform(get("/api/users/" + id))
.andExpect(status().isOk())
.andExpect(jsonPath("$.id", org.hamcrest.Matchers.is(id)));

I know it's been too many years, but still, I hope my answer can be useful for someone =)
When I need to check if a json value form a response contains some string I use `containsString` method:

mockMvc.perform(post("/url")
.contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE)
.andExpect(status().isOk())
.andExpect(jsonPath("$.field1").value(value1))
.andExpect(jsonPath("$.field2", containsString(value2)));