This tutorial shows how to use Spring unit testing API and mock objects to test controllers which handle PATCH requests.
Example
The controller
package com.logicbig.example;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.util.MultiValueMap;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PatchMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestBody;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;
@Controller
@RequestMapping("/articles")
public class ArticleController {
@Autowired
private ArticleService articleService;
// for xml and json
@PatchMapping(value = "/{id}")
@ResponseBody
public String patchArticle(@RequestBody Article article) {
System.out.println("Article updating in controller: " + article);
articleService.updateArticle(article.getId(), article.getContent());
return "Article updated with content: " + article.getContent();
}
// for x-www-form-urlencoded
@PatchMapping(
value = "/{id}",
consumes = MediaType.APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED_VALUE)
@ResponseBody
public String patchArticle(@RequestBody MultiValueMap<String, String> formParams) {
System.out.println(formParams);
long id = Long.parseLong(formParams.getFirst("id"));
String content = formParams.getFirst("content");
articleService.updateArticle(id, content);
return "Article updated with content: " + content;
}
}
package com.logicbig.example;
import tools.jackson.dataformat.xml.annotation.JacksonXmlRootElement;
@JacksonXmlRootElement
public class Article {
private long id;
private String content;
public Article() {
}
.............
}
Java Config
package com.logicbig.example;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.EnableWebMvc;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.ViewResolverRegistry;
@EnableWebMvc
@Configuration
@ComponentScan
public class MyWebConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer {
}
Unit Tests
Let's create and run our tests for XML, JSON and x-www-form-urlencoded requests one by one.
Testing XML PATCH request
Running test ControllerPatchTests.testXmlController() from the IDE:
package com.logicbig.example;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit.jupiter.web.SpringJUnitWebConfig;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.assertj.MockMvcTester;
import org.springframework.web.context.WebApplicationContext;
import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
@SpringJUnitWebConfig(MyWebConfig.class)
public class ControllerPatchTests {
@Autowired
private WebApplicationContext wac;
private MockMvcTester mockMvcTester;
@BeforeEach
public void setup() {
this.mockMvcTester = MockMvcTester.from(this.wac);
}
@Test
public void testXmlController() {
String content = "new updated content";
assertThat(this.mockMvcTester.patch().uri("/articles/1")
.contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)
.accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML)
.characterEncoding("UTF-8")
.content(getArticleInXml(1, content))
.exchange())
.hasStatusOk()
.bodyText().isEqualTo("Article updated "
+ "with content: "
+ content);
}
.............
private String getArticleInXml(long id,
String content) {
return "<article><id>" + id + "</id><content>" +
content + "</content></article>";
}
}
mvn clean test -Dtest="ControllerPatchTests#testXmlController" Output$ mvn clean test -Dtest="ControllerPatchTests#testXmlController"
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[WARNING]
[WARNING] Some problems were encountered while building the effective model for com.logicbig.example:spring-patch-unit-testing-example:war:1.0-SNAPSHOT
[WARNING] 'build.plugins.plugin.version' for org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-war-plugin is missing. @ line 41, column 21
[WARNING]
[WARNING] It is highly recommended to fix these problems because they threaten the stability of your build.
[WARNING]
[WARNING] For this reason, future Maven versions might no longer support building such malformed projects.
[WARNING]
[INFO]
[INFO] -------< com.logicbig.example:spring-patch-unit-testing-example >-------
[INFO] Building spring-patch-unit-testing-example 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] from pom.xml
[INFO] --------------------------------[ war ]---------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- clean:3.2.0:clean (default-clean) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[INFO] Deleting D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\target
[INFO]
[INFO] --- resources:3.3.1:resources (default-resources) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\src\main\resources
[INFO]
[INFO] --- compiler:3.5.1:compile (default-compile) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[INFO] Changes detected - recompiling the module!
[INFO] Compiling 4 source files to D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\target\classes
[INFO]
[INFO] --- resources:3.3.1:testResources (default-testResources) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\src\test\resources
[INFO]
[INFO] --- compiler:3.5.1:testCompile (default-testCompile) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[INFO] Changes detected - recompiling the module!
[INFO] Compiling 1 source file to D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\target\test-classes
[INFO]
[INFO] --- surefire:3.2.5:test (default-test) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[INFO] Using auto detected provider org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider
[WARNING] file.encoding cannot be set as system property, use <argLine>-Dfile.encoding=...</argLine> instead
[INFO]
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] T E S T S
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Running com.logicbig.example.ControllerPatchTests
Article updating in controller: Article{id=1, content='new updated content'}
[INFO] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.941 s -- in com.logicbig.example.ControllerPatchTests
[INFO]
[INFO] Results:
[INFO]
[INFO] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 6.790 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2026-08-13T11:11:29+08:00
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Testing JSON PATCH request
package com.logicbig.example;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit.jupiter.web.SpringJUnitWebConfig;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.assertj.MockMvcTester;
import org.springframework.web.context.WebApplicationContext;
import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
@SpringJUnitWebConfig(MyWebConfig.class)
public class ControllerPatchTests {
@Autowired
private WebApplicationContext wac;
private MockMvcTester mockMvcTester;
@BeforeEach
public void setup() {
this.mockMvcTester = MockMvcTester.from(this.wac);
}
.............
@Test
public void testJsonController() {
String content = "new updated content";
assertThat(this.mockMvcTester.patch().uri("/articles/1")
.contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
.accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
.characterEncoding("UTF-8")
.content(getArticleInJson(1, content))
.exchange())
.hasStatusOk()
.bodyText().isEqualTo("Article updated "
+ "with content: " +
content);
}
.............
private String getArticleInJson(long id,
String content) {
return "{\"id\":\"" + id + "\", \"content\":\"" +
content + "\"}";
}
.............
}
mvn clean test -Dtest="ControllerPatchTests#testJsonController" Output$ mvn clean test -Dtest="ControllerPatchTests#testJsonController"
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[WARNING]
[WARNING] Some problems were encountered while building the effective model for com.logicbig.example:spring-patch-unit-testing-example:war:1.0-SNAPSHOT
[WARNING] 'build.plugins.plugin.version' for org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-war-plugin is missing. @ line 41, column 21
[WARNING]
[WARNING] It is highly recommended to fix these problems because they threaten the stability of your build.
[WARNING]
[WARNING] For this reason, future Maven versions might no longer support building such malformed projects.
[WARNING]
[INFO]
[INFO] -------< com.logicbig.example:spring-patch-unit-testing-example >-------
[INFO] Building spring-patch-unit-testing-example 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] from pom.xml
[INFO] --------------------------------[ war ]---------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- clean:3.2.0:clean (default-clean) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[INFO] Deleting D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\target
[INFO]
[INFO] --- resources:3.3.1:resources (default-resources) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\src\main\resources
[INFO]
[INFO] --- compiler:3.5.1:compile (default-compile) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[INFO] Changes detected - recompiling the module!
[INFO] Compiling 4 source files to D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\target\classes
[INFO]
[INFO] --- resources:3.3.1:testResources (default-testResources) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\src\test\resources
[INFO]
[INFO] --- compiler:3.5.1:testCompile (default-testCompile) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[INFO] Changes detected - recompiling the module!
[INFO] Compiling 1 source file to D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\target\test-classes
[INFO]
[INFO] --- surefire:3.2.5:test (default-test) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[INFO] Using auto detected provider org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider
[WARNING] file.encoding cannot be set as system property, use <argLine>-Dfile.encoding=...</argLine> instead
[INFO]
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] T E S T S
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Running com.logicbig.example.ControllerPatchTests
Article updating in controller: Article{id=1, content='new updated content'}
[INFO] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 1.513 s -- in com.logicbig.example.ControllerPatchTests
[INFO]
[INFO] Results:
[INFO]
[INFO] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 9.273 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2026-08-13T11:13:25+08:00
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Testing x-www-form-urlencoded PATCH request
package com.logicbig.example;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit.jupiter.web.SpringJUnitWebConfig;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.assertj.MockMvcTester;
import org.springframework.web.context.WebApplicationContext;
import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
@SpringJUnitWebConfig(MyWebConfig.class)
public class ControllerPatchTests {
@Autowired
private WebApplicationContext wac;
private MockMvcTester mockMvcTester;
@BeforeEach
public void setup() {
this.mockMvcTester = MockMvcTester.from(this.wac);
}
.............
@Test
public void testFormParamController() {
String content = "new updated content";
assertThat(this.mockMvcTester.patch().uri("/articles/1")
.contentType(
MediaType.APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED)
.accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED)
.characterEncoding("UTF-8")
.content("id=1&content=" + content)
.exchange())
.hasStatusOk()
.bodyText().isEqualTo("Article updated "
+ "with content: "
+ content);
}
.............
}
mvn clean test -Dtest="ControllerPatchTests#testFormParamController" Output$ mvn clean test -Dtest="ControllerPatchTests#testFormParamController"
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[WARNING]
[WARNING] Some problems were encountered while building the effective model for com.logicbig.example:spring-patch-unit-testing-example:war:1.0-SNAPSHOT
[WARNING] 'build.plugins.plugin.version' for org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-war-plugin is missing. @ line 41, column 21
[WARNING]
[WARNING] It is highly recommended to fix these problems because they threaten the stability of your build.
[WARNING]
[WARNING] For this reason, future Maven versions might no longer support building such malformed projects.
[WARNING]
[INFO]
[INFO] -------< com.logicbig.example:spring-patch-unit-testing-example >-------
[INFO] Building spring-patch-unit-testing-example 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] from pom.xml
[INFO] --------------------------------[ war ]---------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- clean:3.2.0:clean (default-clean) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[INFO] Deleting D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\target
[INFO]
[INFO] --- resources:3.3.1:resources (default-resources) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\src\main\resources
[INFO]
[INFO] --- compiler:3.5.1:compile (default-compile) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[INFO] Changes detected - recompiling the module!
[INFO] Compiling 4 source files to D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\target\classes
[INFO]
[INFO] --- resources:3.3.1:testResources (default-testResources) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\src\test\resources
[INFO]
[INFO] --- compiler:3.5.1:testCompile (default-testCompile) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[INFO] Changes detected - recompiling the module!
[INFO] Compiling 1 source file to D:\example-projects\spring-mvc\http-request-methods\spring-patch-unit-testing-example\target\test-classes
[INFO]
[INFO] --- surefire:3.2.5:test (default-test) @ spring-patch-unit-testing-example ---
[INFO] Using auto detected provider org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider
[WARNING] file.encoding cannot be set as system property, use <argLine>-Dfile.encoding=...</argLine> instead
[INFO]
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] T E S T S
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Running com.logicbig.example.ControllerPatchTests
{id=[1], content=[new updated content]}
[INFO] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 1.077 s -- in com.logicbig.example.ControllerPatchTests
[INFO]
[INFO] Results:
[INFO]
[INFO] Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 8.145 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2026-08-13T11:15:01+08:00
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Example ProjectDependencies and Technologies Used: - spring-webmvc 7.0.6 (Spring Web MVC)
Version Compatibility: 3.2.9.RELEASE - 7.0.6 Version compatibilities of spring-webmvc with this example: Versions in green have been tested.
- jackson-databind 3.1.0 (General data-binding functionality for Jackson: works on core streaming API)
- jackson-dataformat-xml 3.1.0 (Data format extension for Jackson to offer
alternative support for serializing POJOs as XML and deserializing XML as POJOs)
- spring-test 7.0.6 (Spring TestContext Framework)
- junit-jupiter-engine 6.0.3 (Module "junit-jupiter-engine" of JUnit)
- jakarta.servlet-api 6.1.0 (Jakarta Servlet API documentation)
- hamcrest 3.0 (Core API and libraries of hamcrest matcher framework)
- assertj-core 3.26.3 (Rich and fluent assertions for testing in Java)
- JDK 25
- Maven 3.9.11
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