MockMVC using JSONPath unable to read

Question

This test case is fixed and I cannot modify it. In the controller I am returning News Object which is appearing in the Model component of the output. But the JSONPath is unable to find it.

If this test case needs to be passed, where should my output appear or what should I return from the controller.

@SpringBootTest
@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
public class NewsControllerTest {
    private MockMvc mockMvc;

    @Autowired
    WebApplicationContext context;

    @InjectMocks
    private NewsController newsController;

    @Before
    public void setup() {
        mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(context).build();
    }

@Test
    public void retrievetest_ok() throws Exception {
        try {
         mockMvc.perform(get("/api/news/topstories" )).andDo(print())
             .andExpect(status().isOk())                    
             .andExpect(MockMvcResultMatchers.jsonPath("$.title").exists())
             .andExpect(MockMvcResultMatchers.jsonPath("$.section").exists());
        }catch(Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }


    }
}

But, I am unable to retrieve the data "section" and "title". How to pass this testcase. Where should the output data be set to be able to see it in jsonpath.

This is my mock when I print it to console

MockHttpServletRequest:
      HTTP Method = GET
      Request URI = /api/news/topstories
       Parameters = {}
          Headers = {}
             Body = <no character encoding set>
    Session Attrs = {}

Handler:
             Type = com.example.project.NewsController
           Method = public java.util.Map<java.lang.String, java.lang.String> com.example.project.NewsController.getNews()

Async:
    Async started = false
     Async result = null

Resolved Exception:
             Type = null

ModelAndView:
        View name = api/news/topstories
             View = null
        Attribute = section
            value = U.S.
        Attribute = title
            value = 4 Takeaways from Tuesday’s Primaries

FlashMap:
       Attributes = null

MockHttpServletResponse:
           Status = 200
    Error message = null
          Headers = {Content-Language=[en]}
     Content type = null
             Body = 
    Forwarded URL = api/news/topstories
   Redirected URL = null
          Cookies = []

I need to extract

Answer 1

From the javadoc

static JsonPathResultMatchers jsonPath(String expression, Object... args)

Access to response body assertions using a JsonPath expression to inspect a specific subset of the body.

And from your output

 MockHttpServletResponse:
            Status = 200
     Error message = null
           Headers = {Content-Language=[en]}
      Content type = null
              Body = 
     Forwarded URL = api/news/topstories    Redirected URL = null
           Cookies = []

It seems you have an empty response body.

Please modify your controller to produce the proper json in the response body.