Laravel – Testing What Happens After a Redirect

Redirects are an integral part of web applications, guiding users from one page to another seamlessly. In Laravel, handling redirects is straightforward, but ensuring your application behaves correctly after a redirect requires thorough testing.

Simple Redirect Assertions

The first step in testing redirects is to ensure that a URL correctly redirects to another URL.
Use the assertRedirect method to check this:

public function testRedirectToNewPage() 
{
    $response = $this->get('/old-page');      
    $response->assertRedirect('/new-page'); 
}

 
In this example, we are verifying that visiting /old-page redirects the user to /new-page.

Testing Post-Redirect-Get (PRG) Pattern

When a form is submitted, it often triggers a redirect to prevent resubmission on page refresh. To test the behavior after this redirect, use the followingRedirects method:

$response = $this->followingRedirects()->post('/login', [
        'name' => 'John Doe',
        'email' => '[email protected]',
    ]);

Testing Multiple Redirects

Complex workflows may involve multiple redirects. Use followingRedirects in sequence to test these:

$response = $this->get('/start'); $response->assertRedirect('/step-1'); 
$response = $this->followingRedirects()->get('/start'); $response->assertRedirect('/step-2');
$response = $this->followingRedirects()->get('/step-1'); $response->assertSee('Final step');

This test ensures that navigating from /start follows a series of redirects until reaching the final step.

Testing Authentication Redirects

Protected routes often redirect unauthorized users to a login page.

public function testProtectedRouteRedirectsToLogin()
{
    $response = $this->get('/dashboard');
    $response->assertRedirect('/login');
}

This ensures that an attempt to access /dashboard by an unauthenticated user redirects to /login.

Handling Query Parameters in Redirects

Sometimes, query parameters need to be preserved during redirects.

$response->assertRedirect('/target?param=value');

This verifies that the query parameter param=value is retained in the redirection.

Conclusion

Testing redirects is crucial for maintaining a smooth and predictable user experience in your Laravel applications. By using Laravel’s powerful testing tools, you can ensure that your redirects behave as expected, handle user inputs correctly, and maintain session data across redirects.