Unable to pass test with Mock

Question

i'm testing laravel controller. Here's the respective route

Route::get('categories', array('as'=>'categories', 'uses'=>'CategoryController@getCategory'));

Here's the controller:

<?php 

// app/controllers/CategoryController.php

class CategoryController extends BaseController {

    //Loading  Category model instance in constructor 
    public function __construct(Category  $category){
        $this->category = $category;
    }

    public function getCategory(){
        $categories = $this->category->all();
        return View::make('dashboard.showcategories')->with('categories', $categories);
    }

}

In the view dashboard.showcategories, i have used foreach to loop through the $categories variable and have then used it.

Now i was trying to test this controller.

<?php
// app/tests/controllers/CategoryControllerTest 

class CategoryControllerTest extends TestCase {
    public function __construct(){
        $this->mock = Mockery::mock('Eloquent', 'Category');
    }

    public function tearDown(){
        Mockery::close();
    }

    public function testGetCategory(){
        $this->mock
            ->shouldReceive('all')
            ->once();


        $this->app->instance('Category', $this->mock);

        $response = $this->call('GET', 'categories');
        $categories = $response->original->getData()['categories'];

        $this->assertViewHas('categories');
        $this->assertInstanceOf('Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection', $categories);
    }
}

But it's showing an error

There was 1 error:

1) CategoryControllerTest::testGetCategory
ErrorException: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() (View: /var/www/Hututoo/app/views/dashboard/showcategories.blade.php)

However, if i delete following code from the test, it passes.

$this->mock
        ->shouldReceive('all')
        ->once();

$this->app->instance('Category', $this->mock);

How to make this test pass with mockery?

In case you need Category model

<?php
// app/models/Category.php

use Jenssegers\Mongodb\Model as Eloquent;

class Category extends Eloquent {
    protected $table = 'category';
    protected $fillable = array('category_name', 'options');
}

Answer 1

your mock does not return anything, and your foreach loop is expecting an array to loop over.

try setting a return value of an empty array

$this->mock
    ->shouldReceive('all')
    ->once()
    ->andReturn(new Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection);