How to check String in response body with mockMvc

You can call andReturn() and use the returned MvcResult object to get the content as a String.

See below:

MvcResult result = mockMvc.perform(post("/api/users").header("Authorization", base64ForTestUser).contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
            .content("{\"userName\":\"testUserDetails\",\"firstName\":\"xxx\",\"lastName\":\"xxx\",\"password\":\"xxx\"}"))
            .andDo(MockMvcResultHandlers.print())
            .andExpect(status().isBadRequest())
            .andReturn();

String content = result.getResponse().getContentAsString();
// do what you will 

@Sotirios Delimanolis answer do the job however I was looking for comparing strings within this mockMvc assertion

So here it is

.andExpect(content().string("\"Username already taken - please try with different username\""));

Of course my assertion fail:

java.lang.AssertionError: Response content expected:
<"Username already taken - please try with different username"> but was:<"Something gone wrong">

because:

  MockHttpServletResponse:
            Body = "Something gone wrong"

So this is proof that it works!

Spring MockMvc now has direct support for JSON. So you just say:

.andExpect(content().json("{'message':'ok'}"));

and unlike string comparison, it will say something like "missing field xyz" or "message Expected 'ok' got 'nok'.

This method was introduced in Spring 4.1.

Reading these answers, I can see a lot relating to Spring version 4.x, I am using version 3.2.0 for various reasons. So things like json support straight from the content() is not possible.

I found that using MockMvcResultMatchers.jsonPath is really easy and works a treat. Here is an example testing a post method.

The bonus with this solution is that you're still matching on attributes, not relying on full json string comparisons.

(Using org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result.MockMvcResultMatchers)

String expectedData = "some value";
mockMvc.perform(post("/endPoint")
                .contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
                .content(mockRequestBodyAsString.getBytes()))
                .andExpect(status().isOk())
                .andExpect(MockMvcResultMatchers.jsonPath("$.data").value(expectedData));

The request body was just a json string, which you can easily load from a real json mock data file if you wanted, but I didnt include that here as it would have deviated from the question.

The actual json returned would have looked like this:

{
    "data":"some value"
}