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Spring REST Docs Form Fields: What to Document in Tests

Document form-body fields in Spring REST Docs with formParameters and parameterWithName. See MockMvc and WebTestClient patterns and learn how strict, relaxed, optional, and ignored descriptors behave.
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Use formParameters(...) with parameterWithName(...) in the test that sends the form request. Spring REST Docs then generates a form-parameters.adoc snippet documenting the form fields supported by that resource. Choose strict or relaxed coverage according to whether the test should enforce the complete form contract.

Document form-body fields with formParameters

Form fields belong to the request body, so document them with formParameters. Query-string values are a different location and use queryParameters. Keeping the descriptor aligned with where the endpoint actually receives a value makes the generated documentation meaningful.

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The Spring REST Docs reference includes examples for both MockMvc and WebTestClient. Use the client already established in your project; the documentation workflow is the same in principle.

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MockMvc example

Import the request-documentation helpers, perform the form POST, assert the response, and pass the form descriptors to document:

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import static org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.formParameters;
import static org.springframework.restdocs.request.RequestDocumentation.parameterWithName;

mockMvc.perform(post("/users")
        .param("username", "alex"))
    .andExpect(status().isOk())
    .andDo(document("create-user",
        formParameters(
            parameterWithName("username").description("The user's username")
        )
    ));

Adapt the endpoint, request, and response assertion to the operation under test. The descriptor description should explain the field’s meaning to API consumers, not merely repeat its name. The official form-parameter reference provides the documented MockMvc pattern: Spring REST Docs: Form Parameters.

WebTestClient example

For WebTestClient, build a MultiValueMap<String, String>, populate it with the form values, and send it using BodyInserters.fromFormData(formData). Document the request with the same descriptor pattern:

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MultiValueMap<String, String> formData = new LinkedMultiValueMap<>();
formData.add("username", "alex");

webTestClient.post()
    .uri("/users")
    .body(BodyInserters.fromFormData(formData))
    .exchange()
    .expectStatus().isOk()
    .expectBody()
    .consumeWith(document("create-user",
        formParameters(
            parameterWithName("username").description("The user's username")
        )
    ));

Use the WebTestClient API and assertion style appropriate to the project; the important points are that the request body is form data and the documentation snippet receives descriptors for its fields.

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Choose strict or relaxed coverage

Ordinary formParameters is strict. It checks that the descriptors and the request’s form fields agree: an undocumented field in the request causes the snippet invocation to fail, as does a documented non-optional field that is absent from the request. This is useful when the test is intended to represent the complete form contract.

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Use relaxedFormParameters when the test documents only a subset and other request fields should not cause a mismatch failure. Relaxed mode does not make a documented required field optional: a documented field marked non-optional still needs to be present.

Control whether a field is required or shown

Mark a descriptor optional when consumers are not required to send that field. If a field should be excluded from the generated snippet but should not trigger a strict mismatch, mark its descriptor ignored. These are separate choices: optionality describes whether the request may omit a field; ignoring controls whether the field is included in the documentation output.

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The request API provides parameterWithName(String) for creating descriptors, and formParameters accepts descriptor varargs or lists, with overloads that can also take rendering attributes. See the Spring REST Docs RequestDocumentation API for the available overloads and descriptor options.

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Keep form, query, and path parameters distinct

  • Form body: use formParameters for values submitted as form data.
  • Query string: use queryParameters for values encoded in the URL query string. Spring’s query-parameter example warns against request-builder param or params when the parameter source is ambiguous; put query values in the URL so the test clearly represents their location. See Spring REST Docs: Query Parameters.
  • Path: use pathParameters for values embedded in a URL path. Spring provides strict and relaxed forms and ignored descriptors for path parameters as well. See Spring REST Docs: Path Parameters.

Find the generated snippet

The result is a snippet named form-parameters.adoc, containing a table describing the form parameters supported by the resource. The filename and output are specified in the official form-parameter reference.

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