Matching object in JSON with jsonpath in Spring Boot Test - jsonpath

Question

I'm trying to write unit tests for a rest endpoint with Spring Boot Test that's going well but when I try to assert on an object in the json response with jsonPath an AssertionError is thrown even when contents are identical and the same.
Sample Json
{
"status": 200,
"data": [
{
"id": 1,
"placed_by": 1,
"weight": 0.1,
"weight_metric": "KG",
"sent_on": null,
"delivered_on": null,
"status": "PLACED",
"from": "1 string, string, string, string",
"to": "1 string, string, string, string",
"current_location": "1 string, string, string, string"
}
]
}
Code in Kotlin
mockMvc.perform(
get("/api/v1/stuff")
.contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_UTF8)
).andExpect(status().isOk)
.andExpect(content().contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_UTF8))
.andExpect(jsonPath("\$.status").value(HttpStatus.OK.value()))
.andExpect(jsonPath("\$.data.[0]").value(equalTo(stuffDTO.asJsonString())))
That throws AssertionError but the values are the same
Clicking on see difference says
How can I match an object in JSON with jsonPath? I need to be able to match an object because the object can contain many fields and it will be a PITA to match them individually

Answer 1

I came across what looks like the same issue, though it's hard to say without knowing what your asJsonString function is. Also I was using Java, not Kotlin. If it is the same issue:
It's due to jsonPath(expression) not returning a string, so matching it with one doesn't work. You need to convert stuffDTO into the correct type for matching using JsonPath ie. in a function such as:
private <T> T asParsedJson(Object obj) throws JsonProcessingException {
String json = new ObjectMapper().writeValueAsString(obj);
return JsonPath.read(json, "$");
}
Then .andExpect(jsonPath("\$.data.[0]").value(equalTo(asParsedJson(stuffDTO)))) should work.