How to test a base64 image upload in Laravel

I have an API that accepts a 64 base code image, it receives the image from other service

> {
> "token_image": "BASE64 IMAGEN", }

and in the test, I am testing it like this:

$response = ....
....
$attributes = ["token_image"=>"/9j/2wCEAAEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBBAAgICAgI................."];
    
    json("POST", "/route", 
        $attributes
    )->assertOk()
        ->assertJson($response);

In my test I am using the saloon library, that allows to mock and save the response for the first time, and in subsequences requests it doesn't hit the route, it just uses the recorded response, but the point is that I can't just add the attribute like this:

> ["token_image"=>"/9j/2wCEAAEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBBAAgICAgI................."]

Because the base64 image is really huge, it has too much string characters, what can I do? Thanks.

What you need is called "fixture", basically:

• Inside your tests folder, create a folder named fixtures.
• Create my-base64-image.txt inside said fixtures folder.
• As the name suggests, move your base64-image-text inside the file created in previous step.

Finally, use said fixture instead of hard-coding, like:

$attributes = [
    "token_image" => file_get_contents(__DIR__ . '/../fixtures/my-base64-image.txt'),
];

>Note to change the "../" part to the right path, because above is based on my own folder structure (as I don't know yours).

Above is just an example, I mean, repeating path to fixtures folder in each test is something I would never do, and instead, in the TestCase class which all other test-classes extend, or in some trait, try something like:

protected function loadFixture($name)
{
    return file_get_contents(__DIR__ . '/../fixtures/' . $name);
}