json_encode(): type is unsupported, encoded as null

[adamski]

When trying to run any test I get the following error:

json_encode(): type is unsupported, encoded as null

I'm using v 2.0.1

Example output below:

Trying to get a list of all users (GetUsersCept)
Scenario

• I have http header "Content-Type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

• I send get "users"
  [Request] GET http://api.myapp.com/users
  ERROR

  [ErrorException]
  json_encode(): type is unsupported, encoded as null

Exception trace:
() at /app-dir/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/Util/Log/JSON.php:280
Codeception\Subscriber\ErrorHandler->errorHandler() at n/a:n/a
json_encode() at /app-dir/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/Util/Log/JSON.php:280
PHPUnit_Util_Log_JSON->write() at /app-dir/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/Util/Log/JSON.php:266
PHPUnit_Util_Log_JSON->writeCase() at /app-dir/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/Util/Log/JSON.php:94
PHPUnit_Util_Log_JSON->addError() at /app-dir/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/Framework/TestResult.php:275
PHPUnit_Framework_TestResult->addError() at /app-dir/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/Framework/TestResult.php:760
PHPUnit_Framework_TestResult->run() at /app-dir/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/Framework/TestCase.php:753
PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase->run() at /app-dir/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/Framework/TestSuite.php:675
PHPUnit_Framework_TestSuite->run() at /app-dir/vendor/codeception/codeception/src/Codeception/PHPUnit/Runner.php:100
Codeception\PHPUnit\Runner->doEnhancedRun() at /app-dir/vendor/codeception/codeception/src/Codeception/SuiteManager.php:153
Codeception\SuiteManager->run() at /app-dir/vendor/codeception/codeception/src/Codeception/Codecept.php:167
Codeception\Codecept->runSuite() at /app-dir/vendor/codeception/codeception/src/Codeception/Codecept.php:150
Codeception\Codecept->run() at /app-dir/vendor/codeception/codeception/src/Codeception/Command/Run.php:198
Codeception\Command\Run->runSuites() at /app-dir/vendor/codeception/codeception/src/Codeception/Command/Run.php:149
Codeception\Command\Run->execute() at /app-dir/vendor/symfony/console/Symfony/Component/Console/Command/Command.php:252
Symfony\Component\Console\Command\Command->run() at /app-dir/vendor/symfony/console/Symfony/Component/Console/Application.php:887
Symfony\Component\Console\Application->doRunCommand() at /app-dir/vendor/symfony/console/Symfony/Component/Console/Application.php:193
Symfony\Component\Console\Application->doRun() at /app-dir/vendor/symfony/console/Symfony/Component/Console/Application.php:124
Symfony\Component\Console\Application->run() at /app-dir/vendor/codeception/codeception/codecept:27

[splinter89]

I usually get this error, when I have either incorrect or unreachable url in acceptance.suite.yml. For example, when I forget to turn on my web server 😕
But the error itself is produced by PHPUnit and is not very descriptive. Maybe it would be better to wrap some code in try..catch and print more user-friendly error messages?

[moneal]

I'm having this problem also but only when the response sets a cookie.

[DavertMik]

Sure this error is a side-effect and it hides the real exception.
I'm not even sure why it uses PHPUnit_Util_Log_JSON if it is supposed to turn on only when --json option is passed.

@splinter89 I tried to reproduce passing incorrect url, but still I don't get this message. Could you provide a detailed step-by-step instructions for reproducing this.

@moneal could you do step-by-step instructions as well?

[moneal]

@DavertMik I've found that in my specific case that the error happens when the expires attribute set on a set-cookie header.

Failing example

test.php

<?php
    setcookie("TestCookie", 'foo', time()+3600, '/'); 
    print "Hello, World";
?>

Curl response

curl -i http://localhost:26080/test.php
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
x-powered-by: PHP/5.4.22
set-cookie: TestCookie=foo; expires=Tue, 08-Jul-2014 03:31:50 GMT; path=/
content-type: text/html
Expires: Fri, 01 Jan 1990 00:00:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-cache
Content-Length: 12
Server: Development/2.0
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 02:31:50 GMT

Hello, World

Codeception Test

<?php 
    $I = new AcceptanceTester($scenario);
    $I->wantTo('ensure hello is shown');
    $I->amOnPage('/test.php'); 
    $I->see('Hello');
?>

Codeception Result

$ vendor/bin/codecept --debug --verbose run acceptance
Codeception PHP Testing Framework v2.0.1
Powered by PHPUnit 4.1.3 by Sebastian Bergmann.

Acceptance Tests (1) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Modules: PhpBrowser, AcceptanceHelper
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trying to ensure that frontpage works (WelcomeCept)                                                                                                 
Scenario:
* I am on page "/test.php"
 ERROR 




  [ErrorException]                                     
  json_encode(): type is unsupported, encoded as null 

Passing example

test.php

<?php
    setcookie("TestCookie", 'foo', null, '/'); 
    print "Hello, World";
?>

Curl Response

curl -i http://localhost:26080/test.php
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
x-powered-by: PHP/5.4.22
set-cookie: TestCookie=foo; path=/
content-type: text/html
Expires: Fri, 01 Jan 1990 00:00:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-cache
Content-Length: 12
Server: Development/2.0
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 02:36:47 GMT

Hello, World

Codeception Test
Same

Codeception Result

vendor/bin/codecept --debug --verbose run acceptance
Codeception PHP Testing Framework v2.0.1
Powered by PHPUnit 4.1.3 by Sebastian Bergmann.

Acceptance Tests (1) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Modules: PhpBrowser, AcceptanceHelper
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trying to ensure that frontpage works (WelcomeCept)                                                                                                 
Scenario:
* I am on page "/test.php"
  [Response] 200
  [Page] http://localhost:26080/test.php
  [Cookies] []
  [Headers] {"x-powered-by":["PHP/5.4.22"],"set-cookie":["TestCookie=foo; path=/"],"Content-Type":["text/html"],"Expires":["Fri, 01 Jan 1990 00:00:00 GMT"],"Cache-Control":["no-cache"],"Content-Length":["12"],"Server":["Development/2.0"],"Date":["Tue, 08 Jul 2014 02:38:07 GMT"]}
* I see "Hello"
 PASSED 

[moneal]

I solved my problem. I installed 1.8 just to see what would happen and I got this error:

[Exception]                                                                                                                                                
  DateTime::__construct(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_defaul  
  t_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifi  
  er. We selected the timezone 'UTC' for now, but please set date.timezone to select your timezone. 

So I fixed the problem and got some other errors so I went back and installed 2.* and the problem was gone. Turns out my error was all because of my default timezone settings.

This is what my php.ini looks like now:

[Date]                                                                                              
 ; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions                                           
 ; http://php.net/date.timezone                                                                      
 date.timezone = "America/Los_Angeles" 

Maybe some startup test could be added to help others avoid this problem.

[DavertMik]

Thanks for detailed overview. I will try to reproduce it with wrong timezone

[moneal]

@DavertMik The problem was with the default timezone not being set at all.

[samdark]

In Yii we're defaulting it to UTC in an entry script and I think it's OK to do the same in Codeception case.

[DavertMik]

Sure, @samdark is right about setting default timezone, I saw such errors before
But much more interesting is why the initial error is blocked by PHPUnit_Util_Log_JSON.

[samdark]

As far as I know, PhpUnit registers its own error handler. timezone thing is a warning so it should be converted to exception that's caught using try-catch and silenced somewhere.

[adamski]

Here is my current situation:

HomeTextCept.php:

<?php 
$I = new AcceptanceTester($scenario);
$I->wantTo('see the Laravel welcome page');
$I->amOnPage('/');
$I->shouldSee('You have arrived.');

`curl -i http://mydomain.com/
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 09:02:21 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.25 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.25 OpenSSL/0.9.8y DAV/2 PHP/5.4.19
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.4.19
Cache-Control: no-cache
Set-Cookie: laravel_session=eyJpdiI6............; expires=Mon, 14-Jul-2014 11:02:21 GMT; path=/; httponly
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
<!doctype html>

...

You have arrived.

`

codecept run acceptance gives:

Codeception PHP Testing Framework v2.0.1
Powered by PHPUnit 4.1.3 by Sebastian Bergmann.

Acceptance Tests (1) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trying to see the Laravel welcome page (HomeTestCept)                                                                          Error



  [ErrorException]
  json_encode(): type is unsupported, encoded as nullCodeception PHP Testing Framework v2.0.1
Powered by PHPUnit 4.1.3 by Sebastian Bergmann.

Acceptance Tests (1) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trying to see the Laravel welcome page (HomeTestCept)                                                                          Error



  [ErrorException]
  json_encode(): type is unsupported, encoded as null

acceptance.suite.yml:

class_name: AcceptanceTester
modules:
    enabled:
        - PhpBrowser
        - AcceptanceHelper
    config:
        PhpBrowser:
            url: 'http://mydomain.com'

[adamski]

So I added the correct timezone to my php.ini and viola it solves that problem!!
My timezone was not being set at all, same as @moneal
Can we please have a more descriptive error message for this, if possible?