[[spring-mvc-test-server]]
= Overview
:page-section-summary-toc: 1

You can write plain unit tests for Spring MVC by instantiating a controller, injecting it
with dependencies, and calling its methods. However such tests do not verify request
mappings, data binding, message conversion, type conversion, validation, and nor
do they involve any of the supporting `@InitBinder`, `@ModelAttribute`, or
`@ExceptionHandler` methods.

The Spring MVC Test framework, also known as `MockMvc`, aims to provide more complete
testing for Spring MVC controllers without a running server. It does that by invoking
the `DispatcherServlet` and passing
xref:testing/unit.adoc#mock-objects-servlet["`mock`" implementations of the Servlet API] from the
`spring-test` module which replicates the full Spring MVC request handling without
a running server.

MockMvc is a server side test framework that lets you verify most of the functionality
of a Spring MVC application using lightweight and targeted tests. You can use it on
its own to perform requests and to verify responses, or you can also use it through
the xref:testing/webtestclient.adoc[WebTestClient] API with MockMvc plugged in as the server to handle requests
with.


