January 2011 – vilimblog

I've been looking for a clean, framework-independent way of doing white-box API testing using Node.js. For a long while, the things that popped up when doing a quick scan of the Node Package Manager package lists weren't ticking all of the right boxes: zombie.js is going for a full browser simulation but doesn't provide a simple Browser.post() method (you have to use selectors to find the form.submit button and then fire a click() on it), Node's native http.Client is too low-level and doesn't do cookies, and various other http request wrappers weren't quite cutting it either. I think I've found a solution for this particular version of the problem: LearnBoost's Tobi combined with Vows.js is letting me do clean REST API testing, with a minimum of hassle, and all the built-in sugar-coated goodness of should.js fluent assertions. For example:

var HOST  = 'localhost';
var PORT  = 80;
var API   = "/api/user/create";

var tobi   = require('tobi'),
    vows   = require('vows'),
    assert = require('assert');

var newbie = function() { return tobi.createBrowser(PORT, HOST) };

// -------------------------------------------------------------
// Macros.
// -------------------------------------------------------------

var macroPostOnlyApiChecks = function(url) {
	return {
		'GET': {
			topic: function() {
				var browser = newbie();
				browser.get(url, this.callback);
			},
			'should fail.': function(res, $) {
				res.should.not.have.status(200);
			}
		},
		'Empty POST': {
			topic: function() {
				var browser = newbie();
				browser.post(url, this.callback);
			},
			'should fail.': function(res, $) {
				res.should.not.have.status(200);
			}
		}
	};
};

var macroCreateUserOk = function(suite) {
	return {
		'Create user': {
			topic: function() {
				var browser = newbie();
				var data = { signupUsername: '', };
				
				data = JSON.stringify(data);
				browser.post('/api/user/create', data, this.callback);
			},
			'should succeed.': function(res, $) {
				res.should.have.status(200);
				console.log(res);
				
				// Pass created user credentials back to
				// the calling suite for later use.
				if (suite) {
				}
			}
		}
	};
};

// -------------------------------------------------------------
// User API Test Suite
//
// Run me with: vows api.user.create.vows.js --spec
// -------------------------------------------------------------

var suite = vows.describe('User API Test Suite');

// Batches  are executed sequentially.
// Contexts are executed in parallel.

suite.addBatch(macroPostOnlyApiChecks(API));
suite.addBatch(macroCreateUserOk());

suite.export(module);

var HOST = 'localhost';

var PORT = 80;

var API = "/api/user/create";

var tobi = require('tobi'),

vows = require('vows'),

assert = require('assert');

var newbie = function() { return tobi.createBrowser(PORT, HOST) };

// -------------------------------------------------------------

// Macros.

// -------------------------------------------------------------

var macroPostOnlyApiChecks = function(url) {

return {

'GET': {

topic: function() {

var browser = newbie();

browser.get(url, this.callback);

'should fail.': function(res, $) {

res.should.not.have.status(200);

}

'Empty POST': {

topic: function() {

var browser = newbie();

browser.post(url, this.callback);

'should fail.': function(res, $) {

res.should.not.have.status(200);

}

};

var macroCreateUserOk = function(suite) {

return {

'Create user': {

topic: function() {

var browser = newbie();

var data = { signupUsername: '', };

data = JSON.stringify(data);

browser.post('/api/user/create', data, this.callback);

'should succeed.': function(res, $) {

res.should.have.status(200);

console.log(res);

// Pass created user credentials back to

// the calling suite for later use.

if (suite) {

}

};

// -------------------------------------------------------------

// User API Test Suite

// Run me with: vows api.user.create.vows.js --spec

// -------------------------------------------------------------

var suite = vows.describe('User API Test Suite');

// Batches are executed sequentially.

// Contexts are executed in parallel.

suite.addBatch(macroPostOnlyApiChecks(API));

suite.addBatch(macroCreateUserOk());

suite.export(module);

Future steps then include using the macros to help set up other tests that require a valid user, etc. Overall, this is the most straightforward solution I've yet found for the problem of testing a REST API while also faking a session.

Month: January 2011

Testing REST API with LearnBoost’s Tobi + Vows.js