MockServer
MockServer let you record interactions with Rack-apps and provide playback with advanced request matching for your tests.
MockServer is an answer from a real world problem at Teambox and we use it extensively for our entire acceptance test suites.
When building javascript application that communicate with the backend over an API, you will find yourself the entire stack again and again, waiting after the database while you only want ensure that your javascript applicatin is correctly communicating with the server.
Our solution was to considere our own backend as it was an external API and completely mock the interaction with the API.
Speed. Its fast.
Run test against a completely fake server, don't hit you application stack.
Test isolation.
Avoid duplicated testing. Test your API in its own test suite and let the frontend perform request against fixtures to avoid testing the entire stack (again).
MockServer is a very light solution divided in three parts.
- a recording Rack middleware
- a playback Rack middleware
- an helper module to use inside your tests
Getting started
Installation
gem install mock_server
Recording mode
Mounting the rack middleware, in rails
require 'mock_server/record'
config.middleware.use MockServer::Record,
{ :path => 'fixtures/records', :filename => 'api'
:routes => [ '/api/*/**', '/api_v2/**' ] }
At this point, the MockServer::Record
middleware will record all the intraction that match the given routes into the fixtures/records/api.yml
file.
You can record from your test or just boot the app and click around, be creative.
Playback mode
Once you are done recording, disable the MockServer::Record
, and you are ready to use the MockServer::Playback
middleware.
require 'mock_server/playback'
config.middleware.use MockServer::Playback,
{ :path => 'fixtures/records' }
You are now ready to test.
Rspec
MockServer is just two record/playback Rack middleware, but it also come with an helper module to maniplate its settings.
You just need to include the module in your test.
For exemple, in Rspec, you could do like this:
require 'mock_server/spec/helpers'
RSpec.configure do |config|
config.include MockServer::Spec::Helpers
end
Inside your test, basic usage exemple:
before :each do
# Set the filename where you store the records
# in this exemple, it will load `fixtures/records/bootsrap.yml`
# and `fixtures/records/uploads.yml`
mock_server_use_record 'bootsrap', 'uploads'
# From now on, those path belong to MockServer.
# if we can't match to a record, the server return a 404 and populate the errors stack.
mock_server_enable_routes '**/uploads/*', '**/uploads', '**/folders'
end
after :each do
mock_server_reset!
end
scenario "Some JSON api fun" do
mock_server_get('/api/2/projects')
# If no block is given, it will return the first recorded response that
# match the verb and path.
# You can be more specific by using a block
mock_server_post('/api/2/projects') do |request, recorded_request|
recorded_request.body.name == recorded_request.body.name and
recorded_request.body.name == 'MockServer'
# Internally, the Playback middlware will perform a Array#detect against
# all the recorded request loaded from the fixture files and will
# return the response when it return true
}
# ...fun stuff... fight with selenium selectors or whatever you would normally do!
end
Have a look at the helpers.
Pull request?
Yes.
Documentation
Credits
MockServer borrow idea of the awesome VCR from Myron Marston that does similar work with HTTP interactions to external services. Give it a look!
MockServer is developped and improved for our internal use at Teambox. Kudos to my work mates for their insightful feedback and pull requests.