NAME

Sparrow

SYNOPSIS

Sparrow - outthentic tests manager. Manages outthentic family test suites.

CAVEAT

The project is still in very alpha stage. Things might change. But you can start play with it :-)

Outthentic family frameworks

Outthentic tests are those using Outthentic DSL.

Currently there are two members of outthentic family test frameworks:

• swat - web application testing framework

So, swat test suites are those running under swat framework

• outthentic - generic purposes testing framework

So, generic test suites are those running under outthentic framework

In the documentation below term `outthentic tests' relates both to swat and generic tests.

Sparrow summary

• console client to setup and run outthentic test suites

• installs and runs sparrow plugins - shareable outthentic test suites

• ability to run tests remotely over rest API (TODO)

DEPENDENCIES

git, curl, bash

INSTALL

sudo yum install git
sudo yum install curl

cpanm Sparrow

USAGE

These are actions provided by sparrow console client:

create a project

sparrow project create $project_name

Create a sparrow project.

Sparrow project is a container for outthentic test suites and tested web services or applications.

Sparrow project is entry point where one run outthentic tests against different web services or applications.

Example command:

sparrow project create dev-db-servers

sparrow project create production-web-servers

To get project info say this:

sparrow project show $project_name

For example:

sparrow project show dev-db-servers

To see projects list say this:

sparrow project list

To remove project data say this:

sparrow project remove $project_name

For example:

sparrow project qa-db-servers remove

search sparrow plugins

Sparrow plugin is a shareable outthentic test suite.

One could install sparrow plugin and then run related outthentic tests, see check action for details.

To search available plugins say this:

sparrow plg search $pattern

For example:

sparrow plg search apache
sparrow plg search nginx
sparrow plg search ssh
sparrow plg search mysql

Pattern should be perl regexp pattern. Examples:

• .* # find any plugin
• nginx # find nginx plugins
• mysql- # find mysql plugins

build / reload sparrow index

Sparrow index is cached data used by sparrow to search plugins.

Index consists of two parts:

• private plugins index , see SPL file section for details
• public plugins index, PUBLIC PLUGINS section for details

There are two basic command to work with index:

• sparrow index summary

This command will show timestamps and file locations for public and private index files

sparrow index update

This command will fetch fresh index from SparrowHub and update local cached index.

This is very similar to what cpan index reload command does.

You need this to get know about any updates, changes on SparrowHub public plugins repository.

See PUBLIC PLUGINS section for details.

download and install sparrow plugins

sparrow plg install $plugin_name

For example:

sparrow plg search  nginx        # to get know available nginx* plugins
sparrow plg install swat-nginx   # to download and install a chosen plugin
sparrow plg install swat-mongodb-http --version 0.3.7 # install specific version

Check sparrow-plugins section to know more about sparrow plugins.

To see installed plugin list say this:

sparrow plg list

To get installed plugin info say this:

sparrow plg show $plugin_name

To remove installed plugin:

sparrow plg remove $plugin_name

For example:

sparrow plg remove df-check

create checkpoints

sparrow check add $project_name $checkpoint_name

• Checkpoints tie together tested web service or application and sparrow plugin

• Checkpoints belong to projects, so to create a checkpoint you need to point a project

Command examples:

sparrow check production-web-servers nginx
sparrow check production-web-servers apache
sparrow check db-servers mysql
sparrow check my-machine sshd

setup checkpoints

sparrow check set $project_name $checkpoint_name $plugin_name [$host]

Once checkpoint is created you need to setup it.

By setting checkpoint you bind it to a certain plugin:

• plugin_name

Is a name of plugin to run tests.

• host

This optional parameter sets base url or hostname of a web service or application being tested.

Command examples:

sparrow check set localhost sshd sshd-check  
sparrow check set localhost sshd sshd-check 127.0.0.1
sparrow check set db-servers mysql outth-mysql 127.0.0.1:3306

sparrow check set cpan-modules kelp swat-kelp 127.0.0.1:3000
sparrow check set production-web-servers nginx swat-nginx http://my.nginx.host
sparrow check set db-servers mongo swat-mongodb-http http://localhost:28017
sparrow check set dev-app my-cool-app swat-my-app http://my.dev.host:5555/foo/bar/baz

To get checkpoint info say this:

sparrow check show $project_name $checkpoint_name

For example:

sparrow check show production-web-servers nginx

run tests

There are two ways to run tests.

First one is to run tests via checkpoint interface :

sparrow check run $project_name $check_name

Examples:

sparrow check run my-machine sshd

sparrow check run production-web-servers nginx

Second way is simply run tests via plugin interface :

sparrow plg run $plugin_name

The 2 tests examples above could be run as plugins tests:

sparrow plg run sshd-check

sparrow plg run swat-nginx

• Choose run tests via checkpoint interface when you want to add host settings for test suite.

• Choose run tests via plugin interface when you have no host specific settings for test suite.

Warning: you can run only public plugins tests using plugin interface.

Running tests under cron.

sparrow check run $project_name $check_name --cron

When running tests under cron mode a normal output suppressed and is emitted only if tests fails.

Example:

sparrow check run my-machine sshd --cron

initialize checkpoints

sparrow check ini $project_name $checkpoint_name

This command setups ini file for test suite provided by checkpoint's plugin.

# ini file for foo-app test suite:
export EDITOR=nano
sparrow check ini foo foo-app

    [main]
    foo = 1
    bar = 2

More information on ini files syntax could be found here:

• swat tests ini files
• generic tests ini files

Alternatively you may load plugin ini file from file path

sparrow check load_ini $project_name $checkpoint_name path/to/file

For example:

sparrow check load_ini foo foo-app /path/to/ini/file

run tests remotely

NOT IMPLEMENTED YET.

GET /$project_name/check_run/$project_name/$checkpoint_name

Sparrow rest API allow to run test suites remotely over http. This function is not implemented yet.

# runs sparrow rest API daemon
sparrowd

# runs swat tests via http call
curl http://127.0.0.1:5090/check_run/db-servers/mysql

remove checkpoints

sparrow check remove $project_name $checkpoint_name

Examples:

# remove checkpoint nginx-check in project foo
sparrow check remove foo nginx-check

SPARROW PLUGINS

Sparrow plugins are shareable outthentic test suites installed from remote sources.

There are two type of sparrow plugins:

• public plugins are provided by SparrowHub community plugin repository and considered as public access

• private plugins are provided by internal or external git repositories and not necessary considered as public access

Both public and private plugins are installed with help of sparrow client:

sparrow plg install plugin_name

PUBLIC PLUGINS

The public plugins features:

• they are kept in a central place called SparrowHub - community plugins repository

• they are versioned so you may install various version of a one plugin

PRIVATE PLUGINS

Private plugins are ones created by you and not supposed to be accessed publicly.

The private plugins features:

• they are kept in arbitrary remote git repositories ( public or private ones )

• they are not versioned, a simple `git clone/pull' command is executed to install/update a plugin

• private plugins should be listed at sparrow plugin list file (SPL file)

SPL FILE

Sparrow plugin list is represented by text file placed at `~/sparrow.list'

SPL file should contains lines in the following format:

$plugin_name $git_repo_url

Where:

• git_repo_url

Is a remote git repository URL

• plugin_name

A name of your sparrow plugin, could be arbitrary name but see restriction notice concerning public plugin names.

Example entries:

swat-yars   https://github.com/melezhik/swat-yars.git
metacpan    https://github.com/CPAN-API/metacpan-monitoring.git

Once you add a proper entries into SPL file you may list and install a private plugins:

sparrow plg show    swat-yars
sparrow plg install swat-yars

CREATING SPARROW PLUGINS

Here is a brief description of the process:

swat test suite

To get know to create swat tests please follow swat project documentation - https://github.com/melezhik/swat.

A simplest swat test to check that web service returns `200 OK' when receive `GET /' request will be:

echo 200 OK > get.txt

create a cpanfile

As sparrow relies on carton to handle perl dependencies you need to create a valid cpanfile in the plugin root directory.

The minimal dependency you have to declare is swat perl module:

$ cat cpanfile

require 'swat';

Of course you may also add other dependencies your plugin might need:

$ cat cpanfile

require 'HTML::Entities'

create sparrow.json file

Sparrow.json file describes plugin's meta information required for plugin gets uploaded to SparrowHub.

In case of private plugin you may skip this step.

Create sparrow.json file and place it in plugin root directory:

{
    "version": "0.1.1",
    "name": "my-cool-plugin",
    "engine": "swat", 
    "description" : "this is a great plugin!",
    "url" : "http://...."
}

This is the list of obligatory parameters you have to set:

• version - perl version string.

A detailed information concerning version syntax could be find here - https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/version/lib/version.pm

• name - plugin name.

Only symbols `a-zA-Z1-9_-.' are allowable in plugin name

This the list of optional parameters you may set as well:

• engine

Defines test framework for test suite. Default value is `swat'. Other possible value is 'generic', see generic test suite section

• url - an http URL for the site where one could find a detailed plugin information ( docs, source code, issues ... )

• description - a short description of your plugin

generic test suite

Creation of generic tests is very similar to a swat tests, but you'd better read outthentic framework documentation to understand the difference.

Once your test suite is ready prepare the same additional stuff as with swat test suite:

• cpanfile
• sparrow.json

Cpanfile should declare at least a dependency on Outthentic perl module:

$ cat cpanfile

require 'Outthentic';

Sparrow.json file does not differ from the one described at swat test suite section, except for `engine' field value:

{
    "engine": "generic"
}

PUBLISHING SPARROW PLUGINS

Private plugin

All you need is to keep a plugin source code in the remote git repository.

Plugin root directory should be repository root directory.

Once a plugin is placed at git remote repository you need to add a proper entry into SPL file, see SPL FILE section how to do this.

Public plugin

To publish you plugin into SparrowHub you need:

• Get registered at SparrowHub

Go to https://sparrowhub.org

• Get rest api token

Login into your account. Go on "Profile" page, then on "My Token" page and then hit "Regenerate Token" link.

Once your get you token, setup a sparrowhub credentials on the machine where your are going upload plugin from:

cat ~/sparrowhub.json

{
    "user"  : "melezhik",
    "token" : "ADB4F4DC-9F3B-11E5-B394-D4E152C9AB83"
}

• Upload plugin

  • Check if you have sparrowhub credentials setup correctly ( previous step ) on your machine
  • Install sparrow client on your machine
  • Then go to directory where your plugin source code at and say `sparrow plg upload'. That's it

For example:

$ cd plugin_root_directory
$ sparrow plg upload

Another way to supply sparrow with valid SparrowHub credentials - use sph_user and sph_token environment variables. Probably useful in automation scripts:

$ sph_user=melezhik sph_token=ADB4F4DC-9F3B-11E5-B394-D4E152C9AB83 sparrow plg upload

AUTHOR

Aleksei Melezhik

Home page

https://github.com/melezhik/sparrow

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2015 Alexey Melezhik.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

THANKS

• to God as - For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. (Proverbs 2:6)