/ 
swat-0.1.55
/ README.md

SYNOPSIS

Web automated testing framework.

Description

Ok, now I hope you are ready to dive into swat tutorial! :)

Install

$ sudo apt-get install curl
$ sudo cpanm swat

Or install from source:

# useful for contributors and developers
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install

Write your swat story

Swat test stories always answers on 2 type of questions:

As swat is a web test oriented tool it deals with some http related stuff as:

Swat leverages unix file system to build an analogy for these things:

HTTP Resources

HTTP resource is just a directory. You have to create a directory to define a http resource:

mkdir foo/
mkdir -p bar/baz

This code defines two http resources for your application - 'foo/' and 'bar/baz'

HTTP methods

HTTP method is just a file. You have to create a file to define a http method.

touch foo/get.txt
touch foo/put.txt
touch bar/baz/post.txt

Obviously `http methods' files should be located at `http resource' directories.

The code above defines a three http methods for two http resources:

- GET /foo
- PUT /foo
- POST bar/baz

Here is the list of predefined file names for a http methods files:

get.txt --> GET method
post.txt --> POST method
put.txt --> PUT method
delete.txt --> DELETE method

Hostname / IP Address

You need to define hostname or ip address to send request to. Just write it up to a special file called `host' and swat will use it.

echo 'app.local' > host

As swat makes http requests with the help of curl, the host name should be complaint with curl requirements, this for example means you may define a http schema or port here:

echo 'https://app.local' >> host
echo 'app.local:8080' >> host

HTTP Response

Swat makes request to a given http resources with a given http methods and then validates a response. Swat does this with the help so called check lists, Check lists are defined at `http methods' files.

Check list is just a list of expressions a response should match. It might be a plain strings or regular expressions:

echo 200 OK > foo/get.txt
echo 'Hello I am foo' >> foo/get.txt

The code above defines two checks for response from `GET /foo':

- it should contain "200 OK"
- it should contain "Hello I am foo"

You may add some regular expressions checks as well:

# for example check if we got something like 'date':
echo 'regexp: \d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d' >> foo/get.txt

Bringing all together

All these things http method, http resource and check list comprise into essential swat entity called a swat story.

Swat story is a very simple test plan, which could be expressed in a cucumber language as follows:

Given I have web application 'http://my.cool.app:80'
And I have http method 'GET'
And make http request 'GET /foo'
Then I should have response matches '200 OK'
And I should have response matches 'Hello I am foo'
And I should have response matches '\d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d'

From the file system point of view swat story is a:

Swat Project

Swat project is a bunch of a related swat stories kept under a single directory. This directory is called project root directory. The project root directory name does not that matter, swat just looks up swat story files into it and then "execute" them. See swat runner workflow section for full explanation of this process.

This is an example swat project layout:

$ tree my/swat/project
  my/swat/project
  |--- host
  |----FOO
  |-----|----BAR
  |           |---- post.txt
  |--- FOO
        |--- get.txt

3 directories, 3 files

When you ask swat to execute swat stories you have to point it a project root directory or `cd' to it and run swat without arguments:

swat my/swat/project

# or

cd my/swat/project && swat

Note, that project root directory path will be removed from http resources paths during execution:

- GET FOO
- POST FOO/BAR

Use `test_file' variable to execute a subset of swat stories:

# run a single story
test_file=FOO/get swat example/my-app 127.0.0.1

# run all `FOO/*' stories:
test_file=FOO/ swat example/my-app 127.0.0.1

Test_file variable should point to a resource(s) path and be relative to project root dir, also it should not contain extension part - `.txt'

Let's describe swat DSL for check lists expressions.

Check lists

So, swat check list is list of check expressions, indeed not only check expressions, there are some - comments, blank lines, text blocks , perl expressions and generators we will talk about it later.

Let's start with check expressions.

Check expressions

Swat check expressions declares what should be in a response:

# http response
200 OK
HELLO
HELLO WORLD
My birth day is: 1977-04-16


# check list
200 OK
HELLO
regexp: \d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d


# swat output
200 OK matches
HELLO matches
regexp: \d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d matches

There are two type of check expressions - plain strings and regular expressions.

The code above declares that http response should have lines matches to '200 OK' and 'HELLO SWAT'.

Similarly to plain strings, you may ask swat to check if http response has a lines matching to a regular expressions:

    regexp: \d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d # date in format of YYYY-MM-DD
    regexp: 20\d # successful http status 200, 201 etc
    regexp: App Version Number: \d+\.\d+\.\d+ # version number

Regular expression should start with `regexp:' marker.

You may use `(,)' symbols to capture subparts of matching strings, the captured chunks will be saved and could be used further,

Note, that swat does not care about how many times a given check expression is matched by response, swat "assumes" it at least should be matched once. However swat is able to accumulate all matching lines and save them for further processing, just use `(,)' symbols to capture subparts of matching strings:

    regexp: Hello, my name is (\w+)

See "captures" section for full explanation of a swat captures:

Comments, blank lines and text blocks

But you can't ignore blank lines in a `text block matching' context ( see `text blocks' subsection ), use `:blank_line' marker to match blank lines:

    # :blank_line marker matches blank lines
    # this is especially useful
    # when match in text blocks context:

    begin:
        this line followed by 2 blank lines
        :blank_line
        :blank_line
    end:

Sometimes it is very helpful to match a response against a `block of strings' goes consequentially, like here:

    # this text block
    # consists of 5 strings
    # goes consequentially
    # line by line:

    begin:
        # plain strings
        this string followed by
        that string followed by
        another one
        # regexps patterns:
    regexp: with (this|that)
        # and the last one in a block
        at the very end
    end:

This check list will succeed when gets executed against this chunk:

    this string followed by
    that string followed by
    another one string
    with that string
    at the very end.

But will not for this chunk:

    that string followed by
    this string followed by
    another one string
    with that string
    at the very end.

`begin:' `end:' markers decorate `text blocks' content. `:being|:end' markers should not be followed by any text at the same line.

Also be aware if you leave "dangling" `begin:' marker without closing `end': somewhere else swat will remain in a `text block' mode till the end of your swat story, which is probably not you want:

    begin:
        here we begin
        and till the very end of test
        we are in `text block` mode

Perl expressions

Perl expressions are just a pieces of perl code to get evaled inside your swat story. This is how it works:

    # this is my swat story
    200 OK
    code: print "hello world"
    That's OK

First swat converts swat story into perl code with eval "{code}" chunk added into it, this is called compilation phase:

    ok($status,"response matches 200 OK");
    eval 'print "hello world"';
    ok($status,"content matches That's OK"); # etc

Then prove execute the code above.

Follow "Swat runner workflow" to know how swat compile stories into a perl code.

Anyway, the example with 'print "hello world"' is quite useless, there are of course more effective ways how you code use perl expressions in your swat stories.

One of useful thing you could with perl expressions is to call some Test::More functions to modify test workflow:

    # skip tests

    code: skip('next 3 checks are skipped',3) # skip three next checks forever
    color: red
    color: blue
    color: green

    number:one
    number:two
    number:three

    # skip tests conditionally

    color: red
    color: blue
    color: green

    code: skip('numbers checks are skipped',3)  if $ENV{'skip_numbers'} # skip three next checks if skip_numbers set 

    number:one
    number:two
    number:three

Perl expressions are executed by perl eval function, please take this into account. Follow http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/eval.html to get know more about perl eval.

Generators

Swat generators is the way to create swat check lists on the fly. Swat generators like perl expressions are just a piece of perl code with the only difference that generator code should always return an array reference.

An array returned by generator code should contain check list items, serialized as perl strings. New check list items are passed back to swat parser and will be appended to a current check list. Here is a simple example:

    # original check list

    200 OK
    HELLO
    
    # this generator generates plain string check expressions:
    # new items will be appended into check list

    generator: [ qw{ foo bar baz } ]


    # final check list:

    200 OK
    HELLO
    foo
    bar
    baz

Generators expressions start with `:generator' marker. Here is more example:

    # this generator generates comment lines 
    # and plain string check expressions:

    generator: my %d = { 'foo' => 'foo value', 'bar' => 'bar value' }; [ map  { ( "# $_", "$data{$_}" )  } keys %d ]


    # final check list:

        # foo
        foo value
        # bar
        bar value

Note about PERL5LIB.

Swat adds `project_root_directory/lib' path to PERL5LIB path, so you may perl modules here and then `use' them:

    my-app/lib/Foo/Bar/Baz.pm

    # now it is possible to use Foo::Bar::Baz
    code: use Foo::Bar::Baz; # etc ...

As long as swat deals with check expressions ( both plain strings or regular expressions ) it works in a single line mode, that means that check expressions are single line strings and response is checked in line by line way:

       # swat story
       Multiline
       string
       here    
       regexp: Multiline \n string \n here    

       # http response
       Multiline \n string \n here
       
    
       # swat output
       "Multiline" matched
       "string" matched
       "here" matched
       "Multiline \n string \n here" not matched

Use text blocks instead if you want to achieve multiline checks.

However when writing perl expressions or generators one could use multilines there. `' delimiters breaks a single line text on a multi lines:

    # What about to validate response
    # With sqlite database entries?

    generator:                                                          \

    use DBI;                                                            \
    my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:SQLite:dbname=t/data/test.db","","");   \
    my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT name from users");                  \
    $sth->execute();                                                    \
    my $results = $sth->fetchall_arrayref;                              \

    [ map { $_->[0] } @${results} ]

Captures

Captures are pieces of data get captured when swat checks response with regular expressions:

# here is response data.
# it's my family ages.
alex    38
julia   25
jan     2


# let's capture name and age chunks
regexp: /(\w+)\s+(\d+)/

After this regular expression check gets executed captured data will stored into a array:

[
    ['alex',    38 ]
    ['julia',   32 ]
    ['jan',     2  ]
]

Then captured data might be accessed for example by code generator to define some extra checks:

code:                               \
my $total=0;                        \
for my $c (@{captures()}) {         \
    $total+=$c->[0];                \
}                                   \
cmp_ok( $total,'==',72,"total age of my family" );

`captures()' function is used to access captured data array, it returns an array reference holding all chunks captured during latest regular expression check.

Here some more examples:

# check if response contains numbers,
# then calculate total amount
# and check if it is greater then 10

regexp: (\d+)
code:                               \
my $total=0;                        \
for my $c (@{captures()}) {         \
    $total+=$c->[0];                \
}                                   \
cmp_ok( $total,'>',10,"total amount is greater than 10" );


# check if response contains lines
# with date formatted as date: YYYY-MM-DD
# and then check if first date found is yesterday

regexp: date: (\d\d\d\d)-(\d\d)-(\d\d)
code:                               \
use DateTime;                       \
my $c = captures()->[0];            \
my $dt = DateTime->new( year => $c->[0], month => $c->[1], day => $c->[2]  ); \
my $yesterday = DateTime->now->subtract( days =>  1 );     \
cmp_ok( DateTime->compare($dt, $yesterday),'==',0,"first day found is - $dt and this is a yesterday" );

You also may use `capture()' function to get a first element of captures array:

# check if response contains numbers
# a first number should be greater then ten

regexp: (\d+)
code: cmp_ok( capture()->[0],'>',10,"first number is greater than 10" );

Swat ini files

Every swat story comes with some settings you may define to adjust swat behavior. These type of settings could be defined at swat ini files.

Swat ini files are file called "swat.ini" and located at `resources' directory:

 foo/bar/get.txt
 foo/bar/swat.ini

The content of swat ini file is the list of variables definitions in bash format:

$name=value

As swat ini files is bash scripts you may use bash expressions here:

if [ some condition ]; then
    $name=value
fi

Following is the list of swat variables you may define at swat ini files, it could be divided on two groups:

swat variables

Swat variables define swat basic configuration, like logging mode, prove runner settings, etc. Here is the list:

curl parameters

Curl parameters relates to curl client. Here is the list:

Follow curl documentation to get more examples.

other variables

This is the list of helpful variables you may use in swat ini files:

Alternative swat ini files locations

Swat try to find swat ini files at these locations ( listed in order )

Settings priority table

This table describes all possible locations for swat ini files. Swat try to find swat ini files in order:

| location                                  | order N     |
| --------------------------------------------------------|
| ~/swat.ini                                | 1           |
| `project_root_directory'/swat.ini         | 2           | 
| `http resource' directory/swat.ini file   | 3           |
| current working directory/swat.my file    | 4           |
| environment variables                     | 5           |

In case the same variable is defined more than once at swat ini files with different locations, the file loaded last win:

curl_params="-H 'Foo: Bar'" # in a ~/swat.ini 
curl_params="-H 'Bar: Baz'" # in a project_root_directory/swat.ini 

# actual curl_params value:
"-H 'Bar: Baz'"

If you want concatenation mode use name="$name value" expression:

curl_params="-H 'Foo: Bar'" # in a ~/swat.ini 
curl_params="$curl_params -H 'Bar: Baz'" # in a project_root_directory/swat.ini 

# actual curl_params value:
"-H 'Foo: Bar' -H 'Bar: Baz'"

In case you need provide default value for some variable use name=${name default_value} expression:

# port will be set 80 unless it's not set somewhere else
port=${port:=80} # in a ~/swat.ini

Hooks

Hooks are extension points to hack into swat runtime phase. It's just files with perl code gets executed in the beginning of swat story. You should named your hook file as `hook.pm' and place it into `resource' directory:

# foo/hook.pm
diag "hello, I am swat hook";
sub red_green_blue_generator { [ qw /red green blue/ ] }


# foo/get.txt
generator: red_green_blue_generator()

There are lot of reasons why you might need a hooks. To say a few:

Hooks API

Swat hooks API provides several functions to change swat story at runtime

Redefine http responses

set_response(STRING)

Using set_response means that you never make a real request to a web application, but instead set response on your own side.

This feature is helpful when you need to mock up http responses instead of having them requested from a real web application. For example in abcense of an access to a tested application or if response is too slow or it involves too much data which make it hard to execute a swat stories often.

This is an example of setting server response inside swat hook:

# hook.pm
set_response("THIS IS I FAKE RESPONSE\n HELLO WORLD");

# get.txt
THIS IS FAKE RESPONSE
HELLO WORLD

Another interesting idea about set_response feature is a conditional http requests.

Let say we have `POST /login' request for user authentication, this is a simple swat story for it:

# login/post.txt
200 OK

Good. But what if you need to skip authentication under some conditions, like if you are already logged in before? We could write such a code:

# login/post.txt
generator:
$logged_in ? [ 'I am already logged in' : '200 OK' ]

# login/hook.pm
if ( ... check if user is logged in .... ){
    set_response('I am already logged in');
}

Redefine http resources

modify_resource(CODEREF)

To modify existed resource use modify_resource function:

# foo/bar/baz/ - resource 

# hook.pm
modify_resource( sub { my $resource = shift; s/bar/bbaarr/, s/baz/bbaazz/ for $resource; $resource  } );

# modified resource
foo/bbaarr/bbaazz

Upstream and downstream stories

Swat allow you to call one story from another, using notion of swat modules.

Swat modules are reusable swat stories. Swat never executes swat modules directly, instead you have to call swat module from your swat story. Story calling another story is named a upstream story, story is being called is named a downstream story. ( This kind of analogy is taken from Jenkins CI )

Let show how this work on a previous `login' example. We need to ensure that user is logged in before doing some other action, like checking email list:

# email/list/get.txt
200 OK
email list

# email/list/hook.pm
run_swat_module( POST => '/login', { user => 'alex', password => 'swat' } )    

# and finally this is
# login/post.txt
200 OK

# login/swat.ini
swat_module=1 # this story is a swat module
curl_params="-d 'user=%user%' -d 'password=%password%'"

Here are the brief comments to the example above:

Here is an example code snippet:

    # hook.pm
    run_swat_module( GET => '/foo/' )
    run_swat_module( POST => '/foo/bar' )
    run_swat_module( GET => '/foo/' )


    run_swat_module( GET => '/foo', { var1 => 'value1', var2 => 'value2', var3=>'value3'   }  ) 

    # swat module 
    # swat.ini
    swat_module=1
    # initial value of curl_params variable:
    curl_params='-d var1=%var1% -d var2=%var2% -d var3=%var3%'

    # real value of curl_params variable
    # during execution of swat module:
    curl_param='-d var1=value1 -d var2=value2 -d var3=value3'

Use %[\w\d_]+% placeholders in a curl_params variable to insert module variables here

    # hook.pm
    module_variable('var1');
    module_variable('var2');

One word about sharing state between upstream story and swat modules. As swat modules get executed in the same process as upstream story there is no magic about sharing data between upstream and downstream stories. The straitforward way to share state is to use global variables :

# upstream story hook:
my $state = [ 'this is upstream story' ]

# downstream story hook:
push @$state, 'I was here'

Of course more proper approaches for state sharing could be used as singeltones or something else.

Swat variables accessors

There are some accessors to a common swat variables:

project_root_dir()
test_root_dir()

resource()
resource_dir()

http_method()
hostname()

ignore_http_err()

Be aware of that these are readers not setters.

Swat runner workflow

This is detailed explanation of how swat runner compiles and then executes swat test stories.

Swat consequentially hits two phases when execute swat stories:

Swat to Test::Harness compilation

One important thing about check lists is that internally they are represented as Test::More asserts. This is how it work:

Let's have 3 swat stories:

user/get.txt # GET /user
user/post.txt # POST /user
users/list/get.txt # GET /users/list

Swat parse every story and the creates a perl test file for it:

user/get.t
user/post.t
users/get.txt

Every check lists is converted into the list of the Test::More asserts:

    # user/get.txt
    200 OK
    regexp: name: \w+
    regexp: age: \d+

    # user/get.t
    SKIP {
        ok($status,'response matches 200 OK'); 
        ok($status,'response matches name: \w+');
        ok($status,'response matches age: \d+');
    }

This is a time diagram for swat runner workflow:

- Hits swat compilation phase
- For every swat story found:
    - Calculates swat settings comes from various swat ini files
    - Creates a perl test file at Test::Harness format
- The end of swat compilation phase
- Hits swat execution phase - runs \`prove' recursively on a directory with a perl test files
- For every perl test file gets executed:
    - Require hook.pm if exists
    - Iterate over Test::More asserts
        - Execute Test::More assert
    - The end of Test::More asserts iterator
- The end of swat execution phase

TAP

Swat produces output in TAP format, that means you may use your favorite tap parsers to bring result to another test / reporting systems, follow TAP documentation to get more on this.

Here is example for converting swat tests into JUNIT format:

swat --formatter TAP::Formatter::JUnit

Prove settings

Swat utilize prove utility to run tests, all prove related parameters are passed as is to prove. Here are some examples:

swat -Q # don't show anythings unless test summary
swat -q -s # run prove tests in random and quite mode

Swat client

Once swat is installed you get swat client at the `PATH':

swat <project_root_dir> <host:port> <prove settings>

Examples

There is plenty of examples at ./examples directory

AUTHOR

Aleksei Melezhik

Home Page

https://github.com/melezhik/swat

Thanks

All the stuff that swat relies upon, thanks to those authors:

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.