/ 
swat-0.1.81
/ README.md

NAME

Swat

SYNOPSIS

Rapid web tests development.

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:

# could be 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 list below describes two http resources ( /foo, /bar/baz ) and three http methods for these resources ( GET, PUT, DELETE ):

* 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 compliant 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 set of 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':

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 like http method, http resource and check list build up an 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 could be any, swat just searches for swat story files in it and then "execute" found stories. 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:

Also notice that if you pass first argument ( which is project root directory ) to swat client, then the second argument could be a hostname ( in case you don't want to use one defined at host file or you do not have one ):

  # inside project root directory 
  swat ./ 127.0.0.1

  # outside of project root directory 
  swat /path/to/project/root/directory/ 127.0.0.1

Follow swat client section for full explanation of swat client command line API.

Swat check lists

Swat check lists complies Outthentic DSL format.

There are lot of possibilities here!

( For full explanation of outthentic DSL please follow documentation. )

A few examples:

Often all you need is to ensure that http response has some strings in:

# http response
200 OK
HELLO
HELLO WORLD


# check list
200 OK
HELLO

# swat output
OK - output matches '200 OK'
OK - output matches 'HELLO'

You may use regular expressions as well:

# http response
My birth day is: 1977-04-16


# check list
regexp: \d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d


# swat output
OK - output matches /\d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d/

Follow https://github.com/melezhik/outthentic-dsl#check-expressions to know more.

Yes you may generate new check list on run time:

# original check list

Say
HELLO

# this generator creates 3 new check expressions:

generator: [ qw{ say hello again } ]

# final check list:

Say
HELLO
say
hello
again

Follow https://github.com/melezhik/outthentic-dsl#generators to know more.

What about inline arbitrary perl code? Well, it's easy!

# check list
regexp: number: (\d+)
validator: [ ( capture()->[0] '>=' 0 ), 'got none zero number') ];

Follow https://github.com/melezhik/outthentic-dsl#validators to know more.

Need to validate that some lines goes in response successively ?

    # http response

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


    # check list
    # 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 string
        # regexps patterns:
    regexp: with (this|that) \S+
        # and the last one in a block
        at the very end
    end:

Follow https://github.com/melezhik/outthentic-dsl#comments-blank-lines-and-text-blocks to know more.

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:

For example:

# swat.ini
# assume that we set profile variable somewhere else
# 

if test "${profile}" = 'production'; then
    skip_story=1 # we don't want this one for production
fi

curl parameters

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

Here are some examples:

# -d curl parameter
curl_params='-d name=daniel -d skill=lousy' # post data sending via form submit.

# --data-binary curl parameter
curl_params=`echo -E "--data-binary '{\"name\":\"alex\",\"last_name\":\"melezhik\"}'"`

# set http header
curl_params="-H 'Content-Type: application/json'"

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           |
| environment variables                     | 4           |

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 absence 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 A FAKE RESPONSE
HELLO WORLD

You may call `set_response' more then once:

set_response("HELLO WORLD");
set_response("HELLO WORLD2");

A final response will be:

HELLO WORLD
HELLO WORLD2

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');
}

Process http responses

set_response_processor(CODEREF)

Response processors are custom perl function to modify content returned from server before invoking a validation process. Processor code should be defined by calling a process_response function with parameter as reference to processor function:

For example:

   set_response_processor( sub { 
      my $headers   = shift; # original response, http headers, String
      my $body      = shift; # original response, body, String
      $body=~s/hello/swat/;
      return $body;          # modified response will be return value of sub {} 
    });

What you should know about processor functions:

This is a rough schema of full process:

 # without processor function
 curl -i some-http-URL | validation-process

 # with processor script exists:
 curl -i some-http-URL | processor-function| validation-process

The possible usage of processor functions:

For example:

  # server response in json format
  {
      "Foo": {
          "Bar" : "Baz"
       }
  }

  # processor function
  my $headers   = shift;
  my $body      = shift;
  use JSON;
  $hash = decode_json($body);
  return 'Foo.Bar.Baz :'.( $hash->{Foo}->{Bar}->{Baz} )."\n";
  

  # server response in xml format
  <foo>
    <bar>
      <baz>aaa</baz>
    </bar>  
  </foo>

  # processor function
  my $headers   = shift;
  my $body      = shift;
  use XML:LibXML;
  my $doc = XML::LibXML->parse_string($body);
  return 'Foo.Bar.Baz :'.( $doc->find("string(/foo/bar/baz)")->string_value )."\n";

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/' )

Use hash passed as third parameter of run_swat_module function:

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

Swat interpolates module variables into `curl_params' variable in swat module story:

# 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

Access to a module variables is provided by `module_variable' function:

# 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 straightforward way to share state is to use global variables :

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

# downstream story hook:
push our @$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:

See test suite ini file section for details.

Be aware of that these functions are readers not setters.

PERL5LIB

Swat adds `project_root_directory/lib' path to PERL5LIB path, which make it easy to add some modules and use them:

# my-app/lib/Foo/Bar/Baz.pm
package Foo::Bar::Baz;
...

# hook.pm
use Foo::Bar::Baz;
...

Swat runner workflow

This is detailed explanation of swat runner life cycle.

Swat runner script consequentially hits two phases:

Generating Test::More asserts sequence

Time diagram

This is a time diagram for swat runner life cycle:

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 --prove '--formatter TAP::Formatter::JUnit'

Prove settings

Swat utilize prove utility to run tests, all prove related parameters could be passed via `--prove' option to prove runner.

Here are some examples:

swat --prove -Q # don't show anythings unless test summary

swat --prove '-q -s' # run prove tests in random and quite mode

Test suite ini file

Test suite ini file is a configuration file where you may pass any additional data could be used in your tests:

cat suite.ini

[main]

foo = 1
bar = 2

There is no special magic behind this ini file, except this should be Config Tiny compliant configuration file.

By default swat runner looks for file named suite.ini placed at current working directory.

You my redefine this by using suite_ini_file environment variable:

suite_ini_file=/path/to/your/ini/file

Or by `--ini' parameter of story runner:

swat --ini /path/to/your/ini/file

Once suite ini file is read up one may use it in hook.pm files via config()

# cat hook.pm

my $foo = config()->{main}{foo};
my $bar = config()->{main}{bar};

Misc settings

Swat client

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

swat [[project_root_dir] [host:port]] [swat_command_line_parameters]

In case you don't set one, swat assume it equal to current working directory. Examples:

# setup project root directory explicitly
swat /foo/bar/baz

# project root directory is CWD
swat

In case host parameter is missing , swat tries to read it up from `host' file. Examples:

# setup host explicitly
swat /foo/bar/baz 127.0.0.1

# host entry gets read from CWD/host file 
swat /foo/bar/baz

# project root directory is CWD
# host entry gets read from CWD/host file 
swat

List of swat command line parameters:

See prove settings

Sets a distinct sub sets of stories to execute, see Running subset of stories

See test suite ini file section for details.

Override the value for swat debug variable, see swat variables section:

debug=1 swat --debug 2 # set debug to 2

Running subset of stories

Use `-t' options to execute a subset of swat stories:

# run `FOO/*' stories
swat example/my-app 127.0.0.1 -t FOO/

For example:

-t FOO/BAR -t BAR -t FOO/BAZ

For example:

-t FOO/BAR FOO/BAZ BAR

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.