Add a Functional Test case

Getting used to writing testing code and running this code in parallel is considered as a good workflow. Whenever an API for valence is implemented, it is necessary to include the corresponding test case in the testing framework. Currently, valence uses pythons unittest module for running the test cases.

Tests scripts are located in <valence_root>/valence/tests directory

Note

valence/tests/__init__.py contains the base class for FunctionalTest

Implementing a Test Case

Consider implementing an functional testcase for our /example(Add a new API endpoint in Valence) API

The characteristics of /example(Add a new API endpoint in Valence) API

• REST Method : GET
• Parameters : Nil
• Expected Response Status : 200
• Expected Response JSON : {“msg” : “hello world”}

To implement a testcase for the /example api,

Create a class in valence/tests/functional/test_functional.py which inherits the FunctionalTest class from valence/tests/__init__.py i.e.

# valence/tests/functional/test_functional.py

class TestExampleController(FunctionalTest):

    def test_example_get(self):
        response = self.app.get('/example')
        #Call GET method of /example from Flask APP
        #If REST call went fine, we expect HTTP STATUS 200 along with JSON
        assert response.status_code == 200
        #Test the status
        assert response["msg"] == "hello world"
        #Test the response message
        #likely we could test headers for content-type..etc

    def test_example_post(self):
        #suppose consider if POST is implemented & returns STATUS 201
        response = self.app.post('/example')
        assert response.status_code == 201

The above is a very basic example which could be extended to test complex JSONs and response headers.

Also for every new code added, it is better to do pep8 and other python automated syntax checks. As we have tox integrated in to valence, this could be achieved by, running the below command from the valence root directory(where tox.ini is present)

$ tox -e pep8,py27