Local testing of apps

These are some of the required steps, tips, and tricks when it comes to running an app on a local machine. The primary goal is to be able to iterate over changes and verifying them without needing to deploy the app to the test environment.

• Prerequisites
• Setup
• Changing test data

Prerequisites

1. Newest .NET 6 SDK
2. Newest Git
3. A code editor - we like Visual Studio Code
   • Also install recommended extensions ( f.ex. C#)
4. Docker Desktop (Linux users can also use native Docker)

Setup

Using docker

1. Clone the app-localtest repository to a local folder and move into the folder.

   git clone https://github.com/Altinn/app-localtest
   cd app-localtest

2. Build and run the containers in the background.

   docker compose up -d --build

   ℹ️ If you are using linux or mac you can use the Makefile to build and run the containers.

   make docker-start-localtest

   This mode supports running one app at a time. If you need to run multiple apps at once, stop the localtest container with docker stop localtest and follow the instructions below to run LocalTest locally outside Docker.

3. Start your app This step requires that you have already created an app, added a data model, and cloned the app to your local environment.

   Move into the App folder of your application.

   Example: If your application is named my-awesome-app and is located in the folder C:\my_applications, run the following command:

   cd C:\my_applications\my-awasome-app\App

   Run the application:

   dotnet run

Using podman

1. Clone the app-localtest repository to a local folder and move into the folder.

   git clone https://github.com/Altinn/app-localtest
   cd app-localtest

2. Build and run the containers in the background.

   podman compose --file podman-compose.yml up -d --build

   ℹ️ If you are using linux or mac you can use the Makefile to build and run the containers.

   make podman-start-localtest

   This mode supports running one app at a time. If you need to run multiple apps at once, stop the localtest container with podman stop localtest and follow the instructions below to run LocalTest locally outside Docker.

3. Start your app This step requires that you have already created an app, added a data model, and cloned the app to your local environment.

   Move into the App folder of your application.

   Example: If your application is named my-awesome-app and is located in the folder C:\my_applications, run the following command:

   cd C:\my_applications\my-awasome-app\App

   Run the application:

   dotnet run

The app and local platform services are now running locally. The app can be accessed on http://local.altinn.cloud.

Log in with a test user, using your app name and org name. This will redirect you to the app.

Changing configuration

The Docker Compose config can be changed with local environment variables. There is a template file for the .env file here, rename it to .env and uncomment some variables that you want different values for.

Sometimes the local environment have another service running on port 80, so you might need to change this.

ALTINN3LOCAL_PORT=80

If you want to see the storage files on disk (instead of reading them through the browser), change this to a local path on your computer (ensure that it exists)

ALTINN3LOCALSTORAGE_PATH=C:/AltinnPlatformLocal/

If you want to use another domain than local.altinn.cloud for local testing you could do that this way:

TEST_DOMAIN=local.altinn.cloud

Multiple apps at the same time (running LocalTest locally)

The setup described above (LocalTest running in Docker) currently only supports one app at a time. If you find yourself needing to run multiple apps at the same time, or if you need to debug or develop LocalTest, a local setup is preferred.

ℹ️ If you're already running LocalTest in Docker, be sure to stop the container with docker stop localtest

Configuration of LocalTest The LocalTest application acts as an emulator of the Altinn 3 platform services. It provides things like authentication, authorization and storage. Everything your apps will need to run locally.

Settings (under LocalPlatformSettings):

• LocalAppMode - (default file) If set to http, LocalTest will find the active app configuration and policy.xml using apis exposed on LocalAppUrl. (note that this is a new setting needs to be added manually under LocalPlatformSettings, it might also require updates to altinn dependencies for your apps in order to support this functionality)
• LocalAppUrl - If LocalAppMode == "http", this URL will be used instead of AppRepositoryBasePath to find apps and their files. Typically the value will be "http://localhost:5005"
• LocalTestingStorageBasePath - The folder to which LocalTest will store instances and data being created during testing.
• AppRepositoryBasePath - The folder where LocalTest will look for apps and their files if LocalAppMode == "file". This is typically the parent directory where you checkout all your apps.
• LocalTestingStaticTestDataPath - Test user data like profile, register and roles. (<path to altinn-studio repo>/testdata/)

The recommended way of changing settings for LocalTest is through user-secrets. User secrets is a set of developer specific settings that will overwrite values from the appsettings.json file when the application is started in developer "mode". The alternative is to edit the appsettings.json file directly. Just be careful not to commit developer specific changes back to the repository.

• Define a user secret with the following command: (make sure you are in the LocalTest folder)

  dotnet user-secrets set "LocalPlatformSettings:AppRepositoryBasePath" "C:\Repos"

  Run the command for each setting you want to change.
• Alternatively edit the appsettings.json file directly:
  • Open appsettings.json in the LocalTest folder in an editor, for example in Visual Studio Code
  • Change the setting "AppRepsitoryBasePath" to the full path to your app on the disk.
  • Change other settings as needed.
  • Save the file.

Finally, start the local platform services (make sure you are in the /src folder)

cd /src
dotnet run

Changing test data

In some cases your application might differ from the default setup and require custom changes to the test data available. This section contains the most common changes.

Add a missing role for a test user

This would be required if your app requires a role which none of the test users have.

1. Identify the role list you need to modify by noting the userId of the user representing an entity, and the partyId of the entity you want to represent
2. Find the correct roles.json file in testdata/authorization/roles by navigating to User_{userID}\party_{partyId}\roles.json
3. Add a new entry in the list for the role you require

{
  "Type": "altinn",
  "value": "[Insert role code here]"
}

4. Save and close the file
5. Restart LocalTest