Specter

Mocking and Testing for Node Use a single JSON file to generate mock data and as an integration test assertion

This is the Node port of our PHP Specter library.

Still WIP!

Installation

npm install @helpscout/specter --save-dev

Demonstration

Work together among your development teams to spec a new endpoint and create a Specter JSON file that defines your new endpoint. This is a Specter JSON file (customer.json):

{
  "__specter": "Sample customer record",
  "id": "@randomDigitNotNull@",
  "fname": "@firstName@",
  "lname": "@lastName@",
  "company": "@company@",
  "jobTitle": "@jobTitle@",
  "background": "@catchPhrase@",
  "address": {
    "city": "@city@",
    "state": "@stateAbbr@",
    "zip": "@postcode@",
    "country": "@country@"
  },
  "emails": ["@companyEmail@", "@freeEmail@", "@email@"]
}

Generate the fixture data based on the spec data model:

import { getFixture } from '@helpscout/specter'

getFixture('customer')

The output will be:

{
  "__specter":"Sample customer record",
  "id":6,
  "fname":"Glenda",
  "lname":"Trantow",
  "company":"Kerluke, Rodriguez and Wisoky",
  "jobTitle":"Power Generating Plant Operator",
  "background":"Configurable multi-state standardization",
  "address":{
     "city":"Georgiannachester",
     "state":"TX",
     "zip":"89501",
     "country":"Afghanistan"
  },
  "emails":[
    "dward@friesen.org",
    "nwisozk@gmail.com",
    "juliet.dooley@yahoo.com"
  ]
}

Write a unit test for the endpoint to confirm that it's meeting the spec, and then implement the endpoint for real. Below is an example with a Mocha/Chai styled test. However, this can be used with any test runner as the assert helper returns a true/false.

Mocha Example

import { assertResponseContent } from '@helpscout/specter'

describe('Customer Endpoint', () => {
  it('should match the spec', () => {
    const response = someRouter.getResponse('/api/v1/customer/37')
    expect(assertResponseContent(response, 'customer').to.be.true
  })
})

Jest Example

import { assertResponseContent } from '@helpscout/specter'

describe('Customer Endpoint', () => {
  test('should match the spec', () => {
    const response = someRouter.getResponse('/api/v1/customer/37')
    expect(assertResponseContent(response, 'customer').toBeTruthy()
  })
})

TODO

• Map all the methods from Faker.js to the method names from the PHP library
• Add custom formatter support
• Add Faker filters using |