request-mocha

Request utilities for Mocha.

This was built as a repetitive test utility to request results and assert later on.

Getting Started

Install the module with: npm install request-mocha

// In your test suite
var request = require('request');
var httpUtils = require('request-mocha')(request);
describe('A server receiving a request', function () {
  before(startServer);

  // Make request and save results to `this.err`, `this.res`, and `this.body`
  httpUtils.save('http://localhost:8080/');

  // Assert against mocha's `this` context
  it('responded with "Hello World!"', function () {
    expect(this.err).to.equal(null);
    expect(this.res.statusCode).to.equal(200);
    expect(this.body).to.equal('Hello World!');
  });
});

Documentation

request-mocha provides a function, requestMocha, as its module.exports.

requestMocha(request)

Create a set of utilities bound to a specific version of request.

This interface is necessary to prevent cross-version conflicts (e.g. jar problems)

• request Request - request library to use for utility functions

requestMocha returns an object which we will refer to as httpUtils.

httpUtils.save(options)

Make a request to a server via request inside of a mocha before/setup block.

• options Object - Parameters to pass through to request's request function

Results will be saved to mocha's this context. The same this context is shared between all mocha before, beforeEach, after, afterEach, and it invocations.

• this.err Error|null - Error if one occurred while making the request (e.g. ECONNREFUSED)
• this.res Response - Response from the server
• this.body String - Response body from the server (alias for res.body)

httpUtils._save(options)

Invoke request/save mechanism without before/setup wrapper.

The parameters are the same as httpUtils.save.

The returned value is a function with a signature of (done). When invoked, it will write to this.err, this.res, and this.body as done in httpUtils.save.

It is expected that you invoke the returned function via a .call or .apply to an asynchronous before context with its callback. This is practical when there is data locked into a this context that needs to be used for a request.

// Prepare some `this` data
before(function () {
  this.credentials = {
    username: 'todd',
    password: 'keyboardcat'
  };
});

// In an asynchronous `before` block
before(function (done) {
  // Prepare the save call
  httpUtils._save({
    method: 'POST',
    url: 'http://localhost:8080/login',
    form: this.credentials
  // Invoke on the current context with the current callback
  }).call(this, done);
});

The alternative is to use var's outside of before blocks. Unfortunately, those cannot be re-used while a before function can be.

Examples

Making a POST request inside of tests

httpUtils.save({
  method: 'POST',
  url: 'http://localhost:8080/',
  form: {
    my: 'data'
  }
});

Contributing

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint via grunt and test via npm test.

License

Copyright (c) 2014 Uber

Licensed under the MIT license.