HTTP Selftest

This repo implements a base servlet and surrounding infrastructure to enable semi-automatic tests against a running application in any development stage. The tests are deployed with the application and run against itself. Test parameters can be pre-defined or provided by the user. This allows to have meaningful test parameters across multiple stages and environments.

The intended use is not clear-cut. The servlet can be used for e.g.

• basic integration tests,
• smoke tests before general release,
• incident response,
• definitive insight into interface behavior.

Usage example

Test run summary

Single test output including request, response and log messages

Test case implementation example

public class MinimalSelftestServlet extends SelftestServlet {
    @Override
    protected TestConfigs getConfigs() {
        return new TestConfigs("param1");
    }
    public static class TestEcho implements TestCase {
        @Override
        public TestRequest prepareRequest(TestValues config, Context ctx) throws Exception {
            return new TestRequest("echo", "GET");
        }
        @Override
        public void verify(TestValues config, TestResponse response, Context ctx) throws Exception {
            Assertions.assertEqual("status code", 200, response.getStatus());
        }
    }
}

Interactive example

You can easily play around with a simple test suite. Just launch the example app in the spring-boot-example module.

git clone https://github.com/1and1/httpselftest.git
cd httpselftest/selftest-springboot-example/
mvn spring-boot:run
# point your browser to the actuator endpoint: http://localhost:8081/actuator/selftest
# OR to the application port http://localhost:8080/selftest

Integration

GAV

<dependency>
   <groupId>net.oneandone.httpselftest</groupId>
   <artifactId>selftest-core</artifactId>
   <version>$VERSION</version>
</dependency>

Dependencies

• Since HTTP Selftest is implemented as a Servlet, there is an implicit dependency on the javax Servlet API.
• HTML rendering is done using j2html. The dependency is co-packaged and shaded to avoid conflicts with production dependencies.
• JSON handling is done using json-simple. The dependency is co-packaged and shaded to avoid conflicts with production dependencies.
• In case Logback logging support is used, logback dependencies need to be on the classpath (logback-classic and logback-core).

Security

The servlet is not supposed to be exposed to the internet. This is an internal developer tool. Additionally, you may want to set selftest.credentials.

Usage as Spring Boot 2 Actuator

If your application is a Spring Boot 2 app, the servlet can be registered as a @ServletEndpoint. In this case the application port and base path may need to be provided manually. The servlet will be running on the management port.

@ServletEndpoint(id = "selftest")
public class SelftestEndpoint implements Supplier<EndpointServlet> {

    @Override
    public EndpointServlet get() {
        return new EndpointServlet(YourSelftestServlet.class)
            .withInitParameter(SelftestServlet.PROP_OVERRIDE_PORT, "8080")
            .withInitParameter(SelftestServlet.PROP_OVERRIDE_PATH, "/rest");
    }

}

Usage as Spring Boot raw servlet

If your application is a Spring Boot app, the servlet can be registered by the way of ServletRegistrationBean. This way it will be running on the application port.

@Bean
public ServletRegistrationBean<YourSelftestServlet> onProductionPort() {
    return new ServletRegistrationBean<>(new YourSelftestServlet(), "/selftest");
}

Usage otherwise

If your application has a web.xml, the servlet containing your test cases can be registered there.

<servlet>
   <servlet-name>SelfTestServlet</servlet-name>
   <servlet-class>${SUBCLASS_OF_SelftestServlet}</servlet-class>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
   <servlet-name>SelfTestServlet</servlet-name>
   <url-pattern>/selftest</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Collecting request tracking IDs

If you want to collect log messages and your application is not already collecting request tracking IDs in the MDC, you can do so by registering a SelftestMDCFilter.

The filter can be registered in Spring Boot apps by the way of FilterRegistrationBean.

@Bean
public FilterRegistrationBean selftestFilter() {
    FilterRegistrationBean filter = new FilterRegistrationBean();
    filter.setFilter(new SelftestMDCFilter());
    filter.addUrlPatterns("/*");
    filter.setName("selftestFilter");
    filter.setOrder(Ordered.HIGHEST_PRECEDENCE);
    return filter;
}

If you have a web.xml you can register it there.

<filter>
   <filter-name>SelftestMDCFilter</filter-name>
   <filter-class>net.oneandone.httpselftest.servlet.SelftestMDCFilter</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
   <filter-name>SelftestMDCFilter</filter-name>
   <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

Configuration

Servlet init parameter	Description	Default value
selftest.credentials	Credentials for HTTP Basic authentication. Supports plain or SHA-256 (prefix with plain| or sha256|).	no authentication
selftest.logger	Logging framework to be used for log message extraction. Possible values: [none, logback]	logback
selftest.configgroups	Config groups can be used to filter out pre-defined configs that are irrelevant to the current environment. The values will be matched against the current hostname. Example: "local, staging". Check the example application for usage.	no groups
selftest.override.port	Override for application port. Necessary if the httpselftest servlet runs on another port.	application port
selftest.override.contextpath	Override for application context path. Necessary if the httpselftest servlet runs on another port.	application path
selftest.override.mdckey	Override for MDC key storing the request tracking id.	X-REQUEST-ID