Bluecat

Bluecat is a library that helps to easily create HTTP requests and maintain session information underlayer.

It could be integrated with any Node.js test framework and assertion library to create a clear and straighforward Web services API testing framework.

• Define your APIs in a JSON file, Bluecat automatically creates all the methods for you
• Callbacks are removed so complex requests flow is more clear
• Full control over the HTTP request URL query, headers and body
• Automatically maintains session cookies information for HTTP API call flows
• Convenience methods that help to handle more complex scenario
• The bluecat command line interface comes with a nice configuration utility that helps you to create your test framework in less than a minute.

Table of contents

• Installation
• Examples
  • Regular RESTful API
  • Control query and/or headers in request
  • RESTful API with characters that cannot be used with dot notation in the URL
  • RESTful API with parameters in the URL
  • Full example
• Usage
• Command line tool
• Logging
• License

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Installation

$ npm install bluecat

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Example

Regular RESTful API

POST /checkout/contract
GET  /checkout/contract

• First define your API in config/api.json, following the exact URL path structure:

{
  "api": {
    "checkout": {
      "contract": {
        "schema": "http",
        "method": ["GET", "POST"]
      }
    }
  }
}

• Then create a Bluecat service object. You are all set to send request and validate response:

var expect = require('chai').expect;
var Bluecat = require('bluecat');
var Service = new Bluecat.ServiceSync(Bluecat.Api('api'), 'sample-host.com');

// All requests need to be put as callback function in Service.run(), so they will run synchronously
Service.run(function() {
    // send POST http://sample-host.com/checkout/contract
    // with body: {"cartid": "test-cart-id"}
    var r = Service.checkout.contract.POST({
      body: {
        cartid: 'test-cart-id'
      }
    });
    // verify response
    expect(r.data.statusCode).to.equal(200);
    expect(r.data.body).to.have.ownProperty('id');

    // send GET http://sample-host.com/checkout/contract
    // cookies are automatically maintained if there is any
    r = Service.checkout.contract.GET();
    // verify response
    expect(r.data.statusCode).to.equal(200);
    expect(r.data.body.cartId).to.eql('test-cart-id');
})

Control query and/or headers in request

PUT /search/fitness/result?start=0&limit=50&error=true

• First define your API in config/api.json:

{
  "api": {
    "search": {
      "fitness": {
        "result": {
          "schema": "https",
          "method": ["PUT"]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

• Then create a Bluecat service object. You are all set to send request and validate response:

var expect = require('chai').expect;
var Bluecat = require('bluecat');
var Service = new Bluecat.ServiceSync(Bluecat.Api('api'), 'sample-host.com');

// All requests need to be put as callback function in Service.run(), so they will run synchronously
Service.run(function() {
    // send PUT http://sample-host.com/search/fitness/result?start=0&limit=50&error=true
    // with body: {"term": "testTerm"}
    // and header: {"User-agent": "automation"}
    var r = Service.search.fitness.result.PUT({
      body: {
        term: 'testTerm'
      },
      query: {
        start: 0,
        limit: 50,
        error: true
      },
      headers: {
        'User-agent': 'automation'
      }
    });
    // verify response
    expect(r.data.statusCode).to.equal(200);
})

RESTful API with characters that cannot be used with [dot notation] (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Property_Accessors) in the URL

GET  /cart/v1/add-item/item

• First define your API in config/api.json:

{
  "api": {
    "cart": {
      "v1": {
        "add-item": {
          "item": {
            "schema": "http",
            "method": ["GET"]
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

• Then create a Bluecat service object and send request:

var expect = require('chai').expect;
var Bluecat = require('bluecat');
var Service = new Bluecat.ServiceSync(Bluecat.Api('api'), 'sample-host.com');

// All requests need to be put as callback function in Service.run(), so they will run synchronously
Service.run(function() {
    // send GET http://sample-host.com/cart/v1/add-item/item
    // we cannot use 'r = Service.cart.v1.add-item.item.GET()' because 'add-item' cannot be used
    // as dot notation property accessor, we need to use bracket notation in such case
    r = Service.cart.v1['add-item'].item.GET();
    // verify response
    expect(r.data.statusCode).to.equal(200);
})

RESTful API with parameters in the URL

GET /checkout/${uuid}/contract

• First define your API in config/api.json:

{
  "api": {
    "checkout": {
      "${uuid}": {
        "contract": {
          "schema": "http",
          "method": ["GET"]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

• Then create a Bluecat service object. You are all set to send request and validate response:

var expect = require('chai').expect;
var Bluecat = require('bluecat');
var Service = new Bluecat.ServiceSync(Bluecat.Api('api'), 'sample-host.com');

// All requests are needed to be put as callback function in Service.run(), so they will run synchronously
Service.run(function() {
    // send GET http://sample-host.com/checkout/5e586387-6d5a-4874-8a98-5836bdc45c7b/contract
    var r = Service.checkout['${uuid}'].contract.GET({
      params: {
        uuid: '5e586387-6d5a-4874-8a98-5836bdc45c7b'
      }
    });
    // verify response
    expect(r.data.statusCode).to.equal(200);
})

Full example of test structure using Bluecat

Example

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Usage

Bluecat.ServiceSync(api, host, options)

Create a new bluecat service object, with desired options.

var Bluecat = require('bluecat');
var Api = Bluecat.Api('mobileapi');
var Service = new Bluecat.ServiceSync(Api, 'api.mobile.walmart.com', {
  gzip: true
});

rawRequest(options)

Sometimes we just want to send a request to some host, which is different than the API host we gave to the bluecat service object. You can use rawRequest(options) to send it.

var Bluecat = require('bluecat');
var Api = Bluecat.Api('mobileapi');
var Service = new Bluecat.ServiceSync(Api, 'api.mobile.walmart.com');

var r = Service.rawRequest({
  method: 'GET',
  json: true,
  uri: 'https://thirdparty-host/creditcard/encryption.js',
  headers: {'accept-encoding': 'gzip'},
});
expect(r.err).to.equal(null);
expect(r.data.statusCode).to.equal(200);

setProxy(proxy)

Set proxy address, all the requests will be sent via a connection to the proxy server.

var Bluecat = require('bluecat');
var Api = Bluecat.Api('mobileapi');
var Service = new Bluecat.ServiceSync(Api, 'api.mobile.walmart.com');

Service.setProxy('http://127.0.0.1:8888')

resetCookie()

Clean up cookie jar, so the next request won't set any cookies in the header.

var Bluecat = require('bluecat');
var Api = Bluecat.Api('mobileapi');
var Service = new Bluecat.ServiceSync(Api, 'api.mobile.walmart.com');

Service.v1.products.search.GET();
Service.resetCookie();
Service.v1.cart.POST({
  body: {
    location: '94066'
  }
})

setHeaders(headers)

Set headers that will be sent in all the requests.

var Bluecat = require('bluecat');
var Api = Bluecat.Api('mobileapi');
var Service = new Bluecat.ServiceSync(Api, 'api.mobile.walmart.com');

Service.setHeaders({'User-Agent': 'Automation'});

setSessionRules(rules)

Set extra session rules other than cookie. Some RESTful APIs defines their own session rules, you can set such rules to the bluecat service object, so you don't have to deal with it before sending every single HTTP request.

var Bluecat = require('bluecat');
var Api = Bluecat.Api('mobileapi');
var Service = new Bluecat.ServiceSync(Api, 'api.mobile.walmart.com');

// The following sessions rules start with value 'start-auth-token-value' in the request header AUTH_TOKEN,
// then grab new value from response header REFRESH_AUTH_TOKEN
// and put it in the next request header AUTH_TOKEN
Service.setSessionRules({
  requestHeader: 'AUTH_TOKEN',
  responseHeader: 'REFRESH_AUTH_TOKEN',
  startSessionHeader: 'start-auth-token-value'
});

sleep(ms)

Sleep for ms milliseconds.

var Bluecat = require('bluecat');
var Api = Bluecat.Api('mobileapi');
var Service = new Bluecat.ServiceSync(Api, 'api.mobile.walmart.com');
// Sleep for 5 seconds
Service.sleep(5000);

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Command line tool

Bluecat comes with bluecat command line interface that helps you to create a basic Web services API test framework and check defined APIs.

Create basic Web services API test structure:

$ npm install bluecat
$ ./node_modules/.bin/bluecat config

Follow the instructions and it will create a scaffold of a basic web services API test framework for you.

Check currently defined Web services APIs:

$ ./node_modules/.bin/bluecat api

It will print out all the current defined Web services APIs that could be called from test case.

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Logging

• Launch the node process like BLUECAT_DEBUG_FILE=/path/to/bluecat.log node script.js to keep a log file of all the requests/responses information.

• Launch the node process like BLUECAT_DEBUG_CONSOLE=true node script.js to see all the requests/responses information from your console (stdout).

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License

Licensed under the MIT