Dynamic UI Testing HTTP Mocking
Joe’s post covers everything you need to know about mocking HTTP responses when UI testing.
I needed to go a step further. I needed to change the HTTP mocked responses dynamically/on-the-fly while the app was already running.
Why? To test user interactions. One of the UI test cases I had covered creating a new post in the feed. I needed the mocked response to return a normal feed at first, and then after user has tapped the create post button:
app.buttons["createPostButton"].tap()I needed it to return a different mocked response - one with an added post. It’s just one of many interaction tests we had in our testing cases. I needed to find a solution.
You have no way of messaging the app’s API while running UI tests - it’s a different process. You can’t dynamically (while running a test) change the stubbed response. There’s no way to call OHHTTPStubs in the app process, from the UI tests process to change the current stubbed response. That leaves us with hosting a mock server, right? There’s a mock server running and you contact it if you need to switch the responses dynamically.
I started wondering in which language should I implement the mock server. But then - thank god 🙏🏻 - I consulted @Cojoj and he asked me: “Why not run the server inside the unit tests process?”. It turned out to be a great idea! I used the awesome Swifter framework for that.
• It’s very easy to setup.
• It’s very easy to maintain.
• No additional CI steps are needed.
• You don’t put any testing code into your production code - everything stays in the UI tests target.
All you need is some response JSON files in your UI testing target and this class:
import Foundation
import Swifter
enum HTTPMethod {
case POST
case GET
}
class HTTPDynamicStubs {
var server = HttpServer()
func setUp() {
setupInitialStubs()
try! server.start()
}
func tearDown() {
server.stop()
}
func setupInitialStubs() {
// Setting up all the initial mocks from the array
for stub in initialStubs {
setupStub(url: stub.url, filename: stub.jsonFilename, method: stub.method)
}
}
public func setupStub(url: String, filename: String, method: HTTPMethod = .GET) {
let testBundle = Bundle(for: type(of: self))
let filePath = testBundle.path(forResource: filename, ofType: "json")
let fileUrl = URL(fileURLWithPath: filePath!)
let data = try! Data(contentsOf: fileUrl, options: .uncached)
// Looking for a file and converting it to JSON
let json = dataToJSON(data: data)
// Swifter makes it very easy to create stubbed responses
let response: ((HttpRequest) -> HttpResponse) = { _ in
return HttpResponse.ok(.json(json as AnyObject))
}
switch method {
case .GET : server.GET[url] = response
case .POST: server.POST[url] = response
}
}
func dataToJSON(data: Data) -> Any? {
do {
return try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data, options: .mutableContainers)
} catch let myJSONError {
print(myJSONError)
}
return nil
}
}
struct HTTPStubInfo {
let url: String
let jsonFilename: String
let method: HTTPMethod
}
let initialStubs = [
HTTPStubInfo(url: "/api/feed", jsonFilename: "feed", method: .GET),
HTTPStubInfo(url: "/api/createPost", jsonFilename: "createPost", method: .POST),
]That’s it! It’s very easy to use.
class UITests: XCTestCase {
let app = XCUIApplication()
let dynamicStubs = HTTPDynamicStubs()
override func setUp() {
super.setUp()
dynamicStubs.setUp()
}
override func tearDown() {
super.tearDown()
dynamicStubs.tearDown()
}
func testPostCreation() {
...
// Dynamically change the response to see if the feed gets refreshed and post is there
dynamicStubs.setupStub(url: "/api/feed", filename: "feedWithCreatedPost")
app.buttons["createPostButton"].tap()
...
}Of course you have to use http://localhost:8080/ address in your production app for UI testing. Fortunately, that’s the only thing that you have to add to your production code. Just make sure it doesn’t leak to your released app 😨😎
This approach allows you to push your UI testing to a higher level. I hope you liked it! Reach me on Twitter if you have any questions or suggestions 😘
