beeman / loopback-component-fixtures

handle fixtures for testing clients against

loopback-component-fixtures

This component was conceived by the desire to test client side applications without needing to mock API requests. It doesn't make sense to mock an API when Loopback is already being used. Environment specific datasource configurations were already available, the only piece missing was an easy way to add and remove fixtures when required. Hopefully this component will be useful for others as well, if you have any suggestions to improve the usefulness of this component please let me know, or even better feel free to submit a pull request.

Usage

Installation

1. Install in you loopback project:

npm install --save loopback-component-fixtures

2. Create a component-config.json file in your server folder (if you don't already have one)

3. Configure options inside component-config.json. (see configuration section)

{
  "loopback-component-fixtures": {
    "{option}": "{value}"
  }
}

4. Create a folder for storing test fixtures.

The default location is /server/test-fixtures. This can be set in component-config.json (see below)

5. Create datasources.{env}.json file. This is the datasources definition that will be used depending on the value of NODE_ENV where you want to use fixture data. Example:

{
  "db": {
    "name": "db",
    "connector": "memory"
  }
}

Configuration

Options:

• loadFixturesOnStartup

[Boolean] : Defines whether the fixture data should be loaded on startup. (default: false)

• errorOnSetupFailure

[Boolean] : Defines whether the API shows/throws an error when fixtures fail to load. (default: false)

If true: - Bad fixtures loaded on startup will cause the application to fail with an error. - Bad fixtures loaded via the REST endpoint will return a 500 status code and an error object with details about the specific fixture failures.

If false: - App will continue running (but log an error) if bad fixtures are loaded on startup - App will return a 200 with no error details if bad fixtures are loaded when calling the fixture setup REST endpoint, but will log an error to the console.

• environments

[String/Array] : The name(s) of the environment(s) where the fixtures should be used. (default: 'test')

• fixturesPath

[String] : The location of of the fixture definitions relative to the project root. (default: '/server/test-fixtures/')

Fixture Files

Fixtures are stored in .json files and should have the same name as the loopback model definitions they correspond to. The content should be either an object (for a single item) or an array of objects for multiple items.

Setup/Teardown Fixtures

Fixtures can be setup at startup by setting loadFixturesOnStartup to true in the component-config file. The fixtures can be setup manually by making a GET request to the endpoint <api-root>/fixtures/setup and a GET request to <api-root>/fixtures/teardown will clear all data.

These actions are also available on the server as app.setupFixtures(callback) and app.teardownFixtures(callback).