Easy JSON API testing with RSpec

If you want to test a real API to make sure it behaves as expected via HTTP, or if you want to do some more complex monitoring of your live API (e.g. write something, read it, delete it, etc.), this gem helps you make your test code easier on the eyes.

Here's what it does:

1. HTTP verbs as helper methods in your specs
2. Applies default options to all your requests (headers, etc.)
3. Assumes the response is JSON and parses it
4. Gives you the JSON response object (Array or Hash) with a little extra: the code method (so you don't have to catch an exception to test for a 404).

This gem adds helper methods for all HTTP verbs to your RSpec tests, so you can just say something like:

it "returns the correct user" do
  get("/users/123")[:name].should == "Jens Mander"
end

it "returns a 404" do 
  get("/users/0").code.should == 404
end

So far so good, but your current monitoring tool can also do that. Here's an example where we create something, read an id, check for the correct value and delete our test data:

describe "CRUD" do
  let(:response){ post("/users", test_data.to_json) }

  it "creates a new user" do
    response.code.should == 201
  end
  
  it "returned some location header" do
    response.headers[:location].should_not be_blank
  end

  it "returned the correct id" do
    u = get("/users/#{response[:id]}")
    u[:name].should == test_data[:name]
  end

  it "deletes the user correctl" do
    delete("/users/#{response[:id]}")
    get("/users/#{response[:id]}").code.should == 404
  end
end

Yes, you are right, there was no protocol or hostname in any of the examples. Here's how you can configure things, for example in spec_helper.rb:

RSpecAPITest.config = {
  base_url: 'http://my-live-instance.com',
  defaults: {
    content_type: :json,
    accept: :json
  }
}

The defaults hash is passed on to RestClient and is used as documented here. The parameters of our get, put, post, delete helpers are the same as RestClient.get, RestClient.put, RestClient.post, RestClient.delete.

If the response couldn't be parsed as JSON, you'll just get back the RestClient object so you can do whatever you want with it.

Just add

gem 'rspec_api_test'

to your Gemfile and in spec_helper.rb do a

require 'rspec_api_test'

after you required rspec or did a Bundler.require.

Git clone this repo and run rake.