Feature Tests

Important

Please see the section on including test-jar dependencies in your project: Test Dependencies.

Tip

If you are calling an c.t.util.Await function on a c.t.util.Future return type in a test, it is generally considered good practice to ensure that your c.t.util.Await call includes a timeout duration, otherwise you may inadvertently cause your test to hang indefinitely if the awaited c.t.util.Future never completes.

The base c.t.inject.TestMixin exposes an #await function which will call c.t.util.Await#result with a test-defined default timeout. This can be used in place of calling c.t.util.Await#result directly.

If you are familiar with Gherkin or Cucumber or other similar testing languages and frameworks, then Feature Testing will feel somewhat familiar. In Finatra, a FeatureTest always consists of a single configured server under test. See the c.t.inject.server.FeatureTest trait.

Caution

The server is specified as a def in the c.t.inject.server.FeatureTestMixin trait.

If you only want to start one instance of your server per test file, make sure to override this def with a val. See: Sharing a Server Fixture Between Many Feature Tests for information on how to properly share a server test fixture.

We highly recommend writing FeatureTests for your services as they provide a very good signal of whether you have correctly implemented the features of your service. As always, it is important to always ask yourself, “what are we trying to test?” and to do what makes sense for your team but we recommend including FeatureTests in your test suite.

TL;DR

A test which implements the FeatureTest trait is for a single configured instance of a server under test. Servers are not cheap to create and start, thus the typical pattern is to create (and usually start) the server once before any test case runs. The FeatureTest trait will ensure that the instance set to the server member is properly closed after all tests have been run.

In short, the workflow of a FeatureTest looks like this:

instantiate test class –> create/start server –> run tests –> close/stop server

With the above in mind, it is possible to multiple servers in a test or test different configurations of a server.

Testing Multiple Applications or Servers

For multiple servers, don’t use the c.t.inject.server.FeatureTest trait since it is for testing a single server. Just extend the c.t.inject.Test trait to implement your test using the embedded utilities to create and start your application. Note you will need to manually ensure to close any created servers.

Many of the basics of feature testing mentioned here will still apply so it is still useful to read through this documentation, just note again that you will need to ensure you manually close any created servers to prevent any resource leaking in your tests.

Please take a look at these tests for examples of testing multiple embedded servers in a single test file:

Testing Multiple Configurations of a Server

To test different configurations of a server, create different test files. That is, a test file should map to a specific server configuration under test and test all the features of the configuration set.

For example if you had a server parameter that could either be ‘yellow’ or ‘green’ and wanted to execute a suite of test cases against both of those configurations, the recommendation would be to create two test files: YellowServerFeatureTest and GreenServerFeatureTest. Each test would have the server configured accordingly.

See below for guidelines on how to share a server fixture between feature tests, specifically the Sharing Test Cases section.

c.t.server.TwitterServer

Finatra’s c.t.inject.server.FeatureTest utility can be used for testing any extension of c.t.server.TwitterServer. That is, you can start a locally running server and write tests that issue requests to it as long as the server extends from c.t.server.TwitterServer – the server under test does not specifically have to be a server written using the Finatra framework.

Note

Some advanced features (like the automatic injection of an InMemoryStatsReceiver for performing metrics assertions) that require use of injection will not be available if you only extend c.t.server.TwitterServer but you will be able to start the server and test it in a controlled environment.

For more information on creating an “injectable” TwitterServer, c.t.inject.server.TwitterServer see the documentation here.

Here’s an example of writing a test that starts a c.t.server.TwitterServer and asserts that it reports itself “healthy”.

Given a simple c.t.server.TwitterServer:

import com.twitter.finagle.{Http, ListeningServer, Service}
import com.twitter.finagle.http.{Status, Response, Request}
import com.twitter.server.TwitterServer
import com.twitter.util.{Await, Future}

class MyTwitterServer extends TwitterServer {
  private[this] val httpPortFlag =
    flag(name = "http.port", default = ":8888", help = "External HTTP server port")

  private[this] def responseString: String = "Hello, world!"
  private[this] val service = Service.mk[Request, Response] { request =>
    val response =
      Response(request.version, Status.Ok)
    response.contentString = responseString
    Future.value(response)
  }

  /** Simple way to expose the bound port once the external listening server is started */
  @volatile private[this] var _httpExternalPort: Option[Int] = None
  def httpExternalPort: Option[Int] = this._httpExternalPort

  def main(): Unit = {
    val server: ListeningServer = Http.server
      .withLabel("http")
      .serve(httpPortFlag(), service)
    info(s"Serving on port ${httpPortFlag()}")
    info(s"Serving admin interface on port ${adminPort()}")
    onExit {
      Await.result(server.close())
    }
    this._httpExternalPort = Some(server.boundAddress.asInstanceOf[InetSocketAddress].getPort)
    Await.ready(server)
  }
}

Writing the FeatureTest

First, extend the c.t.inject.server.FeatureTest trait. Then override the server definition with an instance of your EmbeddedTwitterServer which wraps your c.t.server.TwitterServer under test.

import com.twitter.inject.server.{EmbeddedTwitterServer, FeatureTest, PortUtils}
import scala.collection.immutable.ListMap

class MyTwitterServerFeatureTest extends FeatureTest {

  override protected val server =
    new EmbeddedTwitterServer(
      twitterServer = new MyTwitterServer,
      globalFlags = ListMap(com.some.globalFlag.disable -> "true"),
      flags = Map(
        "http.port" -> PortUtils.ephemeralLoopback,
        "dtab.add" -> "/$/inet=>/$/nil;/zk=>/$/nil"
      )
    )

  test("MyTwitterServer#starts") {
    server.isHealthy should be(true)
  }
}

For an “injectable” TwitterServer, c.t.inject.server.TwitterServer the test would look exactly the same.

Testing With Global Flags

See the section covering this topic in the Embedded Servers and Apps documentation.

Disabling Clients using Dtabs

If you have Finagle clients defined in your server which are using Dtab delegation tables for client resolution and want to keep them from making remote connections when your server starts, you can override the Dtab of the clients by passing the -dtab.add flag (defined by the c.t.finagle.DtabFlags trait mixed into c.t.server.TwitterServer) to your server under test.

import com.twitter.inject.server.{EmbeddedTwitterServer, FeatureTest}
import scala.collection.immutable.ListMap

class MyTwitterServerFeatureTest extends FeatureTest {

  override protected val server =
    new EmbeddedTwitterServer(
      twitterServer = new MyTwitterServer,
      globalFlags = ListMap(com.some.globalFlag.disable -> "true"),
      flags = Map(
        "dtab.add" -> "/$/inet=>/$/nil;/zk=>/$/nil")
    )

  test("MyTwitterServer#starts") {
    server.isHealthy should be(true)
  }
}

Creating a Client to the Server Under Test

By default the EmbeddedTwitterServer will create a Finagle HTTP client to the TwitterServer HTTP Admin interface accessible via EmbeddedTwitterServer#httpAdminClient.

To get any bound external port of the server under test, you’ll need to structure your code to expose it for your test to be able to read once the server has been started. That is, the c.t.finagle.ListeningServer started in your c.t.server.TwitterServer main() needs to be exposed such that you can call server.boundAddress after the server has been started.

Assuming we have exposed this bound port as written above with MyTwitterServer#httpExternalPort we could create a client:

import com.twitter.finagle.Http
import com.twitter.finagle.http.{Request, Status}
import com.twitter.finatra.httpclient.RequestBuilder
import com.twitter.inject.server.{EmbeddedTwitterServer, FeatureTest}
import java.net.InetAddress
import scala.collection.immutable.ListMap

class MyTwitterServerFeatureTest extends FeatureTest {

  private val testServer = new MyTwitterServer

  override protected val server =
    new EmbeddedTwitterServer(
      twitterServer = testServer,
      globalFlags = ListMap(com.some.globalFlag.disable -> "true"),
      flags = Map(
        "dtab.add" -> "/$/inet=>/$/nil;/zk=>/$/nil")
    )

  private lazy val httpClient =
    Http.client
      .withSessionQualifier.noFailFast
      .withSessionQualifier.noFailureAccrual
      .newService(
        s"${InetAddress
              .getLoopbackAddress
              .getHostAddress
          }:${testServer.httpExternalPort.get}")

  override protected def beforeAll(): Unit = {
    server.start()
  }

  test("MyTwitterServer#starts") {
    server.isHealthy should be(true)
  }

  test("MyTwitterServer#feature") {
    val request = RequestBuilder.get("/foo")

    val response = await(httpClient(request))
    response.status should equal(Status.Ok)
  }
}

This is where using the Finatra c.t.finatra.http.HttpServer or c.t.finatra.thrift.ThriftServer can help since much of the client creation work can then be done for you by the framework’s testing tools, e.g., the EmbeddedHttpServer or EmbeddedThriftServer without the need to add code to expose anything your external ListeningServer.

c.t.finatra.http.HttpServer

To write a FeatureTest for an c.t.finatra.http.HttpServer, extend the c.t.inject.server.FeatureTest trait. Then override the server definition with an instance of your EmbeddedHttpServer.

import com.twitter.finagle.http.Status
import com.twitter.finatra.http.EmbeddedHttpServer
import com.twitter.inject.server.FeatureTest
import scala.collection.immutable.ListMap

class ExampleServerFeatureTest extends FeatureTest {
  override val server = new EmbeddedHttpServer(
    twitterServer = new ExampleServer,
    globalFlags = ListMap(com.some.globalFlag.disable -> "true"),
    flags = Map(
      "dtab.add" -> "/$/inet=>/$/nil;/zk=>/$/nil")
  )

  test("ExampleServer#perform feature") {
    server.httpGet(
      path = "/",
      andExpect = Status.Ok)
  }

  test("ExampleServer#perform another feature with a response") {
    val response = server.httpGet(
      path = "/foo",
      andExpect = Status.Ok)

    response.contentString should equal("Hello, world!")
  }
}

Note: The EmbeddedHttpServer creates a client to the external HTTP interface defined by the server and exposes methods which use the client for issuing HTTP requests to the server under test.

You can also create a c.t.finagle.http.Request and execute it with the test HTTP client. Finatra has a simple RequestBuilder to help easily construct a c.t.finagle.http.Request.

import com.twitter.finagle.http.Status
import com.twitter.finatra.http.EmbeddedHttpServer
import com.twitter.finatra.httpclient.RequestBuilder
import com.twitter.inject.server.FeatureTest
import scala.collection.immutable.ListMap

class ExampleServerFeatureTest extends FeatureTest {
  override val server = new EmbeddedHttpServer(
    twitterServer = new ExampleServer,
    globalFlags = ListMap(com.some.globalFlag.disable -> "true"),
    flags = Map(
      "dtab.add" -> "/$/inet=>/$/nil;/zk=>/$/nil")
  )

  test("ExampleServer#perform feature") {
    server.httpGet(
      path = "/",
      andExpect = Status.Ok)
  }

  test("ExampleServer#perform feature with built request") {
    val request = RequestBuilder.get("/")

    val response = server.httpClient(request)
    response.status should equal(Status.Ok)
  }
}

c.t.finatra.thrift.ThriftServer

Similarly, to write a FeatureTest for a c.t.finatra.thrift.ThriftServer and create a Finagle client to it, extend the c.t.inject.server.FeatureTest trait, override the server definition with an instance of your EmbeddedThriftServer, and then create a Thrift client from the EmbeddedThriftServer.

import com.example.thriftscala.ExampleThrift
import com.twitter.conversions.DurationOps._
import com.twitter.finatra.thrift.EmbeddedThriftServer
import com.twitter.inject.server.FeatureTest
import com.twitter.util.Await
import scala.collection.immutable.ListMap

class ExampleThriftServerFeatureTest extends FeatureTest {
  override val server = new EmbeddedThriftServer(
    twitterServer = new ExampleThriftServer,
    globalFlags = ListMap(com.some.globalFlag.disable -> "true"),
    flags = Map(
      "dtab.add" -> "/$/inet=>/$/nil;/zk=>/$/nil")
  )

  lazy val client: ExampleThrift.MethodPerEndpoint =
    server.thriftClient[ExampleThrift.MethodPerEndpoint](clientId = "client123")

  test("ExampleThriftServer#return data accordingly") {
    await(client.doExample("input")) should equal("output")
  }
}

Tip

Again, note that tests should always define a timeout for any c.t.util.Await call. We use the #await function in the above example.

Thrift Client Interface Types

As mentioned in the Scrooge Finagle Integration documentation, users have three API choices for building an interface to a Finagle Thrift client — ServicePerEndpoint, ReqRepServicePerEndpoint, and MethodPerEndpoint. This is true even when creating a test Thrift client to a Thrift server.

In the example above, we create a Thrift client in the form of the higher-kinded type interface, e.g., MyService[+MM[_]]. We could choose to create a ExampleThrift.MethodPerEndpoint interface instead by changing the type parameter given to the c.t.finatra.thrift.ThriftClient#thriftClient[T] method:

lazy val client: ExampleThrift.MethodPerEndpoint =
  server.thriftClient[ExampleThrift.MethodPerEndpoint](clientId = "client123")

Users can also choose to create a service-per-endpoint Thrift client interface by calling the c.t.finatra.thrift.ThriftClient#servicePerEndpoint[T] with either the ServicePerEndpoint or ReqRepServicePerEndpoint type. E.g.,

lazy val client: ExampleThrift.ServicePerEndpoint =
  server.servicePerEndpoint[ExampleThrift.ServicePerEndpoint](clientId = "client123")

or

lazy val client: ExampleThrift.ReqRepServicePerEndpoint =
  server.servicePerEndpoint[ExampleThrift.ReqRepServicePerEndpoint](clientId = "client123")

Lastly, the Thrift client can also be expressed as a MethodPerEndpoint wrapping a service-per-endpoint type by using c.t.finatra.thrift.ThriftClient#methodPerEndpoint[T, U]. This would allow for applying a set of filters on the Thrift client interface before interacting with the Thrift client as a MethodPerEndpoint interface.

For example:

lazy val servicePerEndpoint: ExampleThrift.ServicePerEndpoint =
  server
    .servicePerEndpoint[ExampleThrift.ServicePerEndpoint](clientId = "client123")
    .filtered(???)

lazy val client: ExampleThrift.MethodPerEndpoint =
  server.methodPerEndpoint[
    ExampleThrift.ServicePerEndpoint,
    ExampleThrift.MethodPerEndpoint](servicePerEndpoint)

See the Communicate with a Thrift Service section for more information on Thrift clients.

Closing the Test Client Interface

It is considered a best practice to close any created test Thrift client interface to ensure that any opened resources are closed.

For instance, if you are instantiating a single Thrift client interface for all of your tests, you could close the client in the ScalaTest afterAll lifecycle block. E.g.,

import com.example.thriftscala.ExampleThrift
import com.twitter.conversions.DurationOps._
import com.twitter.finatra.thrift.EmbeddedThriftServer
import com.twitter.inject.server.FeatureTest
import com.twitter.util.{Await, Duration}
import scala.collection.immutable.ListMap

class ExampleThriftServerFeatureTest extends FeatureTest {
  override val defaultAwaitTimeout: Duration = 2.seconds

  override val server = new EmbeddedThriftServer(
    twitterServer = new ExampleThriftServer,
    globalFlags = ListMap(com.some.globalFlag.disable -> "true"),
    flags = Map(
      "dtab.add" -> "/$/inet=>/$/nil;/zk=>/$/nil")
  )

  lazy val client: ExampleThrift.ServicePerEndpoint =
    server.servicePerEndpoint[ExampleThrift.ServicePerEndpoint](clientId = "client123")

  ...

  override protected def afterAll(): Unit = {
    await(client.asClosable.close())
    super.afterAll()
  }

Note that the above example use a default timeout of 2.seconds on awaiting the close of the test Thrift client interface. You can and should adjust this value – either up or down – as appropriate for your testing.

Combined c.t.finatra.http.HttpServer & c.t.finatra.thrift.ThriftServer

If you are extending both c.t.finatra.http.HttpServer and c.t.finatra.thrift.ThriftServer then you can FeatureTest by constructing an EmbeddedHttpServer with ThriftClient, e.g.,

import com.example.thriftscala.ExampleThrift
import com.twitter.conversions.DurationOps._
import com.twitter.finatra.http.EmbeddedHttpServer
import com.twitter.finatra.thrift.ThriftClient
import com.twitter.inject.server.FeatureTest
import scala.collection.immutable.ListMap

class ExampleCombinedServerFeatureTest extends FeatureTest {
  override val server =
    new EmbeddedHttpServer(
      twitterServer = new ExampleCombinedServer,
      globalFlags = ListMap(com.some.globalFlag.disable -> "true"),
      flags = Map(
        "dtab.add" -> "/$/inet=>/$/nil;/zk=>/$/nil")
    ) with ThriftClient

  lazy val client: ExampleThrift.MethodPerEndpoint =
    server.thriftClient[ExampleThrift.MethodPerEndpoint](clientId = "client123")

  "ExampleCombinedServer#perform feature") {
      server.httpGet(
        path = "/",
        andExpect = Status.Ok)
        ...
    }

   "ExampleCombinedServer#return data accordingly") {
      await(client.doExample("input")) should equal("output")
    }
  }
}

Sharing a Server Fixture Between Many Feature Tests

There may be times in testing where you want to share an embedded server configuration among different FeatureTests. That is, you want to be able to create and setup the embedded server in the same way (perhaps with minor configuration changes) across many different test files.

One idea might be to define a “base” test trait which extends c.t.inject.server.FeatureTest that your tests can extend.

Creating a “base” trait that defines shared state is a fine strategy. However, when doing so it is generally considered a best practice to not share an instance of an embedded server. That is, issues can arise when this “base” trait overrides and implements the c.t.inject.server.FeatureTest trait def server.

Thus, we recommend to always implement the abstract def server in each actual FeatureTest implementation.

This does not mean that you cannot share a configured embedded server fixture. To do so effectively and efficiently, have the “base” trait define a utility method which allows a FeatureTest implementation to obtain an instance of an embedded server fixture which it can then set as its embedded server for testing.

For example, we could define a “base” testing trait:

import com.twitter.inject.server.FeatureTest
import com.twitter.finatra.http.EmbeddedHttpServer
import scala.collection.immutable.ListMap

trait BaseMyServiceFeatureTest extends FeatureTest {
  protected def foo: Foo
  protected def baz: Baz

  // Note, this merely provides a way for extensions of this trait to
  // get a commonly configurable EmbeddedHttpServer. Or it could define
  // an non-configurable version to ensure every test can use a similarly
  // configured server.
  protected def buildExampleServiceTestServer(
    name: String,
    flags: => Map[String, String] = Map()
  ): EmbeddedHttpServer =
    new EmbeddedHttpServer(new ExampleHttpServer {
      override val name = name
      override val overrideModules = Seq(???)
    },
    globalFlags = ListMap(com.some.globalFlag.disable -> "true"),
    flags = flags
  ).bind[Foo].toInstance(foo)
   .bind[Baz].toInstance(baz)
}

This “base” trait defines a method for obtaining a properly configured embedded server for test implementations to use. Then in tests we could do:

import com.twitter.util.mock.Mockito

class MyServiceFirstFeatureTest extends BaseMyServiceFeatureTest with Mockito {
  override val foo: Foo = mock[Foo]
  override val baz: Baz = mock[Baz]

  // We override and implement the c.t.inject.server.FeatureTest#server as a val in our actual test file
  override val server = buildExampleServiceTestServer(
    "firstFeatureServer",
    Map("aaa.baz" -> "forty-two"))

  test("Feature 1 should do X") {
    ???
  }
}

...

class MyServiceOtherFeatureTest extends BaseMyServiceFeatureTest {
  override val foo: Foo = new DummyFoo()
  override val baz: Baz = new BazStub()

  override val server = buildExampleServiceTestServer(
    "secondFeatureServer"
    Map("aaa.baz" -> "thirty-five"))
  )

  test("Feature 2 should do Y") {
      ???
  }
}

Reasons

Firstly, embedded servers close over specific configuration state (flags and other args) of the server under test. Additionally, many servers are composed of JVM singletons (framework and potentially user-defined) which expect to be the only instance present or running at any given time. That is, there are no guarantees of thread-safety by default.

Thus, you can run into issues with inconsistent state of a shared embedded server fixture due to multiple tests accessing it potentially in parallel. Semantics change depending on your build system and testing framework, but it is generally a good practice to not share a single instance of an embedded server.

Secondly, when the server is defined as a val in a “base” trait from which many tests inherit, the same server can end up being started multiple times – even when you are attempting to run a single test. Why? Some build systems optimize their test runs by first loading all test classes before running a single test file or test case. When this occurs, all test classes will be instantiated and thus any constructor val eagerly loaded. This could therefore start the embedded server val in each test inheriting from the “base” trait and can generally lead to undesirable performance when testing, thus the recommendation to always override the server member of FeatureTest in the actual test file.

Note

Finatra’s testing utilities attempt to start servers lazily but any eager reference to the server’s Injector would trigger the server to start in order to create and return the Injector.

Sharing Test Cases

Note that you could also extend this in the situation where you want to run the same test cases over differently configured instances of the same server. Your “base” trait would similarly provide a method for obtaining a properly configured embedded server for test instances to use as well as implement test cases.

Each subclass implementation would then just cycle through different server configurations, setting that configuration as it’s own server under test.

For example, we could extend our defined “base” testing trait to include test cases:

import com.twitter.finatra.http.EmbeddedHttpServer
import com.twitter.inject.server.FeatureTest
import com.twitter.util.mock.Mockito
import scala.collection.immutable.ListMap

trait BaseMyServiceFeatureTest extends FeatureTest with Mockito {
  protected def foo: Foo = mock[Foo]
  protected def baz: Baz = mock[Baz]

  // provide a way to create a configured server under test
  protected def buildExampleServiceTestServer(
    name: String,
    flags: => Map[String, String] = Map()
  ): EmbeddedHttpServer =
    new EmbeddedHttpServer(new ExampleHttpServer {
      override val name = name
      override val overrideModules = Seq(???)
    },
    globalFlags = ListMap(com.some.globalFlag.disable -> "true"),
    flags = flags
  ).bind[Foo].toInstance(foo)
   .bind[Baz].toInstance(baz)

  // we want all subclasses to run these same tests

  test("Feature 1 should do it's thing") {
    // 'server' is defined as an abstract member in `FeatureTest` thus we can reference it here
    server.httpGet("/feature1", andExpect = Status.Ok)
  }

  test("Feature 2 should do it's thing") {
    server.httpGet("/feature2", andExpect = Status.Ok)
  }

  test("Feature 3 should do it's thing") {
    server.httpGet("/feature3", andExpect = Status.Ok)
  }
}

Then in tests we would do:

class MyServiceFirstFeatureTest extends BaseMyServiceFeatureTest {
  // We override and implement the c.t.inject.server.FeatureTest#server as a val in our actual test file
  override val server = buildExampleServiceTestServer(
    "firstFeatureServer",
    Map("aaa.baz" -> "forty-two"))
}

...

class MyServiceOtherFeatureTest extends BaseMyServiceFeatureTest {
  override val server = buildExampleServiceTestServer(
    "secondFeatureServer"
    Map("aaa.baz" -> "thirty-five"))
  )
}

These subclasses would run the test cases from the superclass but each using their own server configuration.

For more information on mocking, see the Working with Mocks documentation.

Injecting Members of a Test

Warning

Do not inject members of a test class into the server, application or TestInjector object graph under test.

For an explanation of why, see the documentation here.

Examples: