A web server for your tests

Let’s say you’re writing some code that makes http calls. And you’d like to write an integration test to secure your code.

Wait… That’s easy, you’d use the web server I talked to you about yesterday!

import net.codestory.http.*;

public class IntegrationTest {
  @Test
  public test() {
    new WebServer(routes -> routes.get("/uri", "Hello")).start();

    ... Connect to the server on port 8080
  }
}

This piece of code starts an http server that answers Hello World when somebody sends a GET request on port 8080.

If you, like me, tend to run your tests in parallel, starting a web server on port 8080 will be a problem. You’d be tempted to find a free port using some kind of ServerSocket trick. But that’s not completely bulletproof. Just change your code this way and you’re done:

int thePort = new WebServer(routes -> routes
  .get("/uri", "Hello")).startOnRandomPort();

... Connect to the server on port 'thePort'

Under the hood, it chooses a random port, tries to bind it and if there’s a problem, retries with another port. That is bulletproof.

Ok, now what if you expect a json response and not a simple Hello String? Easy as pie bean.

new WebServer(routes -> routes
  .get("/uri", new MyBean())).startOnRandomPort();

MyBean is automatically serialised to json using Jackson.

Now, you have no excuse to not test your code that consumes content from a web server. Oh and I forgot to tell you that the server starts in less than 300ms, so you can use and abuse.