Drop-in, zero-config HTTP record & replay for AVA!
Install with npm:
$ npm install ava-nock --save-devInstall with Yarn:
$ yarn add ava-nock --dev- It just works: call the setup function and you’re good to go, requiring no changes to your tests.
- Strict isolation of HTTP calls per test so you can be certain of exactly what each test does.
- Recorded fixtures can filter out sensitive values like API keys, auth tokens, passwords, etc.
- Compatible with any HTTP client.
There are generally two approaches to mocking HTTP requests when we don’t control or can’t manually mock the code that makes the request: either use a proxy to fulfill requests (this requires starting a server and being able to change your request code to point to it), or intercept the host language’s underlying code for sending requests. Libraries like yakbak use the former, while libraries like VCR, Nock, and Sepia use the latter. As the name implies, ava-nock uses Nock.
Likewise, there are multiple levels of granularity at which to capture requests. One approach is to generate a hash for each request and serve the same response any time a matching request is made throughout the entire test suite. Another approach is to isolate the specific requests made in each test. This library currently uses the latter approach, so that each test’s requests are completely isolated from one another.
Import and run the setupTests() function in any test files that make network
requests. This function will add beforeEach, afterEach, and
afterEach.always hooks that manage Nock fixtures for you.
import test from 'ava';
import fetch from 'isomorphic-fetch';
import { setupTests } from 'ava-nock';
setupTests();
test('using fetch to get JSON', async (t) => {
const response = await fetch(
'https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist/c8da2e40-bd28-4d4e-813a-bd2f51958ba8?fmt=json'
);
const data = await response.json();
t.is(data.name, 'Lures');
});Fixtures behave similarly to AVA snapshots: they are stored in a .nock file
alongside snapshots, named after the test file that generated them. Within each
fixture, each test’s requests and responses are stored for later playback.
Note that due to the way Nock works by globally intercepting requests to the
http and https modules, each test in a file that calls setupTests() will
effectively be run serially – otherwise there is no way to isolate requests
per-test. The beforeEach hook will enforce this for you automatically.
Parallel tests running in different processes are not affected.
You can control ava-nock’s behavior using the NOCK_MODE environment variable.
| NOCK_MODE | Network requests? | Read fixtures? | Write fixtures? |
|---|---|---|---|
| live | ☑️ | ||
| preview | ☑️ | ☑️ | |
| record | ☑️ | ☑️ | |
| cache | ☑️ | ☑️ | ☑️ |
| play | ☑️ |
- live will disable replay and recording completely. All requests will hit the network like normal.
- preview will replay existing fixtures and send any other requests over the network without recording them. This is useful if you are writing new tests and want to make sure they pass before recording them.
- record will ignore existing fixtures and record new ones. All requests will hit the network and be recorded. When you update the requests made in a test, you should re-record its fixtures.
- cache will replay existing fixtures and record any other requests from the network. This is useful if you have written new tests and verified that they are correct and ready to be recorded.
- play will replay existing fixtures and never hit the network. Any requests that do not have a fixture will result in an error. This is the default behavior. It is useful if you are done writing tests and want to verify that they all pass. Use this mode in CI environments.
ava-nock can be configured using either an ava-nock field in your package.json
file, or by importing and calling configure().
When Nock outputs a response, it is normally minimally altered from how it
arrived. If the response is compressed, Nock will output an array of encoded
buffers. By default, ava-nock will instead attempt to decode responses encoded
with gzip, deflate, and br so that fixtures are more easily inspectable.
If successful, the relevant Content-Encoding header will also be removed from
the saved fixture so that clients don’t attempt to decode it again.
Set this to false to leave responses encoded.
The directory relative to each test file in which to store Nock fixtures. The
output structure mirrors how AVA’s snapshots work: if your test file is at
src/file.test.js, and this is set to fixtures, the fixture file will be
src/fixtures/file.test.js.nock.
If unset, it will use same directory as snapshots via AVA’s
meta.snapshotDirectory value if available, or a default value of snapshots
otherwise.
An object mapping header names to replacement functions or arrays of arguments
to pass to .replace() on the header value. The transformation will be applied
to outgoing fixtures for both the request headers and response headers. This
means that the filtered response headers will be used when the test is replayed,
so you should ensure that no part of your test depends on the filtered value of
the headers; otherwise, your test could pass when being recorded and fail when
played back, or vice versa.
If the replacement result is an empty string or null, the header will be removed from the fixture entirely.
{
headerFilter: {
authorization: ['^(Bearer|Basic) .+$', '$1 <secret>'];
}
}A function or array of arguments to pass to Nock’s filteringPath method on
each scope. The transformation will be applied to both incoming request paths
and outgoing fixture paths.
For example, the following value will cause any saved fixtures to have
secretKey query parameters replaced with secretKey=<secret>, and will
likewise cause any requests with a secretKey value to match against it. The
replacement value (<secret> in this example) is not meaningful, it can be any
value you deem suitable to store in your fixtures. The requests themselves will
be sent with their original, unaltered secretKey – but it will be censored in
the fixture. This way you can use sensitive values in your requests but keep
them out of source control.
{
pathFilter: ['([?&]secretKey=)([^&#]+)', '$1<secret>'];
}A function or array of arguments to pass to Nock’s filteringRequestBody method
on each scope. The transformation will be applied to both incoming request
bodies and outgoing fixture bodies.
Note that it’s possible for Nock to output the request body as something other
than a string; for example, if it detects that it’s a JSON object. In this case,
ava-nock will call JSON.stringify on it first so that filteringRequestBody
always receives a string.
A function or array of arguments to pass to .replace() on the response body
string. The transformation will be applied to outgoing fixture responses,
meaning that the filtered response body will be used when the test is replayed.
This means you should ensure that no part of your test depends on the filtered
part of the response; otherwise, your test could pass when being recorded and
fail when played back, or vice versa.
Note that it’s possible for Nock to output the response body as something other
than a string; for example, if the response is still encoded, or if it detects
that it’s a JSON object. In this case, ava-nock will call JSON.stringify on it
first.
