Introduction

Targets

Preacher aims to automate tests using real backends: neither mocks nor sandboxes. Supporting both automation and real backends has been challenging.

Preacher prefers:

  • Be declarative

    • To keep test cases readable, coding should be avoided.

  • Be flexible

    • Real backends causes fuzzy behavior. Matcher-based validation allow fuzziness caused by real backends.

  • Be CI friendly

    • CI tools are basic automation ways. CLI applications and file-based test scenarios are suitable for CI.

  • Be suitable for Simple GET requests

    • Testing with real backends often targets data fetching rather than HTTP interactions such as authorization. Development for complex HTTP interactions is less priored.

Comparison to similar tools

  • Postman gives rich insights on Web APIs. On the other hand, test cases are written in JavaScript, which is very flexible but not declarative. Additionally, the continuous automation is complicated and overdoing: writing test codes in Postman GUI, exporting and running them by Newman.

  • Tavern is more suitable for testing HTTP interactions. It seems to be more suitable for testing simple systems or testing without real backends than Preacher because of simple validators.

License

Preacher is released under terms of MIT License.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2019 Yu Mochizuki

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.