Chris Dent 00dd7c24d8 Merge pull request #215 from cdent/json-lhs-expand
Template expansion in LHS of json path test
2017-07-07 14:03:39 +01:00

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JSONPath
========
Gabbi supports JSONPath both for validating JSON response bodies and within
:ref:`substitutions <state-substitution>`.
JSONPath expressions are provided by `jsonpath_rw`_, with
`jsonpath_rw_ext`_ custom extensions to address common requirements:
#. Sorting via ``sorted`` and ``[/property]``.
#. Filtering via ``[?property = value]``.
#. Returning the respective length via ``len``.
(These apply both to arrays and key-value pairs.)
.. highlight:: json
Here is a JSONPath example demonstrating some of these features. Given
JSON data as follows::
{
"pets": [
{"type": "cat", "sound": "meow"},
{"type": "dog", "sound": "woof"}
]
}
.. highlight:: yaml
If the ordering of the list in ``pets`` is predictable and
reliable it is relatively straightforward to test values::
response_json_paths:
# length of list is two
$.pets.`len`: 2
# sound of second item in list is woof
$.pets[1].sound: woof
If the ordering is *not* predictable additional effort is required::
response_json_paths:
# sort by type
$.pets[/type][0].sound: meow
# sort by type, reversed
$.pets[\type][0].sound: woof
# all the sounds
$.pets[/type]..sound: ['meow', 'woof']
# filter by type = dog
$.pets[?type = "dog"].sound: woof
If it is necessary to validate the entire JSON response use a
JSONPath of ``$``::
response_json_paths:
$:
pets:
- type: cat
sound: meow
- type: dog
sound: woof
This is not a technique that should be used frequently as it can
lead to difficult to read tests and it also indicates that your
gabbi tests are being used to test your serializers and data models,
not just your API interactions.
It is also possible to read raw JSON from disk for either all or
some of a JSON response::
response_json_paths:
$: @<data.json
or::
response_json_paths:
$.pets: <@pets.json
$.pets[0]: <@cat.json
Examples like this can be found in one of gabbi's `own tests`_.
There are more JSONPath examples in :doc:`example` and in the
`jsonpath_rw`_ and `jsonpath_rw_ext`_ documentation.
.. _json-subs:
Substitution
------------
:ref:`Substitutions <state-substitution>` can be made in both the
left (query) and right (expected) hand sides of the json path
expression. When subtitutions are used in the query, care must be
taken to ensure proper quoting of the resulting value. For example
if there is a uuid (with hyphens) at ``$RESPONSE['$.id']`` then this
expression may fail::
$.nested.structure.$RESPONSE['$.id'].name: foobar
as it will evaluate to something like::
$.nested.structure.ADC8AAFC-D564-40D1-9724-7680D3C010C2.name: foobar
which may be treated as an arithemtic expression by the json path
parser. The test author should write::
$.nested.structure["$RESPONSE['$.id']"].name: foobar
to quote the result of the substitution.
.. _jsonpath_rw: http://jsonpath-rw.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
.. _jsonpath_rw_ext: https://python-jsonpath-rw-ext.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
.. _own tests: https://github.com/cdent/gabbi/blob/master/gabbi/tests/gabbits_intercept/data.yaml