C#•4y ago

Integration testing a web API [Answered]

Just for the sake of the learning experience, I wanna write some integration tests for the endpoints in my web API. What's the typical way of doing this? Do you have to use some kind of

HttpClient

HttpClient

setup to call the API as if using HTTP or is there some better way of just testing the endpoints individually? For context, all of my endpoints return

Task<IResult>

Task<IResult>

Task<IResult>

Task<IResult>, so I (probably) can't just test the direct return value of each endpoint method.

pox•9/4/22, 5:37 PM

Do you want to test the Http calls? Or do you just want to test the logic of the endpoint?
We do both, we start up a testhost and do http calls at it. We also allow you to replace instances with mocks if you want to not have any external calls etc. You can also just create a Controller with all the dependencies and use the functions directly

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 5:39 PM

Test the logic of the endpoint

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 5:39 PM

I don't think I care about testing the HTTP calls...?

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 5:49 PM

I suppose I can do something like

var result = await Endpoints.GetSomethingAsync();
var ok = Assert.IsType<OkObjectResult>(result);
Assert.Equal(StatusCodes.Status200OK, ok.StatusCode);
Assert.Equal(expected, ok.Value);

var result = await Endpoints.GetSomethingAsync();
var ok = Assert.IsType<OkObjectResult>(result);
Assert.Equal(StatusCodes.Status200OK, ok.StatusCode);
Assert.Equal(expected, ok.Value);

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 5:52 PM

Seems like otherwise you need to test the entire pipeline with WebApplicationFactoryWebApplicationFactory

pox•9/4/22, 6:06 PM

Yeah

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:06 PM

That's... annoying

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:12 PM

Is there at least some way to not have to write the endpoint route and instead have it be inferred from the method?

pox•9/4/22, 6:17 PM

We generate a client from the openapi spec that has models and routes etc, might be very overkill

pox•9/4/22, 6:18 PM

I've seen ppl make consts and helper methods for setting and calling the routes

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:21 PM

... you can't access Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.Result.OkObjectResultMicrosoft.AspNetCore.Http.Result.OkObjectResult???

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:21 PM

why tf

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:21 PM

Why do you need to do so much stuff to write some tests catlost

pox•9/4/22, 6:25 PM

Most stuff you need to setup once, then the actual tests are small

pox•9/4/22, 6:25 PM

Are you doing the httpclient route?

Patrick•9/4/22, 6:25 PM

i don't know what you're actually trying to achieving by testing this

Patrick•9/4/22, 6:26 PM

all you seem to be doing is testing asp.net core

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:26 PM

I wanna test my endpoint methods?

Patrick•9/4/22, 6:26 PM

what's the goal of the test

pox•9/4/22, 6:26 PM

Test the endpoint methods

Patrick•9/4/22, 6:26 PM

that's not a goal

Patrick•9/4/22, 6:26 PM

that's an activity

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:26 PM

... testing that they do the correct thing

Starlk•9/4/22, 6:26 PM

to see if they work as expected?

Patrick•9/4/22, 6:27 PM

people writing pointless tests lead to maintaining absolutely worthless code, if you're doing this for experience learn what makes a good test

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:27 PM

wow, thanks catpog

Patrick•9/4/22, 6:28 PM

not sure if sarcasm, the point being most people end up preaching 100% code coverage and end up spamming tests which have little worth in the bigger picture of actually maintaining a project

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:30 PM

Well what should I be doing then? I wanna learn how to write tests for stuff, because that's what I've seen other people do.

pox•9/4/22, 6:30 PM

Agreed, doing tests for testing sake is bad

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:30 PM

I can absolutely see that

Patrick•9/4/22, 6:30 PM

that depends on the project - imitating unit tests just because you've seen them defeats the purpose of unit tests

pox•9/4/22, 6:31 PM

But we tend to unit test logic heavy code and do some integration tests for the "code clue"

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:31 PM

This is literally my first web API project and it's ridiculously small, really I don't need tests but I thought it'd be a good opportunity to learn anyway

Patrick•9/4/22, 6:32 PM

ok but you've built the API to do something, yes?

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:32 PM

Yes

Patrick•9/4/22, 6:32 PM

and you'd have an idea of who would consume the API?

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:32 PM

Yes

Patrick•9/4/22, 6:32 PM

the integration tests should be modelled around that - "as a user of this API, when I do X I should get Y and be able to do Z"

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:33 PM

Okay so I shouldn't be testing the individual endpoint methods but rather the HTTP routes?

Patrick•9/4/22, 6:34 PM

ive come in with a little less context to be honest, but if you're going for an integration test that sounds more like what you should be doing

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 6:37 PM

Right

TThinker Seems like otherwise you need to test the entire pipeline with `WebApplicationFa...

Mayor McCheese•9/4/22, 7:12 PM

I usually do both tbh

Mayor McCheese•9/4/22, 7:26 PM

My primary motivations for web application factory tests is to test I get 401s back

Mayor McCheese•9/4/22, 7:27 PM

This can still be done with controller tests in a manner

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 7:32 PM

Okay so I'm getting an exception System.InvalidOperationException : The server has not been started or no web application was configured.System.InvalidOperationException : The server has not been started or no web application was configured. when calling WebApplicationFactory<TEntryPoint>.CreateClient()WebApplicationFactory<TEntryPoint>.CreateClient()

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 7:32 PM

why is this so damn hard catlost

pox•9/4/22, 7:36 PM

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/test/integration-tests?view=aspnetcore-6.0

Integration tests in ASP.NET Core

Learn how integration tests ensure that an app's components function correctly at the infrastructure level, including the database, file system, and network.

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 7:36 PM

That's the article I'm reading

ThinkerOP•9/4/22, 7:40 PM

Okay now it works when just using the first example of var application = new WebApplicationFactory<Program>()var application = new WebApplicationFactory<Program>()

pox•9/4/22, 7:40 PM

ingame currently so cant look

Integration testing a web API [Answered]

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