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http-caching-proxy

README.md

@loopback/http-caching-proxy

A caching HTTP proxy for integration tests.

NOT SUITABLE FOR PRODUCTION USE!

Overview

Testing applications connecting to backend REST/SOAP services can be difficult: The backend service may be slow, apply rate limiting, etc. Integration tests become too slow in such case, which makes test-first development impractical.

This can be addressed by setting up a snapshot-based mock server or using a caching HTTP client, but both of these solutions come with severe disadvantages:

  • When using a snapshot-based mock server, we must ensure that snapshots are up-to-date with the actual backend implementation.

  • Caching at HTTP-client side requires non-trivial changes of the application code.

A filesystem-backed caching HTTP proxy offers a neat solution that combines caching and snapshots:

  • The first request is forwarded to the actual backend and the response is stored as a snapshot.
  • Subsequent requests are served by the proxy using the cached snaphost.
  • Snapshot older than a configured time are discarded and the first next request will fetch the real response from the backend.

Installation

npm install --save-dev  @loopback/http-caching-proxy

Basic use

Import the module at the top of your test file.

import {HttpCachingProxy} from '@loopback/http-caching-proxy';

Create a proxy instance during test-suite setup (typically in Mocha's before hook):

const proxy = new HttpCachingProxy({
  // directory where to store recorded snapshots - required
  cachePath: path.resolve(__dirname, '.proxy-cache'),
  // port where to listen - 0 by default
  port: 0,
  // how often to re-validate snapshots (in milliseconds) - one day by default
  ttl: 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000,
});
await proxy.start();

In your tests, configure the client library to use the caching proxy. Below is an example configuration for request:

request = request.defaults({
  proxy: proxy.url,
  // Disable tunneling of HTTPS requests - this is required for HTTPS!
  tunnel: false,
});

Finally, stop the proxy when the test suite is done (typically in Mocha's after hook):

await proxy.stop();

API Documentation

See the auto-generated documentation at loopback.io

Contributions

Tests

Run npm test from the root folder.

Contributors

See all contributors.

License

MIT