Alexa Mime

Create test suites for your Alexa Skills and Google Actions in YML structured files

Installation

Install it from npm

$ npm install --save-dev alexa-mime

Usage

Alexa Mime relies on the Alexa Skill Test Framework to run all your unit tests, if you want to understand a little bit further on how Alexa Mime works internally, please check the documentation of Alexa Skill Test Framework.

The describeWrapper object

Alexa Mime lets you wrap all your mock statements in a Javascript object that is available for all your test cases. There you can mock all the things you need for your tests to work properly. A basic example of a describeWrapper would be (using the simple-mock library):

const simple = require('simple-mock');
const User = require('../path/to/UserClass');
 
const describeWrapper = {
  clear: () => {
    simple.restore();
  },
  firstTimeUser: () => {
    // Your mock statements here
    simple.mock(User.prototype, 'isFirstTime').returnWith(true);
  },
};

You can define as many properties as you want in the describeWrapper object, then you can use them in the beforeEach and afterEach hooks in your YML files.

Use cases (YML files)

Once you have your describeWrapper, is time to create your actual unit tests in YML structure files. A basic example of a use case in a YML form would be:

User launches the skill for the first time as a new user:
  - beforeEach: 'firstTimeUser'
  - afterEach: 'clear'
  - LaunchIntent:
      alexaResponse: Begin.FirstTime

Note how the firstTimeUser property is being injected in the beforeEach key, and same for clear injected in afterEach, Alexa Mime will take care of executing whatever you define in your describeWrapper so your tests run without issues.

Hooking it up

const mime = require('alexa-mime');
const simple = require('simple-mock');
const path = require('path');
const skill = require('../path/to/skill/handler/index'); 
const views = require('../path/to/views/index'); 
const User = require('../path/to/UserClass');
 
const describeWrapper = {
  clear: () => {
    simple.restore();
  },
  firstTimeUser: () => {
    // Your mock statements here
    simple.mock(User.prototype, 'isFirstTime').returnWith(true);
  },
};
 
mime(
  skill,
  views,
  path.join(__dirname, 'use-cases'),
  path.join(__dirname, '..', 'simulate'),
  describeWrapper
);

Options

• skill: Object containing your skill's/action's handler method. It must define a method called handler which runs the skill
• views: Object representation of all the responses that your skill/action contains and that your tests expect for certain use case. For more info, see the Views and Variables section here
• pathToYAMLTest: Path to the folder where all your YML files are located
• pathToSaveHTML: Alexa Mime will generate a HTML report file with all your test cases and result of rach (error or success). Here you can specify the path where Alexa Mime will save the report.
• describeWrapper: Your describeWrapper object
• locale: The locale that your skill/action runs in. By default Alexa Mime uses en-US but you can specify any valid locale based on the platform you are using (Alexa or Google Assistant).

Going deeper

Define multiple beforeEach statements in your YML files

User launches the skill for the first time as a new user:
  - beforeEach: 'globalMock, firstTimeUser'
  - afterEach: 'clear'
  - LaunchIntent:
      alexaResponse: Begin.FirstTime

Define a different locale for your test cases

This example uses a views object of Voxa3

// ...
 
const mime = require('alexa-mime');
const locale = 'en-AU';
 
// ...
 
mime(
  skill,
  views[locale].translation,
  path.join(__dirname, 'use-cases'),
  path.join(__dirname, '..', 'simulate'),
  describeWrapper,
  locale
);

Complex YML files

User launches the skill as an expert, receives welcome message, invokes BookCarIntent with carName slot, car is booked successfully, the session ends:
  - beforeEach: 'expertUser'
  - afterEach: 'clear'
  - LaunchIntent:
      alexaVariable:
        greeting: 'Hey'
      alexaResponse: Begin.Expert
  - BookCarIntent:
      slots:
        carName: 'Karen The Yaris'
      alexaVariable:
        goodbye: 'See you soon.'
      alexaResponse: BookCar.Done
      shouldEndSession: true

YML files can contain these properties:

• beforeEach: You define this in your describeWrapper and runs before each test case
• afterEach: You define this in your describeWrapper and runs after each test case
• intent: The name of the intent you want your test case to cover. Note that multiple intents can be tested in the same use case
  • slots: Name and value of any slot that your intent expects. You can specify multiple slots, one slot per line
  • alexaVariable: Name and value of the variable that your view (alexaResponse) uses. You can specify multiple variables, one variable per line
  • alexaResponse: Name/Path of the actual view/response your test case expects for this request or use case. You can specify multiple views/responses, in the same line separated by comma
  • shouldEndSession: Boolean value specifying if session is closed after the test case runs