protractor-http-client

HTTP Client library to use in protractor tests

What this library is about

Are you using protractor ? me too, and it's awesome! This library is a little utility that allows you to make any HTTP call (GET, PUT, POST, ...) , leveraging the powerful request library.

This library allows you to call HTTP services before, after or during interactions within the browser.

Why is it useful?

for example, for setting up test data via REST API before a test is run, or cleaning up after a test has finished running.

It won't be easy to do the same with plain 'http' or 'request' module, as you will have to wait for the HTTP call promise to complete, before using the protractor browser calls.

Instead, you have to just call e.g.

http.post("/database/users", {
    username: "marco", password: "bigsecret"
})
browser.get("/login") // this will wait for the previous call to finish
// initiate login with "marco" user

and the subsequent calls to protractor API will wait until the previous call finishes.

Requirements

• Protractor 3+ (tested with 3.3.0 and 4.0.14)
• Node 4.2+

Usage

If using Javascript specs

const HttpClient = require("protractor-http-client").HttpClient

If using Typescript specs

import {HttpClient} from "protractor-http-client"

const http = new HttpClient("https://example.com/")
 
// HTTP GET
const userGetResponse:ResponsePromise = http.get("/users/marco");
// HTTP POST with JSON, automatically sets Content-Type: application/json
http.post("/users", {
    username: "marco", password: "bigsecret"
}));
// HTTP POST, with form data and custom content type
http.post("/form", "param1=value1&param2=value2", {
    "Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
}));
// make HTTP calls fail and throw an exception when response code is not 2xx
// default behavior is to continue on any HTTP status code
http.failOnError = true

You have get, post, put, delete methods available. get and delete methods do NOT accept request body. For more complex requests, use the request method shown below.

Passing complex request options

You can pass any options accepted by the request library, by passing an object to the request method

let options = { .... }
http.request(options)

Helper methods on response to check status and body

let response:ResponsePromise = http.get("/users/marco")
let jsonResponse:JsonPromise = response.jsonBody
let stringBody:Promise<string> = response.stringBody
let rawBody:Promise<Buffer> = response.body
 
let jsonPropertyValue:JsonPromise = response.jsonBody.get("propertyName")
 
expect(response.statusCode).toEqual(200)
expect(response.header("Content-Type")).toEqual("application/json")
expect(response.stringBody).toEqual('{"username":"marco","password":"bigsecret"}')
expect(response.jsonBody.get("username")).toEqual("marco")

Example spec with API setup

describe("the login page", () => {
    beforeEach(() => {
        // create a user
        const postResponse = http.post("/users", {
            username: "marco", password: "bigsecret"
        });
        expect(postResponse.statusCode).toEqual(200)
    })
    afterEach(() => {
        // delete user
        const deleteResponse = http.delete("/users/marco");
        expect(deleteResponse.statusCode).toEqual(200)
    })
 
    it("will allow login with new user", () => {
        // now you can use the browser to login with the new user
        browser.get("/login");
        element(by.id("username")).sendKeys("marco")
        element(by.id("password")).sendKeys("bigsecret")
        element(by.id("login-button")).click()
        // expectations here
    })
})