space

Appearance

HTTP client testing ​

We keep both online and offline coverage for HTTP clients so we can validate network behaviour when available while still running fast, deterministic tests in CI and locally without external calls.

  • Online tests hit the real service and are intentionally opt-in (see assets/lua/tests/test-hackernews-online.fnl).
  • Offline tests replay recorded responses from assets/lua/tests/data/*.json through a mock http binding so we still exercise the full client code path, including caching, status handling, and headers.

Recording fixtures ​

assets/lua/tests/http-fixtures.fnl includes record-responses! to capture HTTP replies into JSON fixtures. Example for the Hacker News client:

sh
SPACE_ASSETS_PATH=$(pwd)/assets ./build/space -c '(do
  (local fixtures (require :tests/http-fixtures))
  (fixtures.record-responses!
    [{:key "topstories" :url "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/topstories.json"}
     {:key "item/8863" :url "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/8863.json"}
     {:key "user/dhouston" :url "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/user/dhouston.json"}
     {:key "updates" :url "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/updates.json"}
     {:key "maxitem" :url "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/maxitem.json"}]
    (app.engine.get-asset-path \"lua/tests/data/hackernews-fixture.json\")))'

The helper asserts that the http, fs, and json bindings are present, waits for each response, and writes a single JSON file containing status codes, headers, and bodies. We keep fixtures small and representative so they remain readable in version control.

Replaying fixtures in tests ​

Use install-mock from the same helper to replace _G.http with a replay-only binding:

fennel
(local fixtures (require :tests/http-fixtures))
(local fixture (fixtures.read-json (app.engine.get-asset-path "lua/tests/data/hackernews-fixture.json")))
(local handle (fixtures.install-mock fixture))
;; run client code
(handle.restore) ;; always restore in a finally block

The mock:

  • Matches requests by URL (after stripping .json and the /v0/ prefix) or by explicit key.
  • Returns recorded status, headers, body, and ok flags.
  • Surfaces requests through mock.requests so tests can assert on headers and status codes in addition to parsed bodies.

Hacker News offline coverage ​

assets/lua/tests/test-hackernews-offline.fnl installs the mock, runs the real client against assets/lua/tests/data/hackernews-fixture.json, and asserts:

  • Lists and items parse from the recorded bodies.
  • Status codes and content-type headers survive the replay.
  • Caching is exercised by fetching an item twice and verifying the second hit comes from disk.
  • Updates and maxitem parsing work without network access.

The module is registered in assets/lua/tests/fast.fnl, so the offline tests run with the rest of the suite by default. Refresh fixtures and rerun the suite whenever the client changes its request surface or response expectations.

See also ​