HTTP Test Server

The http-test-server module provides a simple HTTP test server. It is designed to help developers test HTTP clients by simulating various server behaviors and responses. The server supports different routes that can trigger specific behaviors such as silent rejections, timeouts, and large file responses. It also includes error handling and logging features to assist in debugging and testing.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
  • Using the HTTPTestServer Class
  • Using the HTTP Test Server Start-Up Facility
• HTTP Test Server Routes (URLs)
• Modifying the Defaults
• HTTP Test Server States
• The HTTPTestServer Class
  • Static Properties
  • Instance Properties
  • Instance Methods
• Testing
• Contributing
• License

Installation

You can install this module via npm:

npm install @jfabello/http-test-server

Usage

To use the http-test-server module, you can import it into your code and then create an instance of the HTTPTestServer class, or you can use the HTTP Test Server start-up facility.

Using the HTTPTestServer Class

const httpTestServer = require("@jfabello/http-test-server");

async function someAsyncFunction() {
	// Create a new HTTP Test Server instance
	let httpServerInstance = new HTTPTestServer({ serverHost: "127.0.0.1", serverPort: 8080 });

	// Start the server
	try {
		await httpServerInstance.start();
	} catch (error) {
		console.error("Error starting HTTP Test Server: ", error);
	}
}

someAsyncFunction();

After the HTTP Test Server starts, you can stop it by calling the stop() method or by requesting the /stop route.

Using the HTTP Test Server Start-Up Facility

First, clone the HTTP Test Server repository with the following command:

git clone https://github.com/jfabello/http-test-server.git

Then, navigate to the project directory and install the npm dependencies:

cd http-test-server
npm install

Finally, start the HTTP Test Server using the following command:

npm start

You can stop the server by requesting the /stop route.

HTTP Test Server Routes (URLs)

The HTTP Test Server provides several routes to test different server behaviors and responses. The following is a list of the available routes:

/silentrejection

This route immediately destroys the connection without sending any response to the client. It is useful for testing how clients handle abrupt disconnections.

/silenttimeout

This route sets a timer to destroy the connection after a specified timeout period without sending any response. It helps in testing client behavior when the server becomes unresponsive. The default timeout is 1 second.

/noisyrejection

This route sends periodic chunks of data to the client and then destroys the connection. It is designed to test how clients handle incomplete data streams and abrupt disconnections. The default is to send chunks every 10 milliseconds and destroy the connection after 100 milliseconds.

/noisytimeout

This route sends periodic chunks of data to the client and then destroys the request after a specified timeout period. It is useful for testing client behavior when the server becomes unresponsive after partially sending data. The default is to send chunks every 10 milliseconds and stop after 100 milliseconds, meanwhile a timeout of 1 second was set when the server started responding, when this timer expires the connection is destroyed.

/bigrandomfile

This route sends a large file with random data as the response. It is useful for testing how clients handle large file downloads and manage memory during the process. The default file size is 500 MB.

/checkpattern

This route checks if the request body matches a predefined pattern. If the pattern matches, it sends the pattern back; otherwise, it sends a 400 HTTP status code. It is useful for testing if the client is sending the correct HTTP request method, the correct Content-Type header, and handling binary data correctly. The default pattern is the string "This is a pattern!" (without the double quotes) in UTF-8 encoding repeated until it fills a 2 MB binary buffer. Please note that the buffer size is 2 MB as in 2 * 1000 * 1000 bytes.

This route requires that the HTTP request method is set to POST, and the Content-Type header is set to application/octet-stream.

/checkstring

This route checks if the request body matches a predefined string pattern. If the string matches, it sends the pattern back; otherwise, it sends a 400 HTTP status code. It is useful for testing if the client is handling plain text data correctly. The default pattern is the string "This is a pattern!" in UTF-8 encoding repeated 10,000 times.

This route requires that the HTTP request method is set to POST, and the Content-Type header is set to text/plain.

/checkjson

This route checks if the request body matches a predefined JSON object. If the JSON object matches, it sends the object back, perhaps with properties in a different order; otherwise, it sends a 400 HTTP status code. It is useful for testing if the client is handling and converting JSON data correctly.

This is the default JSON object:

{
	"firstName": "John",
	"lastName": "Doe",
	"age": 25,
	"address": {
		"street": "Somewhere",
		"city": "Anytown",
		"state": "CA",
		"zip": 12345
	},
	"isActive": true
}

This route requires that the HTTP request method is set to POST, and the Content-Type header is set to application/json.

/silentresponse

This route sends a 204 No Content HTTP status code response to the client. It is useful for testing how clients handle responses with no content.

/stop

This route sends an HTML page indicating that the server is stopping and then stops the server. It is useful for gracefully shutting down the server after tests are performed.

/ or any other route

This route sends an HTML welcome page as the response. It serves as the default route and can be used to verify that the server is running and accessible.

Modifying the Defaults

To modify the values that the HTTP Test Server uses as defaults, modify the defaults.js file in the src directory.

HTTP Test Server States

The HTTPTestServer class provides the following states:

stateDiagram-v2
	[*] --> CREATED : new HTTPTestServer(...)
	CREATED --> STARTING : start()
	STARTING --> LISTENING: start() resolves
	STARTING --> CREATED: start() rejects
	LISTENING --> STOPPING : close()
	STOPPING --> STOPPED : close() resolves
	STOPPING --> LISTENING : close() rejects

The HTTPTestServer Class

Static Properties

• CREATED: Read-only property representing the CREATED server state.
• STARTING: Read-only property representing the STARTING server state.
• STARTED: Read-only property representing the STARTED server state.
• STOPPING: Read-only property representing the STOPPING server state.
• STOPPED: Read-only property representing the STOPPED server state.
• errors: Read-only property that contains the HTTP Test Server error classes as properties.

Instance Properties

• state: The state of the HTTP Test Server instance.
• serverPort: The port of the HTTP Test Server instance.

Instance Methods

constructor()

Creates a new instance of the HTTP Test Server.

Parameters

• options: The HTTP Test Server configuration options object (optional).
  • serverHost: The HTTP Test Server host. The default is 127.0.0.1.
  • serverPort: The HTTP Test Server port. The default is 8080.

Throws

• ERROR_HTTP_TEST_SERVER_HOST_TYPE_INVALID: If the HTTP Test Server host argument type is not a string.
• ERROR_HTTP_TEST_SERVER_HOST_INVALID: If the HTTP Test Server host argument is not an IPv4 address, a hostname, or a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
• ERROR_HTTP_TEST_SERVER_PORT_TYPE_INVALID: If the HTTP Test Server port argument is not an integer.
• ERROR_HTTP_TEST_SERVER_PORT_OUT_OF_BOUNDS: If the HTTP Test Server port argument is not between 0 and 65535.

start()

Starts the HTTP Test Server instance. If the server is in the STARTING or LISTENING states, it returns the existing promise.

Returns

A promise that resolves to HTTPTestServer.LISTENING if the HTTP Test Server starts successfully, or rejects to an error if the HTTP Test Server start fails.

Throws

• ERROR_HTTP_TEST_SERVER_NOT_IN_STARTABLE_STATE: If the HTTP Test Server is not in a state where it is possible to start it up.

This instance method can also throw a POSIX error if the server fails to start.

stop()

Stops the HTTP Test Server instance. If the server is already in the STOPPING or STOPPED states, it returns the existing stop promise.

Returns

A promise that resolves to HTTPTestServer.STOPPED if the HTTP Test Server stops successfully, or rejects to an error if the HTTP Test Server stop fails.

Throws

• ERROR_HTTP_TEST_SERVER_NOT_IN_STOPPABLE_STATE: If the HTTP Test Server is not in a state where it is possible to stop it.

This instance method can also throw a POSIX error if the server fails to stop.

Testing

To run the tests for this module, first clone the repository using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/jfabello/http-test-server.git

Then, navigate to the project directory and install the npm dependencies, this will install the Jest testing framework:

cd http-test-server
npm install

Finally, run the tests using the following command:

npm test

Contributing

Unfortunately, we are not able to accept contributions at this time.

If you find a bug in the code, please open an issue.

Thank you for your understanding.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.