in-process-request

A node.js library that executes a http handler function in the current process without having to start a local http server.

It supports the following frameworks

• Express.js v3
• Express.js v4
• Express.js v5
• Apollo Server v2
• Apollo Server v3
• Hapi v19
• Hapi v20
• NestJS v7
• Connect v3
• Koa v2
• Polka
• Fastify v3
• More to come...

It has been tested with the following node versions

• v10
• v12
• v14
• v15

Usage

$ npm install in-process-request

const inProcessRequest = require('in-process-request');

const handler = inProcessRequest(app);
handler(requestOptions)
  .then((response) => {
    console.log(response);
    // do something with the response
  });

requestOptions is an object with the following properties

• path (mandatory) - The request path with optional query string, for example '/my/resource/123?full=true'
• method - request method, the default is 'GET'
• body - request body, string or Buffer
• headers - request headers object, for example: {'conent-type': 'application/json'}
• remoteAddress - IP address of the client making the request
• remotePort - IP port of the client connection
• ssl - Set to true to pretend that SSL connection is used. Defaults to false

response is an object with the following properties

• statusCode - status code of the response
• statusMessage - status message of the response
• headers - object with response headers
• body - Buffer containing the body
• isUTF8 - set to true if the response is a utf-8 string. In that case response.body.toString() can be used to extract the utf-8 string

Express.js example

const inProcessRequest = require('in-process-request')
const express = require('express');

const myApp = express();
myApp.get('/test', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ok: true, a: req.query.a});
});

const myAppHandler = inProcessRequest(myApp);

const requestOptions = {
  path: '/test',
  method: 'GET',
}

myAppHandler(requestOptions).then(response => {
  console.log('Body', response.body);
  console.log('Headers', response.headers);
  console.log('Status Code', response.statusCode);
  console.log('Status Message', response.statusMessage);
  console.log('Is UTF8 body?', response.isUTF8);
})

Koa example

const inProcessRequest = require('in-process-request')
const Koa = require('koa');
const serve = require('koa-static');
const mount = require('koa-mount');
const Router = require('koa-router');

const koa = new Koa();

const router = new Router();

router.get('/test', ctx => {
  ctx.body = "Hello"
});

koa.use(router.routes());

// koa.callback() returns the requestListener functions
const myApp = koa.callback();

const myAppHandler = inProcessRequest(myApp);

const requestOptions = {
  path: '/test',
  method: 'GET',
}

myAppHandler(requestOptions).then(response => {
  console.log('Body', response.body);
  console.log('Headers', response.headers);
  console.log('Status Code', response.statusCode);
  console.log('Status Message', response.statusMessage);
  console.log('Is UTF8 body?', response.isUTF8);
})

Hapi example

In order to get access to the requestListener function in Hapi we need to use custom listener object. The in-process-request module comes with a helper class HapiListener that makes it easy. An instance of this class is used as the listener and the handler property of that instance provides the request listener function.

const inProcessRequest = require('in-process-request')
const Hapi = require('@hapi/hapi');

// create custom listener for Hapi
const myListener = new inProcessRequest.HapiListener()

// Pass the custom listener to Hapi.server
const server = Hapi.server({
  listener: myListener
});

server.route({
  method: 'GET',
  path: '/',
  handler: (_request: any, _h: any) => {
      return 'Hello World!';
  }
});

const waitForServer = async () => {
  //wait for the server to initialize
  await server.start()
  // return the request listener function
  return myListener.handler
}

waitForServer().then((myApp) => {
  // The server is initialized and we have access to the request handler - myApp
  const myAppHandler = inProcessRequest(myApp);

  const requestOptions = {
    path: '/',
    method: 'GET',
  }

  myAppHandler(requestOptions).then(response => {
    console.log('Body', response.body);
    console.log('Headers', response.headers);
    console.log('Status Code', response.statusCode);
    console.log('Status Message', response.statusMessage);
    console.log('Is UTF8 body?', response.isUTF8);
  })
})

NestJS example

This library provides a handy adapter for retrieving the underlying Express instance, which is needed for using this library to send requests to NestJS app.

import inProcessRequest from 'in-process-request'

import { NestFactory } from '@nestjs/core';
import { Module, Get, Controller } from '@nestjs/common';
import { NestExpressApplication } from '@nestjs/platform-express';

@Controller()
class AppController {
  @Get()
  render() {
    return { hello: 'world' };
  }
}

@Module({
  imports: [],
  controllers: [AppController],
})
class AppModule {}

const getApp = async () => {
  const app = await NestFactory.create<NestExpressApplication>(AppModule);

  return await inProcessRequest.nestHandler(app);
}

getApp().then((myApp) => {
  // The server is initialized and we have access to the request handler - myApp
  const myAppHandler = inProcessRequest(myApp);

  const requestOptions = {
    path: '/',
    method: 'GET',
  }

  myAppHandler(requestOptions).then(response => {
    console.log('Body', response.body);
    console.log('Headers', response.headers);
    console.log('Status Code', response.statusCode);
    console.log('Status Message', response.statusMessage);
    console.log('Is UTF8 body?', response.isUTF8);
  })
})

Fastify example

This library provides an adapter for retrieving the underlying NodeJS server handler

const fastify = require('fastify');
const inProcessRequest = require('in-process-request')

const build = (options) => {
  const app = fastify(options)
  app.get('/', async (_request, reply) => {
    return { hello: 'world' }
  })

  return app;
}

const fastifyOpts = {logger: false};
inProcessRequest.fastifyHandler(build)(fastifyOpts).then((myApp) => {
  // The server is initialized and we have access to the request handler - myApp
  const myAppHandler = inProcessRequest(myApp);

  const requestOptions = {
    path: '/',
    method: 'GET',
  }

  myAppHandler(requestOptions).then(response => {
    console.log('Body', response.body);
    console.log('Headers', response.headers);
    console.log('Status Code', response.statusCode);
    console.log('Status Message', response.statusMessage);
    console.log('Is UTF8 body?', response.isUTF8);
  })
})

Polka example

const inProcessRequest = require('in-process-request')
const polka = require('polka');

const myApp = polka();
myApp.get('/test', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ok: true, a: req.query.a});
});

const myAppHandler = inProcessRequest(myApp.handler.bind(myApp));

const requestOptions = {
  path: '/test',
  method: 'GET',
}

myAppHandler(requestOptions).then(response => {
  console.log('Body', response.body);
  console.log('Headers', response.headers);
  console.log('Status Code', response.statusCode);
  console.log('Status Message', response.statusMessage);
  console.log('Is UTF8 body?', response.isUTF8);
})

Usage in integration tests

Mocha / Chai

const { expect } = require('chai');
const inProcessRequest = require('in-process-request')
const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.get('/test', (req, res) => {
  res.set('X-Hello', 'world');
  res.json({ok: true, a: req.query.a})
});

describe('handler', () => {
  it('responds with 200, custom header and query param in JSON body', () => {
    const reqOptions = {
      path: '/test?a=xyz',
      method: 'GET',
    }
    return inProcessRequest(app)(reqOptions).then(response => {
      const json = JSON.parse(response.body.toString())
      expect(json).to.deep.equal({ok: true, a: 'xyz'});
      expect(response.headers['x-hello']).to.equal('world');
      expect(response.statusCode).to.equal(200);
      expect(response.isUTF8).to.be.true;
    });
  });

  it('responds with 200, custom header and query param in JSON body', (done) => {
    const reqOptions = {
      path: '/test?a=xyz',
      method: 'GET',
    }
    inProcessRequest(app)(reqOptions).then(response => {
      const json = JSON.parse(response.body.toString())
      expect(json).to.deep.equal({ok: true, a: 'xyz'});
      expect(response.headers['x-hello']).to.equal('world');
      expect(response.statusCode).to.equal(200);
      expect(response.isUTF8).to.be.true;
      done();
    });
  });

})

Jest

const inProcessRequest = require('in-process-request')
const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.get('/test', (req, res) => {
  res.set('X-Hello', 'world');
  res.json({ok: true, a: req.query.a})
});

describe('handler', () => {
  it('responds with 200, custom header and query param in JSON body', () => {
    const reqOptions = {
      path: '/test?a=xyz',
      method: 'GET',
    }
    return inProcessRequest(app)(reqOptions).then(response => {
      const json = JSON.parse(response.body.toString())
      expect(json).toEqual({ok: true, a: 'xyz'});
      expect(response.headers['x-hello']).toEequal('world');
      expect(response.statusCode).toEequal(200);
      expect(response.isUTF8).to.be.true;
    });
  });

  it('responds with 200, custom header and query param in JSON body', (done) => {
    const reqOptions = {
      path: '/test?a=xyz',
      method: 'GET',
    }
    inProcessRequest(app)(reqOptions).then(response => {
      const json = JSON.parse(response.body.toString())
      expect(json).toEqual({ok: true, a: 'xyz'});
      expect(response.headers['x-hello']).toEequal('world');
      expect(response.statusCode).toEequal(200);
      expect(response.isUTF8).toBeTrue();
      done();
    });
  });
})