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NAME
Apache::TestRequest - Send requests to your Apache test server
SYNOPSIS
use Apache::Test qw(ok have_lwp);
use Apache::TestRequest qw(GET POST);
use Apache::Constants qw(HTTP_OK);
plan tests => 1, have_lwp;
my $res = GET '/test.html';
ok $res->code == HTTP_OK, "Request is ok";
DESCRIPTION
Apache::TestRequest provides convenience functions to allow you to make requests to your Apache test
server in your test scripts. It subclasses "LWP::UserAgent", so that you have access to all if its
methods, but also exports a number of useful functions likely useful for majority of your test requests.
Users of the old "Apache::test" (or "Apache::testold") module, take note! Herein lie most of the
functions you'll need to use to replace "Apache::test" in your test suites.
Each of the functions exported by "Apache::TestRequest" uses an "LWP::UserAgent" object to submit the
request and retrieve its results. The return value for many of these functions is an HTTP::Response
object. See HTTP::Response for documentation of its methods, which you can use in your tests. For
example, use the "code()" and "content()" methods to test the response code and content of your request.
Using "GET", you can perform a couple of tests using these methods like this:
use Apache::Test qw(ok have_lwp);
use Apache::TestRequest qw(GET POST);
use Apache::Constants qw(HTTP_OK);
plan tests => 2, have_lwp;
my $uri = "/test.html?foo=1&bar=2";
my $res = GET $uri;
ok $res->code == HTTP_OK, "Check that the request was OK";
ok $res->content eq "foo => 1, bar => 2", "Check its content";
Note that you can also use "Apache::TestRequest" with "Test::Builder" and its derivatives, including
"Test::More":
use Test::More;
# ...
is $res->code, HTTP_OK, "Check that the request was OK";
is $res->content, "foo => 1, bar => 2", "Check its content";
CONFIGURATION FUNCTION
You can tell "Apache::TestRequest" what kind of "LWP::UserAgent" object to use for its convenience
functions with "user_agent()". This function uses its arguments to construct an internal global
"LWP::UserAgent" object that will be used for all subsequent requests made by the convenience functions.
The arguments it takes are the same as for the "LWP::UserAgent" constructor. See the "LWP::UserAgent"
documentation for a complete list.
The "user_agent()" function only creates the internal "LWP::UserAgent" object the first time it is
called. Since this function is called internally by "Apache::TestRequest", you should always use the
"reset" parameter to force it to create a new global "LWP::UserAgent" Object:
Apache::TestRequest::user_agent(reset => 1, %params);
"user_agent()" differs from "LWP::UserAgent->new" in two additional ways. First, it supports an
additional parameter, "keep_alive", which enables connection persistence, where the same connection is
used to process multiple requests (and, according to the "LWP::UserAgent" documentation, has the effect
of loading and enabling the new experimental HTTP/1.1 protocol module).
And finally, the semantics of the "requests_redirectable" parameter is different than for
"LWP::UserAgent" in that you can pass it a boolean value as well as an array for "LWP::UserAgent". To
force "Apache::TestRequest" not to follow redirects in any of its convenience functions, pass a false
value to "requests_redirectable":
Apache::TestRequest::user_agent(reset => 1,
requests_redirectable => 0);
If LWP is not installed, then you can still pass in an array reference as "LWP::UserAgent" expects.
"Apache::TestRequest" will examine the array and allow redirects if the array contains more than one
value or if there is only one value and that value is not "POST":
# Always allow redirection.
my $redir = have_lwp() ? [qw(GET HEAD POST)] : 1;
Apache::TestRequest::user_agent(reset => 1,
requests_redirectable => $redir);
But note that redirection will not work with "POST" unless LWP is installed. It's best, therefore, to
check "have_lwp" before running tests that rely on a redirection from "POST".
Sometimes it is desireable to have "Apache::TestRequest" remember cookies sent by the pages you are
testing and send them back to the server on subsequent requests. This is especially necessary when
testing pages whose functionality relies on sessions or the presence of preferences stored in cookies.
By default, "LWP::UserAgent" does not remember cookies between requests. You can tell it to remember
cookies between request by adding:
Apache::TestRequest::user_agent(cookie_jar => {});
before issuing the requests.
FUNCTIONS
"Apache::TestRequest" exports a number of functions that will likely prove convenient for use in the
majority of your request tests.
Optional Parameters
Each function also takes a number of optional arguments.
redirect_ok
By default a request will follow redirects retrieved from the server. To prevent this behavior, pass
a false value to a "redirect_ok" parameter:
my $res = GET $uri, redirect_ok => 0;
Alternately, if all of your tests need to disable redirects, tell "Apache::TestRequest" to use an
"LWP::UserAgent" object that disables redirects:
Apache::TestRequest::user_agent( reset => 1,
requests_redirectable => 0 );
cert
If you need to force an SSL request to use a particular SSL certificate, pass the name of the
certificate via the "cert" parameter:
my $res = GET $uri, cert => 'my_cert';
content
If you need to add content to your request, use the "content" parameter:
my $res = GET $uri, content => 'hello world!';
filename
The name of a local file on the file system to be sent to the Apache test server via "UPLOAD()" and
its friends.
The Functions
GET
my $res = GET $uri;
Sends a simple GET request to the Apache test server. Returns an "HTTP::Response" object.
You can also supply additional headers to be sent with the request by adding their name/value pairs after
the "url" parameter, for example:
my $res = GET $url, 'Accept-Language' => 'de,en-us,en;q=0.5';
GET_STR
A shortcut function for "GET($uri)->as_string".
GET_BODY
A shortcut function for "GET($uri)->content".
GET_BODY_ASSERT
Use this function when your test is outputting content that you need to check, and you want to make sure
that the request was successful before comparing the contents of the request. If the request was
unsuccessful, "GET_BODY_ASSERT" will return an error message. Otherwise it will simply return the content
of the request just as "GET_BODY" would.
GET_OK
A shortcut function for "GET($uri)->is_success".
GET_RC
A shortcut function for "GET($uri)->code".
GET_HEAD
Throws out the content of the request, and returns the string representation of the request. Since the
body has been thrown out, the representation will consist solely of the headers. Furthermore, "GET_HEAD"
inserts a "#" at the beginning of each line of the return string, so that the contents are suitable for
printing to STDERR during your tests without interfering with the workings of "Test::Harness".
HEAD
my $res = HEAD $uri;
Sends a HEAD request to the Apache test server. Returns an "HTTP::Response" object.
HEAD_STR
A shortcut function for "HEAD($uri)->as_string".
HEAD_BODY
A shortcut function for "HEAD($uri)->content". Of course, this means that it will likely return nothing.
HEAD_BODY_ASSERT
Use this function when your test is outputting content that you need to check, and you want to make sure
that the request was successful before comparing the contents of the request. If the request was
unsuccessful, "HEAD_BODY_ASSERT" will return an error message. Otherwise it will simply return the
content of the request just as "HEAD_BODY" would.
HEAD_OK
A shortcut function for "GET($uri)->is_success".
HEAD_RC
A shortcut function for "GET($uri)->code".
HEAD_HEAD
Throws out the content of the request, and returns the string representation of the request. Since the
body has been thrown out, the representation will consist solely of the headers. Furthermore, "GET_HEAD"
inserts a "#" at the beginning of each line of the return string, so that the contents are suitable for
printing to STDERR during your tests without interfering with the workings of "Test::Harness".
PUT
my $res = PUT $uri;
Sends a simple PUT request to the Apache test server. Returns an "HTTP::Response" object.
PUT_STR
A shortcut function for "PUT($uri)->as_string".
PUT_BODY
A shortcut function for "PUT($uri)->content".
PUT_BODY_ASSERT
Use this function when your test is outputting content that you need to check, and you want to make sure
that the request was successful before comparing the contents of the request. If the request was
unsuccessful, "PUT_BODY_ASSERT" will return an error message. Otherwise it will simply return the content
of the request just as "PUT_BODY" would.
PUT_OK
A shortcut function for "PUT($uri)->is_success".
PUT_RC
A shortcut function for "PUT($uri)->code".
PUT_HEAD
Throws out the content of the request, and returns the string representation of the request. Since the
body has been thrown out, the representation will consist solely of the headers. Furthermore, "PUT_HEAD"
inserts a "#" at the beginning of each line of the return string, so that the contents are suitable for
printing to STDERR during your tests without interfering with the workings of "Test::Harness".
POST
my $res = POST $uri, [ arg => $val, arg2 => $val ];
Sends a POST request to the Apache test server and returns an "HTTP::Response" object. An array reference
of parameters passed as the second argument will be submitted to the Apache test server as the POST
content. Parameters corresponding to those documented in Optional Parameters can follow the optional
array reference of parameters, or after $uri.
To upload a chunk of data, simply use:
my $res = POST $uri, content => $data;
POST_STR
A shortcut function for "POST($uri, @args)->content".
POST_BODY
A shortcut function for "POST($uri, @args)->content".
POST_BODY_ASSERT
Use this function when your test is outputting content that you need to check, and you want to make sure
that the request was successful before comparing the contents of the request. If the request was
unsuccessful, "POST_BODY_ASSERT" will return an error message. Otherwise it will simply return the
content of the request just as "POST_BODY" would.
POST_OK
A shortcut function for "POST($uri, @args)->is_success".
POST_RC
A shortcut function for "POST($uri, @args)->code".
POST_HEAD
Throws out the content of the request, and returns the string representation of the request. Since the
body has been thrown out, the representation will consist solely of the headers. Furthermore, "POST_HEAD"
inserts a "#" at the beginning of each line of the return string, so that the contents are suitable for
printing to STDERR during your tests without interfering with the workings of "Test::Harness".
UPLOAD
my $res = UPLOAD $uri, \@args, filename => $filename;
Sends a request to the Apache test server that includes an uploaded file. Other POST parameters can be
passed as a second argument as an array reference.
"Apache::TestRequest" will read in the contents of the file named via the "filename" parameter for
submission to the server. If you'd rather, you can submit use the "content" parameter instead of
"filename", and its value will be submitted to the Apache server as file contents:
my $res = UPLOAD $uri, undef, content => "This is file content";
The name of the file sent to the server will simply be "b". Note that in this case, you cannot pass other
POST arguments to "UPLOAD()" -- they would be ignored.
UPLOAD_BODY
A shortcut function for "UPLOAD($uri, @params)->content".
UPLOAD_BODY_ASSERT
Use this function when your test is outputting content that you need to check, and you want to make sure
that the request was successful before comparing the contents of the request. If the request was
unsuccessful, "UPLOAD_BODY_ASSERT" will return an error message. Otherwise it will simply return the
content of the request just as "UPLOAD_BODY" would.
OPTIONS
my $res = OPTIONS $uri;
Sends an "OPTIONS" request to the Apache test server. Returns an "HTTP::Response" object with the Allow
header, indicating which methods the server supports. Possible methods include "OPTIONS", "GET", "HEAD"
and "POST". This function thus can be useful for testing what options the Apache server supports. Consult
the HTTPD 1.1 specification, section 9.2, at http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2616.html for more information.
URL Manipulation Functions
"Apache::TestRequest" also includes a few helper functions to aid in the creation of urls used in the
functions above.
"module2path"
$path = Apache::TestRequest::module2path($module_name);
Convert a module name to a path, safe for use in the various request methods above. e.g. "::" can't be
used in URLs on win32. For example:
$path = Apache::TestRequest::module2path('Foo::Bar');
returns:
/Foo__Bar
"module2url"
$url = Apache::TestRequest::module2url($module);
$url = Apache::TestRequest::module2url($module, \%options);
Convert a module name to a full URL including the current configurations "hostname:port" and sets
"module" accordingly.
$url = Apache::TestRequest::module2url('Foo::Bar');
returns:
http://$hostname:$port/Foo__Bar
The default scheme used is "http". You can override this by passing your preferred scheme into an
optional second param. For example:
$module = 'MyTestModule::TestHandler';
$url = Apache::TestRequest::module2url($module, {scheme => 'https'});
returns:
https://$hostname:$port/MyTestModule__TestHandler
You may also override the default path with a path of your own:
$module = 'MyTestModule::TestHandler';
$url = Apache::TestRequest::module2url($module, {path => '/foo'});
returns:
http://$hostname:$port/foo
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables can affect the behavior of "Apache::TestRequest":
APACHE_TEST_PRETEND_NO_LWP
If the environment variable "APACHE_TEST_PRETEND_NO_LWP" is set to a true value,
"Apache::TestRequest" will pretend that LWP is not available so one can test whether the test suite
will survive on a system which doesn't have libwww-perl installed.
APACHE_TEST_HTTP_09_OK
If the environment variable "APACHE_TEST_HTTP_09_OK" is set to a true value, "Apache::TestRequest"
will allow HTTP/0.9 responses from the server to proceed. The default behavior is to die if the
response protocol is not either HTTP/1.0 or HTTP/1.1.
SEE ALSO
Apache::Test is the main Apache testing module. Use it to set up your tests, create a plan, and to ensure
that you have the Apache version and modules you need.
Use Apache::TestMM in your Makefile.PL to set up your distribution for testing.
AUTHOR
Doug MacEachern with contributions from Geoffrey Young, Philippe M. Chiasson, Stas Bekman and others.
Documentation by David Wheeler.
Questions can be asked at the test-dev <at> httpd.apache.org list. For more information see:
http://httpd.apache.org/test/ and http://perl.apache.org/docs/general/testing/testing.html.