how to test server REST API with testem

Question

Testem has a config option serve_files that serves the client side code for me. But i need to run my server because It has a REST API, and client side uses it.

How do i configure testem to run my server before running the tests? Or is this against the testem rules?

Because testem runs on another port and my rest api references to rest api won't work. So i need to tell testem to bypass serve_files and launch my actual server and test the files from there.

PS: Or another alternative would be to stub the api with sinonjs or something, would that be a proper approach? Then i wouldn't really be testing my API with the ember generated templates using the API.

I can't answer your question, but I can say that I had the same issue 2 weeks ago. I ended up using a local storage adapter to save my data on the client, eliminating the need for the server. If that's an option for you, I think it's a better way to test your application. — GJK, Aug 20 '14 at 12:41
@GJK you mean fixtures, i think real server is better way, that should be simple enough to do. — eguneys, Aug 20 '14 at 14:22
[`supertest` module](https://github.com/visionmedia/supertest) is the perfect tool for unit-testing REST API in node.js. — Leonid Beschastny, Aug 23 '14 at 21:07
@LeonidBeschastny I will check it out, still I should mock the API or something. — eguneys, Aug 23 '14 at 21:10
Does the [API Proxy](https://github.com/airportyh/testem#api-proxy) option help? — Stephen Thomas, Aug 23 '14 at 21:20

Stephen Thomas · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-24T13:01:18.667

2

You can use the API Proxy setting:

The proxy option allows you to transparently forward http requests to an external endpoint.

Simply add a proxies section to the testem.json configuration file.

{ "proxies": { "/api": { "port": 4200, "host": "localhost" }, "/xmlapi": { "port": 8000, "host": "localhost" } } }

This functionality is implemented as a transparent proxy hence a request to http://localhost:7357/api/posts.json will be proxied to http://localhost:4200/api/posts.json without removing the /api prefix.

edited Aug 24 '14 at 13:01

answered Aug 24 '14 at 00:31

Stephen Thomas

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While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. – Preview Aug 24 '14 at 10:01

how to test server REST API with testem

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