Approval test project example

Inspired by https://approvaltests.com/

goals

Test project is using approval testing approach. This approach declares to collect actual results during 1st run and use them as a golden example instead of defining expected results in advance.
This approach can be good for API migration testing, when you need to test new API using old API responses as expected results. This test approach can extend regular tests, but not replace them.

Why don't we use approval tests framework?

• Approval tests framework creates a lot of files with actual results. It is not convenient to manage and store them
• Approval tests framework saves expected results as plain text. It is not convenient to work with JSON objects
• Approval tests framework does not allow to ignore some fields in JSON objects. It is a blocker in case data contains autogenerated fields like timestamps, ids, etc.

Tools

• python 3.10+
• pytest
• requests
• tinydb

⚠️ Caution! TinyDB does not support access from multiple processes or threads, so do not run tests in parallel

Setup

1. clone the project
2. install dependencies using the terminal command pip install .
3. create the file .env in the project root folder with the following content:

SECRET_TOKEN = 'SECRET_TOKEN'

About the .env file

.env file is used to store secret data like tokens, passwords, etc. It is not tracked by git, so you can safely store your secrets there.
Configure ENV variables in your CI/CD system to pass secret data to the tests.

Project Description

• all tests following approval testing approach must use verify fixture (example below)
• to make testing rest API easier, session fixture introduced. No need to put complete url, endpoint would be enough
• all helpers are located in conftest.py file to demonstrate how tests works. They can be moved to separate files

Approval test example

def test_sample(rest, verify):
    response = rest.get('/ws/api?param=1')
    data = response.json()  # get response data in json format
    verify(data)  # if no data saved previously, current response will be saved and used to assert during next runs

Check test_post.py file for more examples