Support for TemplateResponseFileBody?

[jernkuan]

With the update in #2163

FileBody is supported to allow complex response to be set externally. However there is no way to enable the body to support TemplateResponse?

Thoughts on supporting this?

[jamesdbloom]

Thanks for the suggestion — this is a great fit and it's now implemented on master (commit bba4e4ea5).

You actually get two complementary ways to combine external files with templating:

1. Template a FILE response body — exactly what you asked for. A static httpResponse whose body is a FILE body can now mark that file as a template with a templateType. The file contents are rendered against the request before being returned, while the status code, headers and content type still come from the static response:

{
  "httpRequest": { "path": "/some/path" },
  "httpResponse": {
    "statusCode": 200,
    "body": {
      "type": "FILE",
      "filePath": "responses/order.json",
      "templateType": "MUSTACHE",
      "contentType": "application/json"
    }
  }
}

with responses/order.json containing placeholders, e.g.:

{ "method": "{{ request.method }}", "path": "{{ request.path }}" }

Body-file templating supports the text engines MUSTACHE and VELOCITY (they render text directly). JavaScript templates build a full response object rather than a text fragment, so for JavaScript use the httpResponseTemplate route below instead.

2. Load a full template from a file — as a bonus, httpResponseTemplate (and httpForwardTemplate) now accept a templateFile field as an alternative to the inline template, so large templates can live outside the expectation JSON. This works with all three engines (Velocity, Mustache, JavaScript), and produces the full response (status, headers and body) from the template:

{
  "httpRequest": { "path": "/some/path" },
  "httpResponseTemplate": {
    "templateType": "MUSTACHE",
    "templateFile": "templates/some_response.mustache"
  }
}

If both template and templateFile are set, the inline template takes precedence.

Both are covered by unit tests and documented at Response Templates → Loading Templates From Files / Templating A Response Body File, and listed under the next release's changelog. It'll ship in the next release; until then it's available by building master.