Elixir Integration Testing

Introduction to Elixir Integration Testing

Integration testing in Elixir focuses on testing the interaction between different parts of your application. This can include testing the communication between APIs, databases, and other external services. In this guide, we'll explore how to perform integration testing in Elixir using the HTTPoison library to validate APIs.

Setting Up Your Test Environment

Before we start writing integration tests, ensure that your Elixir project is properly set up with HTTPoison. You can add HTTPoison to your project by including it in your mix.exs file.

Writing Your First Integration Test

Once HTTPoison is set up, you can write your first integration test. This test will perform an HTTP GET request to an external API to check if the response is as expected.

Handling HTTP Responses

When performing HTTP requests, you need to handle various HTTP responses such as 200, 404, 500, etc. HTTPoison provides a straightforward mechanism to handle these responses, allowing you to make assertions based on the response status and body.

Testing with Mock Data

In some cases, you may want to test your API interactions without making real HTTP requests. This can be achieved by mocking HTTPoison responses using libraries such as mox or bypass.

Conclusion and Best Practices

Integration testing is a crucial part of the testing process, ensuring that different parts of your application work together as expected. By using HTTPoison and tools like Bypass for mocking, you can effectively validate your APIs. Always remember to clean up any mock servers you use in your tests to avoid port conflicts and ensure test isolation.