cannedhttp - Testing HTTP based webservices in Java

So, recently I've again been writing webservices using HTTP as the transport in Java, and after getting used to node.js land where it is so, so easy to test these kinds of webservices, I was longing for the same kind of compact, self-contained testing. So, I came up with cannedhttp, a small self-contained 'canned' webservice testing tool to help with testing webservices.

The idea is very simple, most requests, especially in unit-testing scenarios, always need to return the same content. So, why can't this just be done with static webservers? Well, the problem with using static webservers for this is that you need to be able to set the HTTP response code, the HTTP headers (such as Content-type) and so forth, and also the different HTTP verbs such as POST, PUT, DELETE. Normally, static webservers only support GET.

So canned-http takes a very simple approach to this problem - your file structure is your web service endpoints. All files have an HTTP verb as the suffix - such as .GET, .POST, .PUT etc. All files also have a very simple file structure allowing you to specify http response code, headers, and content.

In addition to this, it also gives you a very basic router API to add handlers to intercept requests, allowing you to check whether your code is actually sending the correct requests through. It also allows you to customise the response - giving you the ability to start doing some real testing around your webservice calls, while not being reliant on an external webserver at all. It also gives you predictability - seeing as at it's basic form, cannedhttp always returns the same content for the same request.

Here is a sample canned file, showing how you could do a SOAP response for example:

Placing this file in a subdirectory as /one/two/soap.GET, will allow you to test a SOAP webservice at /one/two/SOAP

Here is some code showing the basic router API:

So, there it is. Hopefully this can be of use to some of you. I know it's been helping me the past week or so. It really has sped up the development of webservice code for me - some of the stuff I haven't even tested against a "real" webservice - I've just followed the spec documents and used the examples in those and made sure I could parse them, right there in my unit tests.

Find the bug - part 3 (Windows edition)

I have come across a strangeness with Java on Windows with regards to file handling, i.e. the following code:

The code works fine on Linux, but on Windows it complains that the "from" file cannot be deleted, when the file is supposed to be moved using the Google Guava Files.move(File from, File to) method. There is a very subtle thing one has to do to get it to work on Windows. What is it?

Post your answers in the comments and then I will let you know after a while :)

Doto

I've always had an issue with code like this: (event though I do it all the time)

Nothing wrong with it, but wouldn't it be nice to be able to chain those calls and avoid declaring that local variable?

I am currently reading "The Joy of Clojure" and came across the doto macro in clojure, which enables you to do the above like so: 

   (doto (new java.util.HashMap) ; or just (java.util.HashMap.)  
         (.put 1 "One")  
         (.put 2 "Two"))  

Nice!  But alas, I am forced to use Java by day so I tried to figure out the best approach to do this.  The first one comes to mind is this:

 new HashMap<Integer, String>(){{  
     put(1, "one");  
     put(2, "Two");  
   }};  

Which works perfectly except that it assumes you are the one constructing the object.  So I tried a more functional approach:

I believe I've gone and made it worse :(

I also tried a js implementation, which is pretty redundant for maps/objects as object literals are built in:

I would love to see some alternate solutions/improvements or maybe event implementations in other languages!