trove-specs/specs/kilo/example-generator.rst
Nikhil Manchanda 4a72d213aa Add unit tests for Trove specs
Add simple unit tests to the Trove specs repo which ensure that
specifications submitted follow the template correctly and address
all the needed sections.

Update tox to run these unit tests automatically.

At the beginning of each release, test_titles.py will need to be updated
and 'current_release' modified to reflect the new release directory.  At
the same time, the new release directory will be created, the index.rst
file in doc/source ammended to include this directory, and any unmerged
specs moved there.  In this way, changes to the template will only
affect specs going forward and avoids having to modify any specs that
have merged in previous releases.

(It will also have the side effect of signalling the 'opening' of the
release to new specs.)

Change-Id: I8f1175bceed63d36d96b6c6c6b4188ef27d3102e
2015-06-16 21:53:16 +00:00

3.7 KiB

Example Snippet Generator

Launchpad blueprint:

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/trove/+spec/example-snippet-generator

Problem Description

Trove has ssome really nice documentation featuring snippets showing the what the JSON looks like for the standard REST calls and response. The only issue is these docs are not validated, meaning if the API changes in ways big or small its possible they will not match what a present day user of Trove will see.

Proposed Change

This blueprint proposes we fix this by automatically generating these examples and validating them in Trove.

The fix will involve actually making calls against the real Trove code and capturing the bodies of the requests and responses then writing them to the text files used by the docs. We can do this quickly by utilizing the same "fake mode" test doubles that are used by the tests already run in Tox. The beauty is all of the API code that determines what the request and responses look like will get run just the same as if the tests had executed against a fully stood up Trove environment, with the advantage that certain UUIDs can be altered to avoid them changing with every test run.

Configuration

None

Database

None

Public API

None

Public API Security

None

Internal API

None

Guest Agent

None

Data Model Impact

None.

REST API Impact

None, except that it will be tested even better than before.

Security Impact

None.

Notifications Impact

None.

Other End User Impact

None.

Performance Impact

The snippet generation will run in mere seconds as part of Tox. There will be no noticable impact on the developers of Trove.

Other Deployer Impact

None.

Developer Impact

The generation will run fast enough to be invisible to most developers. However developers will be aware if they inadvertently change anything in the request or response payload and will have to argue for the changes to the API, even if they're merely additions.

Community Impact

The generation of snippets will usher in a new golden era of devs and doc writers working together. Maybe sometimes devs will be doc writers, or doc writers will be devs. It isn't a stretch to suggest it will be a utopia.

Alternatives

We could continue the implied agreement that devs are always constantly reading the docs and treating that as a contract, and that with each change they rabidly run integration tests but also manually run tests and inspect the output, making sure the snippets shown in the docs are accurate. Unfortunately since many of the current snippets are inaccurate I don't think this will work.

Implementation

Assignee(s)

Primary assignee:

Tim Simpson

Milestones

Target Milestone for completion:

Kilo-1

Work Items

  • Implement the snippets generator.

Dependencies

None.

Testing

NA

Tempest Tests

NA

Functional Tests

NA

API Tests

NA

Documentation Impact

We will need to change the snippets at least initially as they have changed so much since when they were originally authored.

User Documentation

None.

Developer Documentation

We will need to document how this works in the Tox file.

References