HttpUnit is an Open Source functional test tool for testing web pages using JavaTM. A test case that uses HttpUnit queries the WebServer and can evaluate the responses it receives. For example, it's possible to retrieve all the elements of an html page and write Java code to evaluate them. Also, it's possible to mimic a user's actions, such as clicking on an html link or button, entering some text in a textedit or choosing an item from a dropdown listbox. Since HttpUnit test cases are written in Java they can complement test cases written using Jemmy or Jelly. JSPs can also be tested since a JSP is translated to a Servlet and Servlets are compiled and executed by the Web Server which then outputs .html. Servlets can also be tested if the Servlet extends HttpServlet and sets some html content information - see the Servlet spec for more information.

How does HttpUnit work?

A test case written using HttpUnit is essentially a web client. If both the WebClient and WebConversation classes are used then the test case is like a web browser. These classes maintain the client's state which includes cookies, URLs and frame sets. This allows a user to send requests for specific html resources and retrieve the responses. The WebRequest class represents a request to a remote or local (as in NetBean's case) server. The WebResponse class encapsulates the reply. Here's part of a simple example:

WebConversation conversation = new WebConversation(); // create a new web client
WebResponse myresponse = conversation.getResponse( "http://netbeans.org" ); //get the response from Web Server
System.out.println("The title of the page is " + myresponse.getTitle()); // output title of the page

For each request, the WebConversation class stores headers that are sent to the web server. Cookies can also be stored. To set a header for transmission to the server, use WebConversation's setHeaderField(String fieldName, String fieldValue) method. For authorization headers use the setAuthorization(String userName, String password) method. For cookies, use getCookieNames() and getCookieValue() methods. To add a cookie, use the addCookie(String name, String value) method to add a cookie to the list of cookies to send. For cookies that are defined by the server, use getNewCookieNames() and getNewCookieValue(). Here's an example for printing all the new cookies set in a web server response:

     for (int i=0; i; cookieNames.length;i++) { 
         System.out.println(cookieNames[i] + " - "); 
         System.out.println(response.getNewCookieValue(cookieNames[i])); 
      }

HttpUnit has several methods for inspecting the response received, such as getTitle(). Also, HttpUnit uses XML DOM to retrieve more information. It can view the html document as a DOM. The way it uses DOM is by parsing the html tags and ordering them as a tree structure representation using a parser called JTidy. For more information about HttpUnit, see the References at the bottom of this page.

Example Setup

1.Download httpunit.jar and Tidy.jar from http://httpunit.sourceforge.net/
2.Copy downloaded jars to any suitable directory
3.Create a build scripts (build.xml and build-${testtype}.xml)
4.Create a configuration file (cfg-${testtype}.xml)
5.Create a properties file for URLs
6.Develop your HttpUnit test case
7.Start xtest using Ant from the commandline passing arguments for the path to the NetBeans build and properties file

Requirements for setup files

build-${testtype}.xml - make sure you don't forget add properties for the HttpUnit and Tidy jar files (please note, directory.with.httpunit.jars shoud be relative path from your build script location to the location where downloaded jars are stored)

<property name="xtest.extra.jars.path" location=" directory.with.httpunit.jars" />
<property name="xtest.extra.jars" value="httpunit.jar;Tidy.jar" /> 

Properties File

Sample contents of properties file, urls.properties
xtest.userdata|url1=http://localhost:8081/ProductList.jsp

HttpUnit Test case

Sample HttpUnit testcase. This test case exercises a Web Application, which had been deployed manually to Tomcat prior to running this test. Alternatively, a test case could be added to the testbag which uses Jemmy or Jelly to compile and deploy the Web Application.

import com.meterware.httpunit.*;
import org.netbeans.junit.NbTestSuite;
import org.netbeans.junit.Nbtestcase;
import junit.framework.*;
import org.netbeans.junit.*;

/**
   * In this example, the test case will get a response from the Web Server for ProductList.jsp (HTML produced). 
   * The test case will connect to the URL and in the first page, add the first    CD to the Shopping Cart, 
   * delete the CD that appears in the cart in ShopCart.jsp, click on the Resume Shopping button in the 
   * EmptyCart.jsp, then add the same CD again, but this time, click the Place    Order button. In PlaceOrder.jsp,
   * the Resume Shopping link is clicked and the test case returns to ProductList.jsp. 
   *
   * @author John Baker
   * @version 1.0
   */

public class TestCdShopCartWeb extends Nbtestcase{
   
   /** URL of website */
   private String url;
   
   public TestCdShopCartWeb(String testName) {
      super(testName);
   }
   
   /** Use for execution inside IDE */
   public static void main(java.lang.String[] args) {
      junit.textui.TestRunner.run(suite()); 
   }
   
   public static Test suite() {
      TestSuite suite = new NbTestSuite(TestCdShopCartWeb.class);
      System.out.println("Test started");
      return suite;
   }
   
   public void testCdShopCartWeb() {
      //HttpUnitOptions.setParserWarningsEnabled(true); // uncomment to enable warnings
   
      url = System.getProperty("url1");
      if(url==null) {
         fail("Property url hasn't been set");
      }
   
      WebConversation conversation=null;
      WebResponse response=null;
   
      try {
            /* Get the title of the first page. */
            conversation = new WebConversation();
            response = conversation.getResponse(url); // browse ProductList.jsp
            WebForm form = response.getForms()[0];
            assertTrue(response.getTitle().equals("CD Catalog List"));
            
            // Get Table in ProductList.jsp and Add the 1st CD to the shopping cart
            WebTable cdTable = response.getTables()[0];
            TableCell cdCell = cdTable.getTableCell(1, 5); //get cell object, 2nd row, 6th column
            WebForm addContainer = cdCell.getForms()[0];
            WebRequest request = addContainer.getRequest();
            response = conversation.getResponse( request );
            
            // In ShopCart.jsp again
            form = response.getForms()[0];
            assertTrue(response.getTitle().equals("Shopping Cart"));
            
            // Verify the name of the CD that was added to the Shopping Cart
            cdTable = response.getTables()[0];
            cdCell = cdTable.getTableCell(1, 1);
            String cellStr = cdCell.asText();
            assertTrue(cellStr.equals("Yuan"));
            
            //Delete CD from cart in ShopCart.jsp
            cdCell = cdTable.getTableCell(1, 3); //click on the Delete button in 2nd row, 4th column
            addContainer = cdCell.getForms()[0];
            request = addContainer.getRequest();
            response = conversation.getResponse( request );
            
            assertTrue(response.getTitle().equals("Empty Cart"));
            WebForm resumeShopForm = response.getForms()[0]; // Resume Shopping
            request = resumeShopForm.getRequest();
            response = conversation.getResponse( request );
            
            // Get Table in ProductList.jsp and Add the 1st CD to the shopping cart
            cdTable = response.getTables()[0];
   
            cdCell = cdTable.getTableCell(1, 5); //get cell object, 2nd row, 6th column
            addContainer = cdCell.getForms()[0];
            request = addContainer.getRequest();
            response = conversation.getResponse( request );
            
            // Forms in the ShopCart.jsp page - the first form, index 0 contains the table
            resumeShopForm = response.getForms()[1]; // Resume Shopping (index 1 = 2nd form)
            WebForm placeOrderForm = response.getForms()[2]; // Place Order
            WebForm cancelOrderForm = response.getForms()[3]; // Cancel Order
            
            // Place an order for the CD
            request = placeOrderForm.getRequest();
            response = conversation.getResponse( request );
                        
            //Check title of page
            assertTrue(response.getTitle().equals("Place Order"));
            WebForm resumeForm = response.getForms()[0]; 

            // Click Resume Shopping button
            request = resumeForm.getRequest();
            response=conversation.getResponse(request);
            assertTrue(response.getTitle().equals("CD Catalog List"));

           
        } catch(Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
   }
}

Execution from the Commandline

Example command:

% ant -Dxtest.testtype=web -Dxtest.userdata.propertyfile="urls.properties"

Note: you can include -Dnetbeans.home <your NetBeans install directory> in this commandline.

Tips

• Use assertTrue to verify forms in a web page or after calling getResponse(request)
• Use NetBean's debugger for more sophisticated debugging of test cases
• You may have to initialize some HttpUnit's objects to null
• When coding your test case, at the end, return to the base state

References

• http://httpunit.sourceforge.net/
• Java Tools for Extreme Programming: Mastering Open Source Tools, including Ant, JUnit, and Cactus
• Example Web application from Sun Microsystems for Forte For Java