Contest

☠️ Contest is now deprecated. We recommend using node 7.10 + and the async pattern.

Web3 contract scripting and assertions

Simplified API for testing contracts; generates mocha tests.

Features

• Minimalist syntax for contract testing
• Handle thrown calls
• Assert transaction success/failure
• Easily assert events data

Installation

You should be using truffle.

npm install --save-dev @digix/contest

import Contest from '@digix/contest';
const contest = new Contest({ debug: true, timeout: 2000 }); // `debug` defaults to false

Usage

Contest wires up a series of promises for you with a convenient chaining syntax.

Each chain should end in done - see the example below for usage.

Before calling methods, you must have a contract deployed:

• Contract
  • .artifact(truffleArtifact) for contracts deployed with truffle v3
  • .deploy(contract, [ params ]) deploys a new instance of contract with given params
  • .use(contractInstance) use an existing instance of a an already-deployed contract

Once you have set a contract you can begin scripting against it:

• Methods
  • .call(method, statement, samples) call method with a series of statements
  • .tx(method, statement, samples, transformers) same as above, initiate transaction
  • If the first word in statement is throw, contest will expect the call/tx to throw.
  • samples in the format [ sample, sample, sample ], or pass a single sample for a single test
  • sample for non-assertions (call/throw), use format [input1, input2], for assertions, use [[input1, input2], [output1, output2]]
  • output expected output to match; if output is a function, it will consume the method's output and resolve true/false
  • transformers an array of functions that transform the outputs before asserting; e.g. [v => v.toNumber(),v => '0x' +v]
• Events
  • .watch(method, statement, samples) the next block must be a tx, it will match each sample in samples
  • sample for watch is in the format { _param1: output1, _param2: output2 }
• Misc .wait(blocks, seconds) alias for tempo's waitForBlocks
• Test
  • .describe(description) new describe block; for organixation only
  • .then(promise) return a promise or execute arbitrary code
  • done() end each chain with done to execute chain

Helpers

Contest also includes some common test helpers related to Ethereum. See ./src/helpers.js for details.

• BIG_INT BigNumber string representing maximum (256 integer)
• BIG_INT_MINUS_TWO
• ONE_DAY_IN_SECONDS
• asyncIterator(iterator, fn, callback)
• randomInt(min, max)
• randomHex(length, prefix) - (prefix bool adds 0x)
• randomAddress(prefix)

Import them as such: import { BIG_INT, randomHex } from '@digix/contest/src/helpers';

Example

const MetaCoin = artifacts.require('./MetaCoin.sol');

new Contest()
.artifact(MetaCoin)
// create a describe block to oragnise tests
.describe('Account Balances')
// pass an object to assert key/value paris for a method
.call('getBalance', 'initializes with correct balances', {
  [accounts[0]]: balance, // ES6 => { '0x123': 100, '0x456': 0 }
  [accounts[1]]: 0, // will envoke and compare result of getBalance('0x456')
})
// notice that we're passing an array here instead of an object, use multi-input-output syntax
.call('getBalance', 'some other statement', [
  [[accounts[0]], [bal => bal > 2]], // pass a function to resolve to `true` rather than equality assertion
  [[accounts[1]], [0],
])
.describe('Library Import')
// call a different method
.call('getBalanceInEth', 'returns correct value from inherited method', {
  [accounts[0]]: balance,
  [accounts[1]]: 0,
})
// use `tx` to create a transaction. multiple transactions are executed in series
.tx('sendCoin', 'transfer succeeds', [
  [accounts[1], 10, { from: accounts[0] }],
  [accounts[0], 10, { from: accounts[1] }],
})
.describe('Transfer balances')
// listen for events with `watch`. it will match the outputs series with the next `tx` block
.watch('Transfer', 'fires the events correctly', [
  { _from: accounts[0], _to: accounts[1], _value: 10 },
  { _from: accounts[1], _to: accounts[0], _value: 10 },
  { _from: accounts[0], _to: accounts[1], _value: 10 },
])
.tx('sendCoin', 'transfer succeeds', [
  [accounts[1], 10, { from: accounts[0] }],
  [accounts[0], 10, { from: accounts[1] }],
  [accounts[1], 10, { from: accounts[0] }],
])
// if you don't pass a 2nd statement param, it will not create a test, but will executed before the next block with a statements
// the next block will do a series back and forth transactions without asserting
.tx('sendCoin', [
  [accounts[1], 10, { from: accounts[0] }],
  [accounts[0], 10, { from: accounts[1] }],
  [accounts[1], 10, { from: accounts[0] }],
  [accounts[0], 10, { from: accounts[1] }],
])
// the keyword `throws` will cause the test pass only if the method throws
.tx('sendCoin', 'throws when using bad numbers' [
  [accounts[1], -22, { from: accounts[0] }],
})
.call('getBalance', 'balances after transaction are correct', {
  [accounts[0]]: balance - transfer,
  [accounts[1]]: transfer,
})
.done();

Roadmap

• Global config for re-runs (e.g. try different gas amounts on every test
• Generate tests from Cucumber? Imagine a future where contracts are verified against english as such:

Scenario: Interacting with ResolverClient

  Scenario: Non admin fails to gain access
    Given I am Jeff
    And I use the contract ResolverClient
    Then I cannot register contract

  Scenario: Non admin fails to gain access
    Given I am Ace
    And I use the contract ResolverClient
    And I register contract 'a:gold' as '0x123...def'
    Then get contract 'a:gold' is '0x123...def'

Tests

• Mocked contract: npm run test
• Truffle environment: cd ./test/truffle; testrpc & truffle test

License

BSD-3-Clause, 2016