the-execute-method.md

The execute() Method

The execute() method is your way of making requests in to your ColdBox application. It can take the following parameters:

Name	Type	Default	Description
event	string	---	The event to execute (e.g. 'main.index')
route	string	---	The route to execute (e.g. '/login' which may route to 'sessions.new')
queryString	string	---	The query string to use in the request
private	boolean	false	If true, sets the event execution as private.
prePostExempt	boolean	false	If true, skips the pre- and post- interceptors. e.g., preEvent, postHandler, etc.
eventArguments	struct	{}	A collection of arguments to passthrough to the calling event handler method.
renderResults	struct	false	If true, then it will try to do the normal rendering procedures and store the rendered content in the RC as cbox_rendered_content.
withExceptionHandling	boolean	false	If true, then ColdBox will process any errors through the exception handling framework instead of just throwing the error.
domain	string	cgi.server_name	The domain or subdomain that you would like to simulate the request with.

This method will execute any ColdBox event/route just like if it's coming from the browser or mobile app. You will get back a request context object from which you can then do assertions with it.

it( "can render some restful data", function() {
    var event = execute( "main.data" );

    debug( event.getHandlerResults() );
    expect( event.getRenderedContent() ).toBeJSON();
} );

{% hint style="danger" %} WARNING: Please note that this method is limited to simulating GET operations. If you are building RESTFul services, then you will need to use our HTTP Testing Methods discussed next. {% endhint %}

Rendering Results

The execute() method has an argument called renderResults which defaults to false. If you pass in true then ColdBox will go through the normal rendering procedures and save the results in a request collection variable called: cbox_rendered_content and expose to you a method in the request context called getRenderedContent(). It will even work with renderData() or if you are returning RESTful information.

Then you can easily assert what the content would have been for an event.

it( "can render users", function(){

   var event = execute( event="rest.api.users", renderResults=true );
   
   // From Value
   expect( event.getValue( "cbox_rendered_content" ) ).toBeJSON();
   // From Method
   expect( event.getRenderedContent() ).toBeJSON();
   
} );

Handler Returning Results

If you have written event handlers that actually return data, then you will have to get the values from the request collection to assert them. ColdBox will create a variable called: cbox_handler_results and expose to you a method in the request context called getHandlerResults() so you can do your assertions.

The handler (main.cfc)

function list( event, rc, prc ){
    return "Hola Luis";
}

The spec

it( "+homepage renders", function(){
    var event = execute( event="main.list", renderResults=true );
    
    // From value
    expect(	event.getValue( "cbox_handler_results" ) ).toBe( "Hola Luis" );
    // From Method
    expect( event.getHandlerResults() ).toBe( "Hola Luis" );
});

Rendering Data

If you use the renderData() method in your handler, you can also get that rendering data struct via our convenience method: getRenderData() or via the request collection private variable: cbox_renderdata.

The handler (main.cfc)

function data( event, rc, prc ){
    event.renderData( data=myService.getData(), type="json" );
}

The spec

it( "can render data", function(){
    var event = execute( event="main.data", renderResults=true );
    
    // From value
    expect(	event.getPrivateValue( "cbox_renderdata" ).type ).toBe( "json" );
    // From Method
    expect( event.getRenderData().type ).toBe( "json" );
});

Getting The Status Code

If you are expecting status codes to do expectations against, you can use our two convenience methods:

Method	Description
getStatusCode()	Get the status code for a ColdBox integration test
getNativeStatusCode()	Get the status code set in the CFML engine.

You most likely will use the getStatusCode() as this is the one used in mocks and relocations, the other one is a RAW approach to get the underlying status code from the page context response.

Mocking Relocations

ColdBox will wire itself up with some mocking classes to intercept those relocations for you and place those values in the request collection for you so you can assert them. It creates a key called relocate in the request collection and any arguments passed to the method are also saved as keys with the following pattern:

relocate_{argumentName}

The possible arguments are:

• event
• URL
• URI
• queryString
• persist
• persistStruct
• addToken
• ssl
• baseURL
• postProcessExempt
• statusCode

it( "can do a relocation", function() {
    var event = execute( event = "main.doSomething" );
    expect( event.getValue( "relocate_event", "" ) ).toBe( "main.index" );
} );

Subdomain/Domain Routing

If you are building multi-tenant applications with ColdBox and are leveraging domain and subdomain routing, then you can easily use the domain argument to simulate the domain in play for THAT specific spec execution.

describe( "subdomain routing", function(){
	beforeEach( function(){
		setup();
	} );
	
	it( "can match on a specific domain", function(){
		var event = execute( route: "/", domain: "subdomain-routing.dev" );
		var rc    = event.getCollection();
		expect( rc ).toHaveKey( "event" );
		expect( rc.event ).toBe( "subdomain.index" );
	} );
	
	it( "skips if the domain is not matched", function(){
		var event = execute( route: "/", domain: "not-the-correct-domain.dev" );
		var rc    = event.getCollection();
		expect( rc ).toHaveKey( "event" );
		expect( rc.event ).toBe( "main.index" );
	} );
	
	it( "can match on a domain with wildcards", function(){
		var event = execute( route: "/", domain: "luis.forgebox.dev" );
		var rc    = event.getCollection();
		expect( rc ).toHaveKey( "event" );
		expect( rc.event ).toBe( "subdomain.show" );
	} );
	
	it( "provides any matched values in the domain in the rc", function(){
		var event = execute( route: "/", domain: "luis.forgebox.dev" );
		var rc    = event.getCollection();
		expect( rc ).toHaveKey( "username" );
		expect( rc.username ).toBe( "luis" );
	} );
} );