Node.js testing RESTful API (vows.js?)

Question

I could really do with some advice on testing a RESTful api I created in node.js. There are a plethora of frameworks out there and I am at a loss. My testing knowledge isn't good enough generally which is why I am trying to write these tests. I've tried vows.js which seems nice but I couldn't work out how to incorporate the testing of my API, I need some sort of client. An example of a simple post to test a login system is all I need to get going.

Answer 1

Update 6 months later

vows-is sucks. use mocha

Original

Updated with vow-is code

Here's the vows-is example from the vows-is examples folder.

// simple HTTP
// Run with node example/simple-http.js

var express = require("express");
    is = require("../src/vows-is.js");

is.config({
    "server": {
        "factory": function _factory(cb) {
            var app = express.createServer();

            app.get("/", function(req, res) {
                res.send("hello world");
            })

            app.listen(3000);

            cb(app);
        },
        "uri": "http://localhost:3000",
        "kill": function _kill(app) {
            app.close();
        }
    }
});

is.suite("http request test").batch()

    .context("a request to GET /")
        .topic.is.a.request("GET /")
        .vow.it.should.have.status(200)
        .vow.it.should.have
            .header("content-type", "text/html; charset=utf-8")
        .context("contains a body that")
            .topic.is.property('body')
            .vow.it.should.be.ok
            .vow.it.should.include.string("hello world")

.suite().run({
    reporter: is.reporter
}, function() {
    console.log("finished");
    is.end();
})

This uses vows-is.

Answer 2

http://blog.nodejitsu.com/rest-easy-test-any-api-in-nodejs is designed for this very purpose. It's a DSL that sits on top of Vows that streamlines the process of writing out tests using vows.

Basic test:

//
// Here we will configure our tests to use 
// http://localhost:8080 as the remote address
// and to always send 'Content-Type': 'application/json'
//
suite.use('localhost', 8000)
     .setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
     //
     // A GET Request to /ping
     //   should respond with 200
     //   should respond with { pong: true }
     //
     .get('/ping')
       .expect(200, { pong: true })
     //
     // A POST Request to /ping
     //   should respond with 200
     //   should respond with { dynamic_data: true }
     //
     .post('/ping', { dynamic_data: true })
       .expect(200, { dynamic_data: true })