chatterbox

chatterbox is a tool for chatting with a REST endpoint.

You write conversations using a yaml formalism describing an arbitrary complex interaction between chatterbox and the endpoint.

chatterbox keeps a state during the execution of a conversation so that you can use the collected responses and use those to feed the subsequent inputs.

chatterbox could be useful to you when you have to:

• Prototype RESTful protocols.
• Quickly build a complex interaction with an endpoint.
• Debug/test your endpoint when APIs are not available.

chatterbox embeds a JavaScript interpreter: V8 so the user can benefit from scripting capabilities. A JavaScript context is kept during the entire conversation; this allows to maintain an arbitrary state.

quick example

The following example describes a conversation against an S3 service running on localhost:7480. The interaction uses 3 distinct requests to realize an object multipart upload using the S3 APIs:

• CreateMultipartUpload
• UploadPart
• CompleteMultipartUpload

Every request is authenticated using the AWS Signature Version 4.

conversations:
- host: localhost:7480
  auth:
    accessKey: test
    secretKey: test
  requests:
    - method: POST
      id: req1
      enabled: true
      uri: my-bucket/my-object.mp
      queryString: uploads
      auth: aws_v4
    - method: PUT
      id: req2
      enabled: true
      uri: my-bucket/my-object.mp
      queryString: partNumber=1&uploadId={{req1.response.body.UploadId}}
      data: "some-test-data-1"
      auth: aws_v4
    - method: POST
      enabled: true
      uri: my-bucket/my-object.mp
      queryString: format=json&uploadId={{req1.response.body.UploadId}}
      auth: aws_v4
      data: |
        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
        <CompleteMultipartUpload xmlns="http://s3.amazonaws.com/doc/2006-03-01/">
          <Part>
              <ETag>{{req2.response.headers.ETag}}</ETag>
              <PartNumber>1</PartNumber>
          </Part>
        </CompleteMultipartUpload>

The second request is making use of the UploadId property obtained from the response's body in the first request:

queryString: partNumber=1&uploadId={{req1.response.body.UploadId}}

The syntax:

{{req1.*}}

denotes a path starting from the node identified with id: req1 in the output yaml.

Any property added in the output yaml during the conversation can be referenced in any subsequent property using the {{.id.*}} syntax.

documentation

• Build instructions
• Usage instructions