Apache::Test - Facilitates testing of Apache::* modules

SYNOPSIS

        # In Makefile.PL
        use Apache::test;
        my %params = Apache::test->get_test_params();
        Apache::test->write_httpd_conf(%params, include => $more_directives);
        *MY::test = sub { Apache::test->MM_test(%params) };

        # In t/*.t script (or test.pl)
        (Some methods of Doug's that I haven't reviewed or documented yet)

DESCRIPTION

       This module helps authors of Apache::* modules write test
       suites that can query an actual running Apache server with
       mod_perl and their modules loaded into it.  Its function-
       ality is generally separated into methods that go in a
       Makefile.PL to configure, start, and stop the server, and
       methods that go in one of the test scripts to make HTTP
       queries and manage the results.

METHODS

       get_test_params()

       This will ask the user a few questions about where the
       httpd binary is, and what user/group/port should be used
       when running the server.  It will return a hash of the
       information it discovers.  This hash is suitable for pass-
       ing to the `write_httpd_conf()' method.

       write_httpd_conf(%params)

       This will write a basic `httpd.conf' file suitable for
       starting a HTTP server during the 'make test' stage.  A
       hash of key/value pairs that affect the written file can
       be passed as arguments.  The following keys are recog-
       nized:

       o conf_file
           The path to the file that will be created.  Default is
           't/httpd.conf'.

       o port
           The port that the Apache server will listen on.

       o user
           The user that the Apache server will run as.

       o group
           The group that the Apache server will run as.

           Any additional text you want added at the end of the
           config file.  Typically you'll have some `PerlModule'
           and `Perl*Handler' directives to pass control to the
           module you're testing.  The `blib/' directories will
           be added to the `@INC' path when searching for mod-
           ules, so that's nice.

       MM_test(%params)

       This method helps write a Makefile that supports running a
       web server during the 'make test' stage.  When you execute
       'make test', 'make' will run 'make start_httpd', 'make
       run_tests', and 'make kill_httpd' in sequence.  You can
       also run these commands independently if you want.

       Pass the hash of parameters returned by
       `get_test_params()' as an argument to `MM_test()'.

       To patch into the ExtUtils::MakeMaker wizardry (voodoo?),
       typically you'll do the following in your Makefile.PL:

         *MY::test = sub { Apache::test->MM_test(%params) };

       fetch

         Apache::test->fetch($request);
         Apache::test->fetch($user_agent, $request);

       Call this method in a test script in order to fetch a page
       from the running web server.  If you pass two arguments,
       the first should be an LWP::UserAgent object, and the sec-
       ond should specify the request to make of the server.  If
       you only pass one argument, it specifies the request to
       make.

       The request can be specified either by a simple string
       indicating the URI to fetch, or by a hash reference, which
       gives you more control over the request.  The following
       keys are recognized in the hash:

       o uri
           The URI to fetch from the server.  If the URI does not
           begin with "http", we prepend "http://localhost:$PORT"
           so that we make requests of the test server.

       o method
           The request method to use.  Default is 'GET'.

       o content
           The request content body.  Typically used to simulate
           HTML fill-out form submission for POST requests.
           A hash of headers you want sent with the request.  You
           might use this to send cookies or provide some appli-
           cation-specific header.

       If you don't provide a 'headers' parameter and you set the
       'method' to 'POST', then we assume that you're trying to
       simulate HTML form submission and we add a 'Content_Type'
       header with a value of 'application/x-www-form-urlen-
       coded'.

       In a scalar context, fetch() returns the content of the
       web server's response.  In a list context, fetch() returns
       the content and the HTTP::Response object itself.  This
       can be handy if you need to check the response headers, or
       the HTTP return code, or whatever.

EXAMPLES

       No good examples yet.  Example submissions are welcome.
       In the meantime, see the section on "/forum.swarth-
       more.edu/~ken/modules/Apache-AuthCookie/" in the http:
       manpage , which I'm retrofitting to use Apache::test.

TO DO

       The MM_test method doesn't try to be very smart, it just
       writes the text that seems to work in my configuration.  I
       am morally against using the 'make' command for installing
       Perl modules (though of course I do it anyway), so I
       haven't looked into this very much.  Send bug reports or
       better (patches).

       I've got lots of code in my Apache::AuthCookie module
       (etc.) that assists in actually making the queries of the
       running server.  I plan to add that to this module, but
       first I need to compare what's already here that does the
       same stuff.

KUDOS

       To Doug MacEachern for writing the first version of this
       module.

       To caelum@debian.org (Rafael Kitover) for contributing the
       code to parse existing httpd.conf files for --enable-
       shared=max and DSOs.

CAVEATS

       Except for making sure that the mod_perl distribution
       itself can run 'make test' okay, I haven't tried very hard
       to keep compatibility with older versions of this module.
       In particular MM_test() has changed and probably isn't
       usable in the old ways, since some of its assumptions are
       gone.  But none of this was ever documented, and MM_test()
       doesn't seem to actually be used anywhere in the mod_perl
       Doug MacEachern (original version)

       Ken Williams (latest changes and this documentation)