Embark Testing Your Smart Contract

Earlier in the series, we took a look at how to setup Embark and use it to compile, deploy and interact with our Bounties.sol smart contract.

This article will walk through the steps required to write tests for our smart contract within the Embark framework. Tests in Embark projects are written in [Javascript] (http://truffleframework.com/docs/getting_started/javascript-tests).

Embark uses the [Mocha] (https://mochajs.org/) testing framework to provide an easy way to write tests in Javascript and uses [Node.js] (https://nodejs.org/api/assert.html/) for assertions. You can read more about [testing in Embark here] (https://truffleframework.com/docs/truffle/testing/testing-your-contracts).

[Source code for this tutorial can be found here] (https://github.com/kauri-io/kauri-fullstack-dapp-tutorial-series/tree/master/embark-writing-tests)

Prerequisites

NODEJS 7.6+

Since web3.js and truffle executions are asynchronous, we'll be using [async/await] (https://hackernoon.com/6-reasons-why-javascripts-async-await-blows-promises-away-tutorial-c7ec10518dd9) to simplify our test code. You’ll have to upgrade to Node 7.6 or higher.

Embark

npm install -g embark

Note: On linux systems you may see an error when you attempt to run embark. If you see the following error:

$ embark --version
env: node\r: No such file or directory

This is a common issue with Node.js when using files with Windows line endings. [See: npm/npm#12371] (https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/12371)

To resolve we’re going to have to use dos2unix to convert the embark js file to Unix format

  1. Find the location embark js file on your system
$ which embark
/usr/local/bin/embark
cd /usr/local/bin/
ls -lrt | grep embark
lrwxr-xr-x  1 joshuacassidy  admin        37 15 Aug 21:41 embark -> *../lib/node_modules/embark/bin/embark*

From the output above we see that on my machine, the relative path of the embark js file is located here:../lib/node_modules/embark/bin/embark

  1. Install dos2unix
$ brew install dos2unix
  1. Convert the file
$ sudo dos2unix ../lib/node_modules/embark/bin/embark
dos2unix: converting file ../lib/node_modules/embark/bin/embark to Unix format...

That's it! Now when you run embark — version you should see something like the following:

$ embark --version
3.1.9

Embark Project

In order to test our Bounties.sol smart contract we'll need to have a truffle project set up to compile and deploy our smart contract. Let's start with the truffle project we created earlier in the series:

$ git clone https://github.com/kauri-io/kauri-fullstack-dapp-tutorial-series.git
$ cd kauri-fullstack-dapp-tutorial-series
$ cp -R embark-compilation-and-deploy dapp-series-bounties
$ cd dapp-series-bounties

Development Blockchain: Ganache-CLI

In order to deploy our smart contract, we’re going to need an Ethereum environment to deploy to. For this, we will use Ganache-CLI to run a local development environment

$ npm install -g ganache-cli

Setting up a test file

Now that we have our project setup we'll create our first test:

const Bounties = embark.require('Embark/contracts/Bounties');

let accounts;

config({

}, (err, theAccounts) => {
  accounts = theAccounts;
});

contract("Bounties", function () {
  this.timeout(0);

  let bountiesInstance;


  beforeEach(async () => {
      bountiesInstance = await Bounties.deploy().send()
  })

});

At this point, we have the basic skeleton of our test file and we can test everything is set up correctly by executing the following:

First in a separate window run embark simulator:

$ embark simulator

running: ganache-cli -p 8555 -a 10 -e 100 -l 8000000 --mnemonic "example exile argue silk regular smile grass bomb merge arm assist farm"
Ganache CLI v6.1.3 (ganache-core: 2.1.2)

Next, run the embark test command:

$ embark test

Compiling contracts


  0 passing (0ms)



  0 passing (0ms)

 > All tests passed

Running embark test executes all tests in your truffle projects /test folder. This does the following:

  1. Compiles your contracts
  2. Deploys the contracts to the network
  3. Runs tests against the contracts deployed on the network

Writing a Test

Let's take a look at the issueBounty function:

function issueBounty(
  string _data,
  uint64 _deadline
)
  public
  payable
  hasValue()
  validateDeadline(_deadline)
  returns (uint)
{
  bounties.push(Bounty(msg.sender, _deadline, _data, BountyStatus.CREATED, msg.value));
  emit BountyIssued(bounties.length - 1,msg.sender, msg.value, _data);
  return (bounties.length - 1);
}

There are a few things we would want to test within this function:

Helper Functions

Where we are expecting the input validation to fail, we expect to get a revert error from the EVM. You can [read more about error handling in Solidity here] (https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/v0.4.24/control-structures.html?highlight=revert#error-handling-assert-require-revert-and-exceptions)

Also to create our bounty, we'll need to pass in a deadline which is greater than the current timestamp on the EVM.

To do this we'll need to write some helper functions to assist us in writing our tests:

function getCurrentTime() {
  var block = web3.eth.getBlock("latest");
  return block.timestamp;
}

Object.assign(exports, {
  getCurrentTime
});

The above extract uses the web3 library to get the latest block from the EVM and from that return its timestamp. 

var assertRevert = async (promise, message) => {
  let noFailureMessage;
  try {
    await promise;

    if (!message) { 
      noFailureMessage = 'Expected revert not received' 
    } else {
      noFailureMessage = message;
    }

    assert.fail();
  } catch (error) {
    if (noFailureMessage) {
      assert.fail(0, 1, message);
    }
    const revertFound = error.message.search('revert') >= 0;
    assert(revertFound, `Expected "revert", got ${error} instead`);
  }
};

Object.assign(exports, {
  assertRevert
});

The above extract takes a promise as its first argument, which would be a web3 transaction, and an assertion fail message as the next. It wraps the promise in a try and catches the error, if the promise fails it checks if the error message contains the string "revert”.

We can now import our helper function into our bounties.js test file, by adding the following lines:

const getCurrentTime = require('./utils/time').getCurrentTime;
const assertRevert = require('./utils/assertRevert').assertRevert;
const dayInSeconds = 86400;

We also added a dayInSeconds constant, to help us add days.

Happy Path

The test for our first happy path looks like this:

it("Should allow a user to issue a new bounty", async () => {

    let currentTime = await getCurrentTime();
    let tx = await bountiesInstance.methods.issueBounty("data",
                              currentTime + (dayInSeconds * 2)).send({from: accounts[0], value: 500000000000000000});

    assert.strictEqual(Object.keys(tx.events).length, 1, "issueBounty() call did not log 1 event");
    const logBountyIssued = tx.events.BountyIssued;
    assert.equal(logBountyIssued.returnValues.bounty_id,0, "BountyIssued event logged did not have expected bounty_Id");
    assert.equal(logBountyIssued.returnValues.issuer, accounts[0], "BountyIssued event logged did not have expected issuer");
    assert.equal(logBountyIssued.returnValues.amount,500000000000000000, "BountyIssued event logged did not have expected amount");

});

There is alot going on here but its quite simple:

Our second happy path which tests making a call to issueBounty rather than sending a transaction looks like this:

it("Should return an integer when calling issueBounty", async () => {

    let currentTime = await getCurrentTime();
    let result = await bountiesInstance.methods.issueBounty("data",
                          currentTime + (dayInSeconds * 2)).call(
                          {from: accounts[0], value: 500000000000000000});

    assert.equal(result, 0, "issueBounty() call did not return correct id");
});

Above we add .call to issueBounty to make a call to the function rather than issuing a transaction. This returns the return value of the function rather than a transaction receipt.

Error Path

Our error path tests will involve us sending a transaction with invalid inputs as an argument to our assertRevert helper function

To test our payable keyword, we invoke a transaction without a value being set:

it("Should not allow a user to issue a bounty without sending ETH", async () => {

    let currentTime = await getCurrentTime();

    assertRevert(bountiesInstance.methods.issueBounty("data",
                          currentTime + (dayInSeconds * 2)).send(
                          {from: accounts[0]}), "Bounty issued without sending ETH");

});

To test our hasValue() modifier, we invoke our transaction with a value of 0:

it("Should not allow a user to issue a bounty when sending value of 0", async () => {

    let currentTime = await getCurrentTime();

    assertRevert(bountiesInstance.methods.issueBounty("data",
                        currentTime + (dayInSeconds * 2))
                        .send({from: accounts[0], value: 0}), "Bounty issued when sending value of 0");

});

To test our validateDeadline modifier, we need to send two transactions, one with a deadline set in the past, and another with a deadline set as now:

it("Should not allow a user to issue a bounty with a deadline in the past", async () => {

 let currentTime = await getCurrentTime();

 assertRevert(bountiesInstance.methods.issueBounty("data",
                        currentTime - 1).send({from: accounts[0], value: 0}), "Bounty issued with deadline in the past");

});

it("Should not allow a user to issue a bounty with a deadline of now", async () => {

 let currentTime = await getCurrentTime();

 assertRevert(bountiesInstance.methods.issueBounty("data",
                        currentTime)
                        .send({from: accounts[0], value: 0}), "Bounty issued with deadline of now");

});

So now if we run the embark test command we should see the following:

$ embark test

Compiling contracts


  Bounties
    ✓ Should allow a user to issue a new bounty (120ms)
    ✓ Should return an integer when calling issueBounty (83ms)
    ✓ Should not allow a user to issue a bounty without sending ETH
    ✓ Should not allow a user to issue a bounty when sending value of 0
    ✓ Should not allow a user to issue a bounty with a deadline in the past
    ✓ Should not allow a user to issue a bounty with a deadline of now


  6 passing (666ms)



  0 passing (0ms)

 > All tests passed

Time travel

One of the main tests is to check that a fulfilment should not be accepted if the deadline has passed. In order to test this, we will need to add a helper function which advances the timestamp of the EVM:

In the /test/utils/time.js file add the following:

function increaseTimeInSeconds(increaseInSeconds) {
    return new Promise(function(resolve) {
        web3.currentProvider.sendAsync({
            jsonrpc: "2.0",
            method: "evm_increaseTime",
            params: [increaseInSeconds],
            id: new Date().getTime()
        }, resolve);
    });
};

This function calls the evm_increaseTime RPC function of the ganache EVM to increase the EVM block timestamp.

Add the new increaseTimeInSeconds function to the exports section of the file:

Object.assign(exports, {
  increaseTimeInSeconds,
  getCurrentTime
});

In the bounties.js test file add the following line to import our new helper function:

const increaseTimeInSeconds = require('./utils/time').increaseTimeInSeconds;

We can then use this in our test as follows:

it("Should not allow a user to fulfil an existing bounty where the deadline has passed", async () => {

     let currentTime = await getCurrentTime();
     await bountiesInstance.issueBounty("data",
                     currentTime).send({from: accounts[0], value: 500000000000000000});

    await increaseTimeInSeconds((dayInSeconds * 2)+1)

    assertRevert(bountiesInstance.fulfillBounty(0,"data").send({from: accounts[1]}), "Fulfillment accepted when deadline has passed");

});

Try it yourself

Now that you have seen how to test the issueBounty function, try adding tests for the following functions:

You can find the [complete bounties.js test file here for reference] (https://github.com/kauri-io/kauri-fullstack-dapp-tutorial-series/blob/master/truffle-writing-tests/test/bounties.complete.js).