how can you stub calls to GitHub for testing? - unit-testing

Question

I need to create a Pull Request comment using go-github, and my code works, but now I'd like to write tests for it (yes, I'm aware that tests should come first), so that I don't actually call the real GitHub service during test.
I've read 3 blogs on golang stubbing and mocking, but, being new to golang, I'm a bit lost, despite this discussion on go-github issues. For example, I wrote the following function:
// this is my function
func GetClient(token string, url string) (*github.Client, context.Context, error) {
ctx := context.Background()
ts := oauth2.StaticTokenSource(
&oauth2.Token{AccessToken: token},
)
tc := oauth2.NewClient(ctx, ts)
client, err := github.NewEnterpriseClient(url, url, tc)
if err != nil {
fmt.Printf("error creating github client: %q", err)
return nil, nil, err
}
return client, ctx, nil
}
How could I stub that?
Similarly, I have this:
func GetPRComments(ctx context.Context, client *github.Client) ([]*github.IssueComment, *github.Response, error) {
opts := &github.IssueListCommentsOptions{
ListOptions: github.ListOptions{
Page: 1,
PerPage: 30,
},
}
githubPrNumber, err := strconv.Atoi(os.Getenv("GITHUB_PR_NUMBER"))
if err != nil || githubPrNumber == 0 {
panic("error: GITHUB_PR_NUMBER is not numeric or empty")
}
// use Issues API for PR comments since GitHub docs say "This may seem counterintuitive... but a...Pull Request is just an Issue with code"
comments, response, err := client.Issues.ListComments(
ctx,
os.Getenv("GITHUB_OWNER"),
os.Getenv("GITHUB_REPO"),
githubPrNumber,
opts)
if err != nil {
return nil, nil, err
}
return comments, response, nil
}
How should I stub that?
My thought was to perhaps use dependency injection by creating my own structs first, but I'm not sure how, so currently I have this:
func TestGetClient(t *testing.T) {
client, ctx, err := GetClient(os.Getenv("GITHUB_TOKEN"), "https://example.com/api/v3/")
c, r, err := GetPRComments(ctx, client)
...
}

Answer 1

I would start with an interface:
type ClientProvider interface {
GetClient(token string, url string) (*github.Client, context.Context, error)
}
When testing a unit that needs to call GetClient make sure you depend on your ClientProvider interface:
func YourFunctionThatNeedsAClient(clientProvider ClientProvider) error {
// build you token and url
// get a github client
client, ctx, err := clientProvider.GetClient(token, url)
// do stuff with the client
return nil
}
Now in your test, you can construct a stub like this:
// A mock/stub client provider, set the client func in your test to mock the behavior
type MockClientProvider struct {
GetClientFunc func(string, string) (*github.Client, context.Context, error)
}
// This will establish for the compiler that MockClientProvider can be used as the interface you created
func (provider *MockClientProvider) GetClient(token string, url string) (*github.Client, context.Context, error) {
return provider.GetClientFunc(token, url)
}
// Your unit test
func TestYourFunctionThatNeedsAClient(t *testing.T) {
mockGetClientFunc := func(token string, url string) (*github.Client, context.Context, error) {
// do your setup here
return nil, nil, nil // return something better than this
}
mockClientProvider := &MockClientProvider{GetClientFunc: mockGetClientFunc}
// Run your test
err := YourFunctionThatNeedsAClient(mockClientProvider)
// Assert your result
}
These ideas aren't my own, I borrowed them from those who came before me; Mat Ryer suggested this (and other ideas) in a great video about "idiomatic golang".
If you want to stub the github client itself, a similar approach can be used, if github.Client is a struct, you can shadow it with an interface. If it is already an interface, the above approach works directly.