Best practices for testing a web app based on http calls

I've built a web app that aggregates trading and blockchain data from several API's and displays them in a React frontend(node backend)

What is the best way to implement tests to check for data integrity or when there are issues?

I am extremely new to testing and would appreciate any guidance/direction. Have gone through several testing frameworks and libraries, and am kind of dumbfounded.

1 Answer
1

You don't really test apps for 'integrity' of data as you name it.
Especially when data comes from external (not your DB for example) sources.
If you own data, you can test DB integrity, but as you say that is not the case here.

What you do though is - write unit tests (functional, recursive, end2end tests too, but what you want to do will mostly be achieved by using unit tests).
Within tests, you basically provide all kinds of data to your app and check if results are what you expect them to be (both for working and breaking scenarios).
This way, you can be sure it works as you designed it.

If at one point somewhere in future, a bug is exposed or you find it yourself. Define precisely why the bug occurs and add test for it.
When after you fix code responsible for bug, all of your tests pass, you know you are good again.

As for libraries:

"Jest" https://jestjs.io/ is go-to library for many - it's for unit tests mostly.
Jasmine and Mocha are also popular choices.

For end to end testing check Testcafe - I recommend it.
https://github.com/DevExpress/testcafe

You should also test your API with Mocha, Chai, Supertest or Chakram.

This way, all layers of your app are covered and bugs can be spotted quicker.

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