Tests and Honeybadger

It is possible to test Honeybadger's integration with your application using the included test backend.

The test backend replaces the default server backend with a stub that records error notices rather than sending them, allowing all but the HTTP notification itself to be verified. Alternatively, you could use something like WebMock to perform a similar test using the "server" backend.

Configuring the Test Backend

To use the test backend, set the backend configuration option to "test" in honeybadger.yml for your test environment only:

yaml

api_key: "Your project API key"
test:
  backend: test

You can also use the HONEYBADGER_BACKEND environment variable to configure the test backend. Note that you must also configure your API key for the test to succeed.

Writing the Integration Test

The test backend can be used in any testing framework to test any code which reports an error with Honeybadger.notify. A common scenario is to test the Rails-integration which reports exceptions in a Rails controller automatically.

The following example uses RSpec to test error notification in a Rails controller.

First, create the controller:

ruby

  

# app/controllers/honeybadger_test_controller.rb
class HoneybadgerTestController < ApplicationController
  ERROR = RuntimeError.new("testing reporting an error to Honeybadger")

  def index
    raise ERROR
  end
end

Next, create a route. For security, it's a good idea to enable the route only in the test environment:

ruby

  # config/routes.rb

  # ...
  get '/test/honeybadger' => 'honeybadger_test#index' if Rails.env.test?

Finally, create the integration test:

ruby

  

# spec/features/honeybadger_spec.rb
require 'rails_helper'

describe "error notification" do
  it "notifies Honeybadger" do
    expect {
      # Code to test goes here:
      expect { visit '/test/honeybadger' }.to raise_error(HoneybadgerTestController::ERROR)

      # Important: `Honeybadger.flush` ensures that asynchronous notifications
      # are delivered before the test's remaining expectations are verified.
      Honeybadger.flush
    }.to change(Honeybadger::Backend::Test.notifications[:notices], :size).by(1)
    expect(Honeybadger::Backend::Test.notifications[:notices].first.error_message).to eq('testing reporting an error to Honeybadger')
  end
end