in reply to Stories from the front

making sure that a valid page (HTTP code is 200) gets returned

Unfortunately, you can't rely on a response code of 200 always indicating success - some web servers (I've heard) return that code even for a failed request. I think (I'm open to correction) your best bet is to check that the returned data is 'good' in some way, e.g.

my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new;
$mech->get( $page );
is( $mech->title(), "Alex's Wacky Widgets", "page GET success" );

[download]

or, with Test::WWW::Mechanize, which you might like to check out:

$mech->title_is( "Alex's Wacky Widgets" );
Life is denied by lack of attention,
whether it be to cleaning windows
or trying to write a masterpiece...
-- Nadia Boulanger

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Re^2: Stories from the front
by talexb (Chancellor) on Jan 05, 2009 at 01:03 UTC
      Unfortunately, you can't rely on a response code of 200 always indicating success - some web servers (I've heard) return that code even for a failed request.

    It turns out that I'm testing a web application that I'm maintaining -- so the application is well behaved in that regard. I check that the status was OK, and also check that the content is what I was expecting.

    And I expect to get a 200 Status even on a page that returns something like 'User not found' -- that isn't a protocol error, it's an application error. I also expect to get a 404 on a 'page not found' error, but for pages that are part of a package that may not be installed, that's OK. What I think you're describing is conflating an application error with a protocol error, which I don't think is right.

    And now I know to read the part of the module deltas that say something like "This may break your code" much more closely. :)

    Alex / talexb / Toronto

    "Groklaw is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds

[reply]
Re^2: Stories from the front
by mr_mischief (Monsignor) on Jan 05, 2009 at 14:52 UTC
    If your web server gives 200 as a response when the page is not present or the user is not authorized, then you need to use a different web server package. There are standards for these things for a reason. As talexb said already, don't confuse application conditions with protocol conditions.
[reply]

      You are, of course, both correct... If you distinguish between application errors and protocol errors (talexb), then the solution to inappropriate response codes (protocol errors) is indeed to get a new web server (mr_mischief).

      Also, I shouldn't have passed on second-hand advice when I don't know the source. Sorry.

      Life is denied by lack of attention,
      whether it be to cleaning windows
      or trying to write a masterpiece...
      -- Nadia Boulanger
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