External LibrariesExternal Test CasesOverview

External Test Cases

External Test Cases let developers write complete tests as code while integrating with ReAPI’s visual test flows.

What Are External Test Cases?

External Test Cases are:

  • Complete test functions written in your IDE
  • Integrated with visual flows - QA can include them in test suites
  • Tagged and organized - Filter by smoke, regression, auth, etc.
  • Fully typed - TypeScript support with autocomplete

Why Use External Test Cases?

ChallengeSolution
Complex test logic hard to express visuallyWrite in code with full IDE support
Tests need version control and code reviewStandard Git workflow
Want to unit test your test casesRun locally before deployment
Need existing test patterns/frameworksUse familiar testing approaches
QA can’t orchestrate developer testsQA selects and runs via visual flows

The Developer-QA Bridge

Developer                              QA Team
    │                                     │
    ▼                                     │
┌────────────────┐                        │
│ Write tests    │                        │
│ in IDE         │                        │
│ ─────────────  │                        │
│ • TypeScript   │                        │
│ • Unit tests   │                        │
│ • Code review  │                        │
└───────┬────────┘                        │
        │                                 │
        ▼                                 │
┌────────────────┐                        │
│ Tag and        │                        │
│ organize       │                        │
│ ─────────────  │                        │
│ smoke, auth,   │                        │
│ regression...  │                        │
└───────┬────────┘                        │
        │                                 │
        ▼                                 ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           ReAPI Test Platform               │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │ QA builds visual test flows using:   │   │
│  │ • Visual API nodes                   │   │
│  │ • External test case nodes           │   │
│  │ • Tag-based test selectors           │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Quick Example

import { testCase } from '@reapi/test-sdk'
 
export const loginTest = testCase(
  {
    id: 'auth-login',
    name: 'User Login',
    description: 'Validates user login flow',
    tags: ['auth', 'smoke', 'critical'],
    priority: 1,
    timeout: 15000,
  },
  async () => {
    // Make API request
    const response = await fetch(`${$server.baseUrl}/api/auth/login`, {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        email: $vars.testUserEmail,
        password: $secrets.testUserPassword,
      }),
    })
 
    const data = await response.json()
 
    // Record assertions
    $addAssertionResult({
      passed: response.status === 200,
      message: response.status === 200
        ? 'Login returned 200'
        : `Expected 200, got ${response.status}`,
      operator: 'statusCode',
      leftValue: response.status,
      rightValue: 200,
    })
 
    $addAssertionResult({
      passed: !!data.token,
      message: data.token ? 'Token received' : 'No token in response',
      operator: 'hasToken',
      leftValue: !!data.token,
      rightValue: true,
    })
 
    // Store for subsequent tests
    if (data.token) {
      $context.authToken = data.token
    }
  }
)

How QA Uses Your Tests

Once deployed and synced:

  1. External Test Case Node - Run a specific test
  2. External Test Case Selector - Run tests by tags
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│            Visual Test Flow                  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                             │
│  ┌─────────┐    ┌─────────────────────┐     │
│  │  Start  │───▶│ External Test Case  │     │
│  └─────────┘    │ ─────────────────── │     │
│                 │ Test: auth-login    │     │
│                 └──────────┬──────────┘     │
│                            │                │
│                            ▼                │
│                 ┌─────────────────────┐     │
│                 │ External Selector   │     │
│                 │ ─────────────────── │     │
│                 │ Tags: ["payments"]  │     │
│                 │ Mode: ALL           │     │
│                 └──────────┬──────────┘     │
│                            │                │
│                            ▼                │
│                 ┌─────────────────────┐     │
│                 │ Visual API Node     │     │
│                 │ ─────────────────── │     │
│                 │ POST /api/cleanup   │     │
│                 └─────────────────────┘     │
│                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Next Steps

UtilitiesWriting Test Cases