Pass URL encoded string as parameter in path

[alexverse]

I want to test an endpoint that accepts URL-encoded file paths ("/hello/:file_path"). However, the app$get() method throws a 404-error.

I'm also sharing a real-world example from the GitLab API, where the file_path parameter is URL encoded.

library(testthat)
library(webfakes)
library(urltools)
library(httr2, warn.conflicts = FALSE)
library(glue)

app <- webfakes::new_app()
app$get("/hello/:file_path", function(req, res) {
  res$send(paste0("Return content of ", req$params$file_path, "!"))
})
web <- webfakes::local_app_process(app)

test_that("can use hello API", {
  url <- web$url("/hello")
  file_path <- urltools::url_encode("path/to/file.json")

  #This works OK
  # file_path <- "foo"
 
  response <- httr2::request(url) %>%
    httr2::req_url_path_append(file_path) %>%
    httr2::req_perform() %>%
    httr2::resp_body_string()
  
  expected_resp <- glue::glue("Return content of {file_path}!")
  expect_equal(response, expected_resp)
})
#> ── Error: can use hello API ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#> <httr2_http_404/httr2_http/httr2_error/rlang_error/error/condition>
#> Error in `httr2::req_perform(.)`: HTTP 404 Not Found.
#> Backtrace:
#>     ▆
#>  1. ├─... %>% httr2::resp_body_string()
#>  2. ├─httr2::resp_body_string(.)
#>  3. │ └─httr2:::check_response(resp)
#>  4. │   └─httr2:::is_response(resp)
#>  5. └─httr2::req_perform(.)
#>  6.   └─httr2:::handle_resp(req, resp, error_call = error_call)
#>  7.     └─httr2:::resp_abort(resp, req, body, call = error_call)
#>  8.       └─rlang::abort(...)
#> Error:
#> ! Test failed

^{Created on 2025-01-09 with reprex v2.1.0}

[gaborcsardi]

It seems like the web server decodes the path in the URL automatically. IDK if this is what web servers are supposed to do, the GitLab web server is not doing it apparently.

This might be ok for the fake api, or might not. E.g. for

/projects/:id/repository/files/:file_path

it is OK, because you can take the rest or the path as file_path. For

GET /projects/:id/repository/files/:file_path/blame

it it not OK, because you won't know if /blame is part of the path or not.

Unfortunately the web server we are using in internally does not give us access to the raw URL, AFAICT. For a fake app you can work around this by checking if the suffix of the path is something that would indicate another API endpoint. (And not using a path that ends with /blame etc. in your tests.)

This is how to match the rest of the path with a regex, btw:

app$get(
  webfakes::new_regexp("^/hello/(?<path>.*)$"),
  function(req, res) {
    res$send(paste0("Return content of ", req$params$path, "!"))
  }
)

[gaborcsardi]

Actually, it seems like the web server has an option for this, which we could expose. I'll submit a PR in a minute.

[gaborcsardi]

PR here: #107

[alexverse]

Looks great! 🎉