Setting a delay between tests

[gregorojstersek]

Hi!

I would like to ask, if it's possible to set a delay between tests?

Like:

steps:
      - name: createUser
      - delay
      - name: updateUser

[mishushakov]

Do you have a use-case where this would be useful?

[gregorojstersek]

I do.

• send a request (test createUser)
  • side effect happens, that creates a certain entity (createAccount)
• get that newly created entity (test getAccount)

Without delay, I'm not able to get that newly created entity.

[mishushakov]

Cool, I'll consider adding it
How do you test this currently?

[gregorojstersek]

I don't. I tried putting some more tests in between, but I'm not getting consistent results. The results seem to be flaky - sometimes it works / sometimes not unfortunately.

[AndrewFarley]

I could see this could be useful in certain systems (like AWS) which follow an eventual consistency model. There's a possible different way to solve this because a delay isn't a guarantee that the user is created. Perhaps there's a way to solve this by having a step which is a "validation/check" step which allows repeating (in this case, to try to GET the /user object every few seconds. Sorry if this is already possible, if it is it isn't obvious.

Example...

version: "1.1"
name: Status Check
env:
  host: example.com
tests:
  example:
    steps:
      - name: CREATE user
        http:
          url: https://${{env.host}}/
          method: POST
          contents: {username: 123, password: 123}
          check:
            status: /^20/
      - check: Validate user exists
        http:
          url: https://${{env.host}}/123
          method: GET
          check:
            status: /^20/
         retry:
            interval: 3s
            timeout: 10s
            max_retries: 10         

[mishushakov]

Love the Idea!
Indeed, I'm thinking of adding retries, but I'll first have to consider which changes are required to our code-base

[sebastianwis]

Hey Farley @AndrewFarley and @gregorojstersek
Thank you once again for your contribution here!
It would be amazing to welcome you to our Discord if you haven't joined it yet:
https://discord.com/invite/KqJJzJ3BTu
This is where we keep users up to date with updates, features and bug resolutions.

[mishushakov]

Hey @gregorojstersek we have just added a delay step type

Example:

version: "1.1"
name: Status Check
env:
  host: example.com
tests:
  example:
    steps:
      - name: GET request
        http:
          url: https://${{env.host}}
          method: GET
          check:
            status: /^20/
      - delay: 1s