Code Structure

The XNAT REST tests rely on two custom libraries:

• grxnat: https://bitbucket.org/xnatdev/grxnat . If you're familiar with PyXNAT or xnatpy, this is a similar project where interacting with XNAT over REST is exposed in groovy (rather than python). While grxnat is written in groovy, it's compiled to a Java jar so it can be used within the Java-based REST tests. The mechanism for actually building, issuing, and validating the HTTP calls is done using the REST-assured (https://rest-assured.io/) library. The functionality for interacting with XNAT is all accessible via the XnatInterface class. The following library offers several easy ways to grab XnatInterface objects corresponding to standard test accounts.

• nrg_test: 

  https://bitbucket.org/xnatdev/nrg_test

  . This library is also groovy-based but compiled as a jar. The library extends the functionality of TestNG (

  https://testng.org/doc/

  ) to provide the testing framework for XNAT. It provides:

  • Base test classes to be used for writing XNAT tests

  • Annotations for customizing various aspects of XNAT tests (see Test control/specification via annotations)

  • Additional code for issuing direct commands to the tested XNAT instance over SSH, or for issuing direct database calls

  • Various other reusable shortcuts for bridging the gap between grxnat (which is intended to be more of a general-use XNAT groovy SDK) and desired functionality for testing

The XNAT REST tests themselves (https://bitbucket.org/xnatdev/xnat_rest_tests) are fully Java, so adding/modifying tests requires no knowledge of groovy.