Getting Started for Inferno Users

Start here if you’re interested in testing a FHIR server against one or more existing Test Kits.

Running an Existing Test Kit

Most Test Kits are developed using the Inferno Template repository, which provides scripts for standing up an instance of Inferno to run a selected Test Kit. Running a Test Kit usually follows the below steps:

1. Install Docker.
2. Clone the repository for the Test Kit you want to run.
3. Run ./setup.sh in the Test Kit repository directory to retrieve the necessary docker images and create a database.
4. Run ./run.sh to start Inferno.
5. Navigate to http://localhost to access Inferno.

For example, to run the US Core Test Kit:

git clone https://github.com/inferno-framework/us-core-test-kit.git
cd us-core-test-kit
./setup.sh
./run.sh

Always check the documentation for an individual Test Kit, however, since there may be additional installation steps.

Running Multiple Test Kits

There may be times when you wish to run multiple Test Kits in a single Inferno instance. You can load and run two or more separate Test Kits by using Inferno Template.

To create and deploy a custom combination of Test Kits with the Inferno Template first create a new repository based off the template or clone the template:

git clone https://github.com/inferno-framework/inferno-template.git

Add Test Kits you want to include to the Gemfile:

# Gem published on rubygems
gem 'smart_app_launch_test_kit'
# Gem available via git
gem 'us_core_test_kit',
    git: 'https://github.com/inferno-framework/us-core-test-kit.git',
    branch: 'main'

To enable the Test Kits, require them in in lib/inferno_template.rb:

require 'smart_app_launch_test_kit'
require 'us_core_test_kit'

Inferno relies on external validation services for profile validation; by default, Inferno uses the HL7 Validator Wrapper.

For Test Kits that require profile validation, such as the US Core Test Kit, the corresponding Implementation Guide needs to be placed in the lib/inferno_deployment/igs/ directory as a .tgz file (i.e., package.tgz). Inferno Test Kits already have the IGs in their repository, so you can easily just copy it over from that Test Kit into your template directory.

For example, if you want to include the US Core IG in your template directory:

git clone https://github.com/inferno-framework/us-core-test-kit.git
cp -a us-core-test-kit/lib/us_core_test_kit/igs/. inferno-template/lib/inferno_template/igs/

Once this is done you can build and run the instance:

cd inferno_template
./setup.sh
./run.sh

Note: Example Test Suites, Groups, Tests and IGs in the template can be removed.