Concepts

Table of Contents

  1. Key Terms

Key Terms

  • Inferno Test Kit: A distributable set of tests and tools built and packaged using Inferno to help testers evaluate the conformance of a system to requirements of the FHIR base specification, relevant FHIR Implementation Guides, and any additional requirements. Example: the ONC g10 certification test kit. Test kits primarily are composed of a Test Suite, which represents executable tests, but may include other tools such as FHIR resource validators or reference implementations.
  • Inferno Deployment: A web host that is running one or more Inferno Test Kits. Inferno Test Kits can be run as an Inferno Deployment on users local machines without any additional configuration. Alternately, an Inferno Deployment can host multiple Inferno Test Kits and run on a shared service, such as is the case for https://inferno.healthit.gov. A deployment provides a web interface as well as a RESTful API to enable third party integration.
  • Inferno Test Suite: An executable set of tests provided within an Inferno Test Kit that allows testers to evaluate the conformance of a system. The tests are organized hierarchically. They may import tests from other Test Kits. It may be the expectation of a Test Suite that a conformant system will pass all provided tests, or that the system may fail some tests. An individual test suite defines how to interpret failures at the test level and in aggregate.
  • Inferno Core: The primary library of inferno, which testers can use to build Inferno Test Kits. It provides the main logic of Inferno. It provides a CLI, a web interface for executing tests, integration with data persistence layers and 3rd party validators. Conceptually, Inferno core is similar to Ruby on Rails or React + create-react-app.
  • Inferno Template: A starting point for writing new Inferno Test Suites.
  • Inferno Test DSL: A Domain Specific Language (DSL) that test writers use to define the tests provided in the Inferno Test Suite. The DSL provides built-in functionality useful in testing FHIR APIs, such as FHIR client and built-in assertion libraries. See documentation.
  • Inferno Validators: Tools that validate the correctness of a piece of data against a set of rules defined within a context. Inferno Tests typically fetch data and validate the response using a validator. Examples: FHIR Profile Validator, FHIR Terminology Validator. Inferno typically performs these functions by providing common third party validators (e.g. HL7 FHIR Validator).
  • Inferno Reference Implementations: An Inferno Test Kit may provide one or more Reference Implementations, which can be useful to develop tests against or to help interact with third party solutions. Example: G10 Reference API.