Inferno Core

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Inferno Core is the central component of the Inferno Framework that allows you to write, execute, and distribute executable API conformance tests for the HL7® FHIR® standard standard.

To learn how to use the Inferno Framework and Inferno Core to develop your own FHIR API tests, visit Inferno Framework Documentation: Getting Started for Inferno Test Writers. If you’d like to get started right away, clone the Inferno Test Kit Template repository which provides a pre-configured project with Inferno Core that you can use to start creating tests.

About Inferno Core

Inferno Core is a Ruby library used to create Ruby-based test applications (called Inferno Test Kits) and provides features useful for writing and executing FHIR API tests:

  • Inferno DSL: A domain specific language for authoring FHIR API tests that includes a FHIR client, native Ruby classes for FHIR, and FHIR instance validators
  • API, Web and CLI Interfaces: Multiple interfaces for executing tests and retrieving results
  • Test Reuse: Methods for reusing tests within a project or from other projects

Because tests are written as Ruby scripts, test writers are able to leverage a fully-featured programming language and a rich ecosystem of open source third-party libraries to write their tests if needed. This makes Inferno well-suited for testing data exchanges that:

  • include the use of additional standards beyond FHIR,
  • have large specifications that could benefit from Ruby’s meta-programming capabilities to ease maintenance burden,
  • or require complex logic to thoroughly validate API responses.

Inferno Core provides common utilities for FHIR-based testing, but tests are not limited to what is provided by Inferno Core. Inferno Core’s goal is to expand on the set of common utilities it provides for the benefit of the community.

To learn more about Inferno Framework and Inferno Core, please visit: - Inferno Framework documentation - Inferno Core Ruby API documentation - Inferno Core JSON API documentation

Contributing to Inferno Core

Inferno Core contains functionality that should be broadly useful for testing any FHIR-based data exchange, and the team welcomes contributions. Developers interested in contributing to the Inferno Core gem must have Ruby 3.1+ and Node.js and NPM installed.

If you are interested in developing tests using Inferno Core, use the Inferno Template Repository. These instructions are for developers working on Inferno Core itself.

Running Inferno Core for Development Purposes

``` # Install dependencies npm install bundle install gem install foreman

Set up database

bin/inferno migrate

Start Inferno background services (validator, redis, nginx)

bin/inferno services start # Start web server, worker, and webpack bin/inferno start

When you’re done, stop the background services

bin/inferno services stop ```

Inferno Core can then be accessed by navigating to http://localhost:4567/inferno

To only run the server (JSON API with no UI): bundle exec puma

If you would like to test other test suites with changes being made to Inferno Core, you may do so by following the instructions provided in the Gemfile:

```ruby # To test with the g10 test kit (this also adds the US Core, SMART, and TLS test # kits): # - Uncomment this line (and change test kit gem as necessary): # gem ‘onc_certification_g10_test_kit’

- Run bundle

# - Uncomment (and change as necessary) the require at the top of # dev_suites/dev_demo_ig_stu1/demo_suite.rb.

```

Running tests via JSON API

With the server running, first retrieve a list of available test suites: GET http://localhost:4567/inferno/api/test_suites See the details of a test suite: GET http://localhost:4567/inferno/api/test_suites/TEST_SUITE_ID Then create a test session for the suite you want to use: POST http://localhost:4567/inferno/api/test_sessions?test_suite_id=TEST_SUITE_ID Tests within a suite are organized in groups. Create a test run to run an entire suite, a group, or an individual test. Only one of test_suite_id, test_group_id, or test_id should be provided. POST http://localhost:4567/inferno/api/test_runs { "test_session_id": "TEST_SESSION_ID", "test_suite_id": "TEST_SUITE_ID", "test_group_id": "TEST_GROUP_ID", "test_id": "TEST_ID", "inputs": [ { "name": "input1", "value": "input1 value" }, { "name": "input2", "value": "input2 value" } ] } Then you can view the results of the test run: GET http://localhost:4567/inferno/api/test_runs/TEST_RUN_ID/results or GET http://localhost:4567/inferno/api/test_sessions/TEST_SESSION_ID/results

Running on Windows

Inferno Core requires a WSL instance in order to run. Instructions for setting that up can be found at the Inferno Framework documentation

Development in a Ruby console

To get to an interactive console, run bundle exec bin/inferno console

Customizable Banner

Inferno Core allows you to add your own customizable banner. It loads the banner from the config/banner.html.erb file and renders it above the application. The size and appearance of the banner can be controlled by using the inline style attribute.

Documentation

Inferno documentation source code is located in the docs/ directory. This documentation is rendered using Jekyll, which creates a site that can be built and served with:

sh cd docs/ bundle install bundle exec jekyll serve By default the site will be served at http://localhost:4000/inferno-core/

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Trademark Notice

HL7, FHIR and the FHIR [FLAME DESIGN] are the registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International and their use does not constitute endorsement by HL7.