Get it here:

gem install responsalizr

Responsalizr is a very small and very simple gem I’ve written that extends the standard ruby Net::HTTPResponse class with a few methods to allow for idiomatic testing of HTTP response codes. The methods added are:

1. A numeric response code comparer:
   • code?(integer) #eg: code?(200), code?(404)
2. Response type name comparers:
   • ok? – corresponds to code 200
   • not_found? – corresponds to code 404
   • moved_permanently? – corresponds to a 301
   • etc…

   The response type name compare methods are derived from the subclasses of Net::HTTPResponse; you can find a table with their names at the bottom of this post.

Here is an example rspec script that demonstrates what you can do with responsalizr. Each test does the same thing twice; once doing a numeric response code compare, the other doing a response type name compare:

require 'rubygems'
require 'responsalizr'

include Responsalizr

describe "Google" do
  it "should respond to the uk homepage with a 200 or an ok" do
    Response.from("http://www.google.co.uk").should be_ok
    Response.from("http://www.google.co.uk").should be_a_code 200
  end

  it "should respond with a 404 or not found" do
    Response.from("http://www.google.com/bing.aspx").should be_not_found
    Response.from("http://www.google.com/bing.aspx").should be_a_code 404
  end

  it "should respond with a 302 or a moved permanently" do
    Response.from("http://finance.google.com").should be_moved_permanently
    Response.from("http://finance.google.com").should be_a_code 301
  end

  it "should be testable through a proxy" do
    Response.from("http://www.google.co.uk", {:proxy_host => "63.223.106.54", :port => 80}).should be_ok
    Response.from("http://www.google.co.uk", {:proxy_host => "63.223.106.54", :port => 80}).should be_a_code(200)
  end
end

Chose whichever way you like (codes/names) and – I’ve only used both above for demonstration purposes.

So, if all you’re doing is testing HTTP responses for their code (whether you want to do that with codes – 404 – or names – not_found) then responsalizr is the thing for you.

About the specific response name methods and their respective codes, here’s a table that summarizes them:

Because of the rspec (and cucumber) predicate magic, you can use, eg, the bad_gateway?, the forbidden? and the internal_server_error? method as follows:


...should be_a_bad_gateway
...should be_forbidden
...should be_an_internal_server_error


Happy HTTP Response Code testing!