manan164 / workflow-cicd

Conductor Workflow Testing Guide

Unit and Regression testing workflows

Unit Tests

Conductor workflows can be unit tested using POST /workflow/test endpoint. The approach is similar to how you unit test using Mock objects in Java or similar languages.

Why Unit Test Workflows?

Unit tests allows you to test for the correctness of the workflow definition ensuring:

1. Given a specific input workflow reaches the terminal state in COMPLETED or FAILED state
2. Given a specific input, the workflow executes specific set of tasks. This is useful for testing branching and dynamic forks
3. Task inputs are wired correctly - e.g. if a task receives its input from the output of another task, this can be verified using the unit test.

Unit Testing Workflows

Java SDK provides the following method that allows testing a workflow definition against mock inputs:

    public abstract Workflow testWorkflow(WorkflowTestRequest testRequest);

The actual workflow is executed on a real Conductor server ensuring you are testing the behavior that will match the ACTUAL executon of the server.

Setting up Conductor server for testing

Tests can be run against a remote server (useful when running integration tests) or local containerized instance. Recommended approach is to use testcontainers.

Examples

Unit Test

• LoanWorkflowTest.java
• Testing workflows that contain sub-workflows : SubWorkflowTest.java

Regression Test

Workflows can be regression tested with golden inputs and outputs. This approach is useful when modifying workflows that are running in production to ensure the behavior remains correct.

See RegressionTest.java for an example, which uses previously captured workflow execution as golden input/output to verify the workflow execution.