Interactive Testing

Testing is crucial to ensuring a smooth integration process. This section of the documentation walks you through the process of interactively testing everything that you've written so far. Don't forget to write your test files!

Interactive command-line testing is available using DuckPAN for Goodie and Spice Instant Answer types.

This section assumes you've set up your development environment and worked through either the Basic Goodie Tutorial or the Basic Spice Tutorial.

1. Enter the root directory of your forked Instant Answer repository:

   Log in to Codio and visit the dashboard. In the menu, click Codio > Dashboard

   Click on the DuckDuckHack project, which you previously forked and cloned.

   Next, open a terminal window if it's not already open. (Tools > Terminal).

   At the command prompt, change into your repository directory, for example:

    cd zeroclickinfo-goodies
   

   The command line prompt will now indicate the repository and branch you are in, for example:

    [ codio@border-carlo workspace zeroclickinfo-goodies {master}]$
   

2. Next, use the DuckPAN tool to test your triggers interactively:

   Type this command at the command line.

    duckpan query
   

   This command will present you with an interactive prompt.

    Loading Instant Answers...
   
    (Empty query for ending test)                                                   
    Query:
   

   In some environments, the duckpan query command may print a long list of country aliases - that's perfectly fine. The end of the output will still display the Query: prompt.

   Now type in any query to see the response.

   Typing a query here is just like using DuckDuckGo.com, except you're only viewing the ZeroClickInfo response, and in its raw form.

   In the following example, we've entered chars this is a test into the prompt and received the following response:

    Query: chars this is a test
   
    DDG::ZeroClickInfo  {
        Parents       WWW::DuckDuckGo::ZeroClickInfo
        Linear @ISA   DDG::ZeroClickInfo, WWW::DuckDuckGo::ZeroClickInfo, Moo::Object
        public methods (3) : is_cached, new, ttl
        private methods (0)
        internals: {
            answer   14,
            answer_type   "chars",
            is_cached   1
        }
    }
   

   There can be a lot of debugging output. Pay special attention to the internals section.

        internals: {
            answer   14,
            answer_type   "chars",
            is_cached   1
        }
   

   Here you can see the answer returned, as well as any zci keywords (by default there will be an answer_type and is_cached value).

   A blank query will exit interactive mode.

    Query:
   
    \_o< Thanks for testing!