Local testing of apps

These are some of the required steps, tips and tricks when it comes to running an app on a machine. The primary goal is to be able to iterate over changes and verifying them without needing to deploy the app to the test environment.

• Prerequisites
• Setup
• Changing test data

Prerequisites

1. Newest .NET 6 SDK
2. Newest Git
3. A code editor - we like Visual Studio Code
   • Also install recommended extensions ( f.ex. C#)
4. Docker Desktop (Linux users can also use native Docker)

Setup

1. Clone the app-localtest repository to a local folder

   git clone https://github.com/Altinn/app-localtest
   cd app-localtest

2. Build and run the containers in the background. This mode supports running one app at a time. If you need to run multiple apps at once, remove --profile localtest from the command and follow the instructions below to run LocalTest locally outside Docker.

   docker compose --profile localtest up -d --build

   Note: Using profiles requires docker-compose version 1.28.0 or later. If your version does not support profiles and you prefer to run localtest in Docker, make sure to follow the instructions to install more a recent version or comment out the profile restriction in docker-compose.yml.

3. Start your app

   cd /path/to/your/App
   dotnet run

The app and local platform services are now running locally. The app can be accessed on http://local.altinn.cloud.

Log in with a test user, using your app name and org name. This will redirect you to the app.

Changing configuration

The Docker Compose config can be changed with local environment variables. There is a template file for the .env file here, rename it to .env and uncomment some variables that you want different values for.

Sometimes the local environment have another service running on port 80, so you might need to change this.

ALTINN3LOCAL_PORT=80

If you want to see the storage files on disk (instead of reading them through the browser), change this to a local path on your computer (ensure that it exists)

ALTINN3LOCALSTORAGE_PATH=C:/AltinnPlatformLocal/

If you want to use another domain than local.altinn.cloud for local testing you could do that this way:

TEST_DOMAIN=local.altinn.cloud

Multiple apps at the same time (running LocalTest locally)

The setup described above (LocalTest running in Docker) currently only supports one app at a time. If you find yourself needing to run multiple apps at the same time, or if you need to debug or develop LocalTest, a local setup is preferred.

ℹ️ If you're already running LocalTest in Docker, be sure to stop the container or make sure you omit --profile localtest when running docker compose.

Configuration of LocalTest The LocalTest application acts as an emulator of the Altinn 3 platform services. It provides things like authentication, authorization and storage. Everything your apps will need to run locally.

Settings (under LocalPlatformSettings):

• LocalAppMode - (default file) If set to http, LocalTest will find the active app configuration and policy.xml using apis exposed on LocalAppUrl. (note that this is a new setting needs to be added manually under LocalPlatformSettings, it might also require updates to altinn dependencies for your apps in order to support this functionality)
• LocalAppUrl - If LocalAppMode == "http", this URL will be used instead of AppRepositoryBasePath to find apps and their files. Typically the value will be "http://localhost:5005"
• LocalTestingStorageBasePath - The folder to which LocalTest will store instances and data being created during testing.
• AppRepositoryBasePath - The folder where LocalTest will look for apps and their files if LocalAppMode == "file". This is typically the parent directory where you checkout all your apps.
• LocalTestingStaticTestDataPath - Test user data like profile, register and roles. (<path to altinn-studio repo>/testdata/)

The recommended way of changing settings for LocalTest is through user-secrets. User secrets is a set of developer specific settings that will overwrite values from the appsettings.json file when the application is started in developer "mode". The alternative is to edit the appsettings.json file directly. Just be careful not to commit developer specific changes back to the repository.

• Define a user secret with the following command: (make sure you are in the LocalTest folder)

  dotnet user-secrets set "LocalPlatformSettings:AppRepositoryBasePath" "C:\Repos"

  Run the command for each setting you want to change.
• Alternatively edit the appsettings.json file directly:
  • Open appsettings.json in the LocalTest folder in an editor, for example in Visual Studio Code
  • Change the setting "AppRepsitoryBasePath" to the full path to your app on the disk.
  • Change other settings as needed.
  • Save the file.

Finally, start the local platform services (make sure you are in the /src folder)

cd /src
dotnet run

Changing test data

In some cases your application might differ from the default setup and require custom changes to the test data available. This section contains the most common changes.

Add a missing role for a test user

This would be required if your app requires a role which none of the test users have.

1. Identify the role list you need to modify by noting the userId of the user representing an entity, and the partyId of the entity you want to represent
2. Find the correct roles.json file in testdata/authorization/roles by navigating to User_{userID}\party_{partyId}\roles.json
3. Add a new entry in the list for the role you require

{
  "Type": "altinn",
  "value": "[Insert role code here]"
}

4. Save and close the file
5. Restart LocalTest