Automate Chuck Norris jokes

In this automation example we are going to automate a simple workflow from Chucknorris.io. Read more about the API on the site.

The workflow we are trying to automate is:

1. Get all the jokes categories
2. Get jokes by a given category, for all categories found on step 1.

The process we are going to follow:

1. Create a file called joke_categories_rq.chk; put a HTTP spec. doc that fetch all the joke categories.
2. Create a file called joke_for_category_rq.chk; put a HTTP spec. doc that fetch the jokes under a given category.
3. We'll write a Python script that does following:
   1. Call the joke_categories_rq.chk using chk command, parse the response
   2. Prepare a list of all available jokes categories from the response, and randomly choose one category
   3. Call joke_for_category_rq.chk using chk command and pass the chosen category, and parse the response
   4. Print out some information found on response

↗️ Code sample

1. Fetch all the joke categories

• We'll begin with vscode. Just create a new file called joke_categories_rq.chk.

• In the vscode command pallet start type: chkware. In the available command dropdown find CHKware: Add Http spec. snippet. Then select http: Minimal request from the next dropdown.

• Change the url: ... so the file content looks like following. Then save the file.

  ---
  version: default:http:0.7.2
  request:
    url: https://api.chucknorris.io/jokes/categories
    method: GET

• In the vscode command pallet search and hit CHKware: Run file to see the response as output.

2. Fetch jokes under a given category

• Now create a new file called joke_for_category_rq.chk.

• In the vscode command pallet start type: chkware. In the available command dropdown find CHKware: Add Http spec. snippet. Then select http: Minimal request from the next dropdown.

• We are going to change the url: ... so that we get jokes by category. Which is as following

  https://api.chucknorris.io/jokes/random?category=category_name

  So, from the URL we can see that we can pass category_name as URL param or query string with ?category=. To pass variable we need to define a variables: section on the spec.

  ---
  variables:
    category: "food"
  
  request:
    url: https://api.chucknorris.io/jokes/random?category={$category}

  The above variables: sections defines a variable called category with default value "food". Then we use category variable's value in the URL with {$category}. So, if we don't pass any value to this file, then "food" will be used as default value. You will see below how you can pass value to this category variable from command-line.

  More docs on passing query params here

  Now the joke_for_category_rq.chk file should look like:

  ---
  version: default:http:0.7.2
  
  variables:
    category: "food"
  
  request:
    url: https://api.chucknorris.io/jokes/random?category={$category}
    method: GET

• In the vscode command pallet search and hit CHKware: Run file to see the response as output.

3. Write Python script to automate the workflow

We are going to parse the json output from chk http joke_categories_rq.chk, and chk http joke_for_category_rq.chk command run, in the Python script. There are many ways to do this. But, using Python core modules we can write as following.

Scripting can also be done in any other programming language, such as Javascript, Java, Kotlin, etc.

# get_random_jokes_for_category.py

import subprocess
import json
import random

# set spec. for list of all categories
joke_categories_f = (
    "tests/resources/storage/sample_flow/python/chucknorris_io/joke_categories_rq.chk"
)

# execute command and get response
result = subprocess.check_output(
    ["chk", "http", "--result", "--no-format", joke_categories_f]
)

# convert response to json
response = json.loads(result.rstrip())

# get response body, and get list of categories
categories = response[0]["body"]

# choose one random category
a_category = random.choice(categories)

# set random joke by for given category spec.
joke_for_category_f = (
    "tests/resources/storage/sample_flow/python/chucknorris_io/joke_for_category_rq.chk"
)

# execute command
# get response
# similar to run:
# chk http -r --nf chucknorris_io/joke_for_category_rq.chk category=a_category
result = subprocess.check_output(
    [
        "chk",
        "http",
        "--result",
        "--no-format",
        joke_for_category_f,
        f"category={ a_category }", # pass category value
    ]
)

# convert response to json
response = json.loads(result.rstrip())

# get joke from response body
joke = response[0]["body"]

# display the joke
print(
    "\n",
    f":: This joke {joke['id']} was created on {joke['created_at']} ::\n",
    f":: Permalink {joke['url']} ::\n",
    f"{joke['value']}\n",
    "\n",
)

Run the script in the command line like

python get_random_jokes_for_category.py

** Please create an github issue if you want to share your sample script included in the project.