ChannelSpec

A Phoenix Channels specification library for automatic data validation and schema generation inspired by OpenAPI and built on top of ChannelHandler.

Installation

You can install ChannelSpec from git, and ChannelHandler from Hex:

def deps do
  [
    {:channel_handler, "~> 0.6"},
    {:channel_spec, github: "felt/channel_spec"}
  ]
end

Usage

First, you need to define the Phoenix Socket module by using ChannelSpec.Socket:

defmodule MyAppWeb.UserSocket do
  use ChannelSpec.Socket

  channel "room:*", MyAppWeb.RoomChannel
end

Then, you must define the channel module. For this, you have to use three modules:

• Phoenix.Channel for basic Channel functionality
• ChannelHandler.Router to define the event routing
• ChannelSpec.Operations to define operation schemas

defmodule MyAppWeb.RoomChannel do
  use Phoenix.Channel
  use ChannelHandler.Router
  use ChannelSpec.Operations

  join fn _topic, _payload, socket ->
    {:ok, socket}
  end

  operation "new_msg",
    payload: %{
      type: :object,
      properties: %{text: %{type: :string}}
    },
    replies: %{
      ok: %{type: :string},
      error: %{type: :string}
    }

  handle "new_msg", fn %{"text" => text}, _context, socket ->
    {:reply, {:ok, text}, socket}
  end
end

This will tell ChannelSpec that the server is capable of receiving a "new_msg" event, with a map with a key text of type string and that it will reply with a string both in case of success and error.

By using ChannelSpec, the following features will be available:

• A schema file can be automatically generated by passing the :schema_path option to use ChannelSpec.Socket
• Using plug ChannelSpec.Plugs.ValidateInput will allow you to validate incoming payloads against your operation schemas
• mix channelspec.routes MyAppWeb.Endpoint to list all available events and their handlers, as defined with ChannelHandler.Router. Passing the --verbose flag will also include file:line information about the files where the operation and the handler function are defined.
• Testing that reply values conform to spec with ChannelSpec.Testing.assert_reply_spec

Validating user input

If you add plug ChannelSpec.Plugs.ValidateInput to your channel or handler modules, the incoming message payloads will be validated against your schemas. In case of a validation error, an error will immediately be returned to the client.

Generating schema files

You can configure the socket module to generate a schema file, that can be used to generate bindings for client code or documentation:

defmodule MyAppWeb.UserSocket do
  use ChannelSpec.Socket, schema_path: "priv/schema.json"
end

Testing

You can use ChannelSpec's enhanced test helpers to verify the channel replies conform to the specified schemas:

defmodule MyAppWeb.RoomChannelTest do
  use ExUnit.Case, async: true
  use ChannelSpec.Testing

  setup do
    {:ok, _, socket} =
      MyAppWeb.UserSocket
      |> socket("123", %{})
      |> subscribe_and_join(MyAppWeb.RoomChannel, "room:123")

    %{socket: socket}
  end

  test "returns a valid reply", %{socket: socket} do
    # Send a number body instead of a string
    ref = push(socket, "new_msg", %{body: 123}

    assert_reply_spec ref, :ok, reply # Will raise a validation error!
    assert is_binary(reply)
  end
end

Creating client bindings

You can use the generate schema file to generate client bindings. For Typescript bindings, you can use the companion channel_spec_tscodegen tool.