Developing with fhir-test-cases

Tests in org.hl7.fhir.core

The org.hl7.fhir.core project uses the test cases included in fhir-test-cases throughout its unit tests.

To run the tests for org.hl7.fhir.core, follow the steps here to get the project built on your machine. Then, run the following maven command:

mvn test

These can take longer that 20 minutes to complete.

Including local test changes

If you are developing new test cases or changing existing ones, there are several ways to include your changes in the org.hl7.fhir.core project.

Using fhir-settings.json

When setting up to perform tests, the code in org.hl7.fhir.core uses the fhir-settings.json file. The default location of this file is ~/.fhir/fhir-settings.json.

This fhir-settings.json file contains many different fields for the customization of FHIR tools, including the fhirTestCasesPath field, which you can point to your local fhir-test-cases project directory:

{
  "fhirTestCasesPath": "/path/to/my/fhir-test-cases",
}

You can also select a different file explicitly using the following vm parameter, either when running tests via Maven, or within an IDE:

mvn test -Dfhir.settings.path=/path/to/my/fhir-settings.json

With Maven

By default, the org.hl7.fhir.core build uses the version of fhir-test-cases defined in the validator_test_case_version property in the org.hl7.fhir.core pom.xml file.

<properties>
    ...
    <validator_test_case_version>1.3.9</validator_test_case_version>
    ...
</properties>

If you are developing locally, you should change the version above, as well as the version in fhir-test-cases pom.xml to a SNAPSHOT version (for example: 1.3.10-SNAPSHOT).

<groupId>org.hl7.fhir.testcases</groupId>
<artifactId>fhir-test-cases</artifactId>
<version>1.3.10-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>jar</packaging>

Once both of these are changed and verified to match, first the fhir-test-cases and then the org.hl7.fhir.core projects must be rebuilt with updated dependencies:

mvn clean install -U

This should build both projects using local code, and should include any changes you’ve made to the fhir-test-cases project. Any runs of tests using mvn test will continue to use the most recent build.

Important: As you change code in fhir-test-cases remember to repeat the steps above (rebuild each project) or you may still be using an older build of the test cases project.

Updated: