react-native-windows/vnext/TestWebSite

Integration Test Website

This is a generic ASP.NET Core application that provides arbitrary HTTP responses and WebSocket endpoints to validate React Native Windows's functionality.

It is meant to complement (and partially replace) the in-process C++ test servers used for integration which have very limited functionality and are hard to program against.

This application enhances web testing via a number of features such as:

• Server-side Origin Policy (CORS) enforcement
• Static file serving
• HTTP authentication and authorization
• HTTP sessions
• Response caching
• Cookie handling

Deploying this website in Continuous Integration/Delivery environments also removes the dependency on remote web endpoints for end to end scenarios.

Usage

Developer Workflow

1. Build React Native Windows.
2. Start the Node Packager.

   Set-Location vnext
   npm run start
   

3. Trust the .NET-provided development SSL certificate:
   This should be a one-time step per .NET version.
   See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/security/enforcing-ssl#trust-the-aspnet-core-https-development-certificate-on-windows-and-macos.

   dotnet dev-certs https --trust
   

4. Start this website.

   dotnet run --project vnext\TestWebSite
   

5. Run integration tests.

Continuous Integration Workflow

The website gets deployed to a web server.
This reduces the process management overhead and increases stability and availability in CI environments.

The website can also be installed on a development environment.
Note: This would require to update the website's publish directory with any new changes, but removes the need to manage the additonal process and terminal window.

Here are the steps for Micrososoft's IIS:

1. Publish the website.

   Set-Location vnext\TestWebSite
   dotnet publish
   

2. Install IIS.
3. Install the .NET 7 SDK.
   https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/thank-you/sdk-7.0.407-windows-x64-installer
4. Install the ASP.NET Core Hosting Bundle.
   https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/thank-you/runtime-aspnetcore-8.0.3-windows-hosting-bundle-installer
5. Create or update a website that binds ports 5555 to http and 5543 to https.
   For https, any trusted SSL certificate will work. There is no need to install localhost.cicert.
   1. Set the location to the publish directory (i.e. C:\repo\react-native-windows\vnext\target\x64\Debug\Microsoft.ReactNative.Test.Website\Publish)

Technical Information

• The website is meant to run on ports 5555 (http, ws) and 5543 (https, wss).
  This can be modified via command line arguments or in Properties/launchSettings.json.
• For encryption, self-signed PKCS12 certificate localhost.cicert is used (DevOps only). The certificate is set to expire on January 1st, 2030.
  After that date, new one must be generated.

Replacing the DevOps SSL certificate

1. Generate a new self-signed x509 web certificate.
   Use common name CN=localhost.
2. Replace the localhost.cicert with the new certificate.
3. Update the password in the Continuous Integration system.
   The certificate password is mapped to DevOps variable $(TestWebsiteCertPassword).