Configuration Language in Testform

The Testform Configuration Language is the declarative interface for specifying test scenarios, dependencies, data fixtures, and quality orchestration following the Test-as-Code (TaC) paradigm.

Just as Terraform Language allows you to model cloud infrastructure through declarative configuration blocks, Testform enables modeling software verification intent by blending universal Gherkin readability with the declarative power of YAML.

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Core Principles

1. Declarative over Imperative: Describe the desired verification state (Given, When, Then), not fragile glue code or procedural scripts.
2. Git Versioned: The entire testing ecosystem (scenarios, variables, fixtures, assertions, and outputs) lives inside your repository as auditable source code.
3. Deterministic State Management: A dedicated state file (testform.state) records the outcome and attributes of every test resource for incremental planning.
4. Modular Composition: Reuse full suites or parameterized step libraries using the @module meta-argument with local paths or remote Git repositories.

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Language Components

The sidebar navigation mirrors Terraform’s core structure, tailored to Testform’s active capabilities:

graph TD
    A[main.yml] --> B[Configure Providers]
    B --> C[Resources: Scenarios & Steps]
    C --> D[Data Sources & Variables]
    D --> E[Locals & Expressions]
    C --> F[Meta-arguments: depends_on & lifecycle]
    C --> G[Modules: Local & Git]
    C --> H[Outputs]
    H --> I[State: Ledger & Locking]
    I --> J[Test and Validate]

1. Configure Providers

Configuring quality management platforms (github, gitlab, jira, local) in main.yml.

2. Resources

Gherkin scenarios and steps serve as declarative resources with canonical addresses (featurepath.tag) and managed lifecycles.

3. Data Sources

Read-only data fixtures (data.yml, JSON/YAML files) accessible in step templates via ${data.<source>.<key>}.

4. Variables

Input parameters configured via vars.yml, TF_VAR_* environment variables, and CLI flags.

5. Locals

Named calculated values defined in local.yml and locals: blocks to simplify repeated expressions.

6. Outputs

Values extracted during tests, persisted in state, and accessible via testform output or ${module.<name>.<output>}.

7. Modules

Packaging and sharing test suites via @module, supporting Git registries and input parameter passing with variable={...}.

8. Meta-arguments

Directives altering scenario orchestration:

• depends_on: Directed acyclic graph (DAG) ordering dependencies between tests.
• lifecycle: Guarding critical tests (prevent_destroy) and ignoring dynamic attributes (ignore_changes).

9. Search and Import

Resource discovery and status filtering with testform query and remote issue adoption with testform import.

10. State

State ledger (testform.state), distributed locking (testform.state.lock), and drift detection.

11. Test and Validate

Static analysis with testform validate and speculative previews with testform plan prior to execution.