Foobricator

Foobricate your most awesome test data yet.

What is it?

Have you ever found yourself in need of test data, but making that data is difficult? Introducing the Foobricator!

The Foobricator is a Data Generation Tool written in C# that allows you to define a spec for your data in JSON and use it to create your data.

So what kind of data can I Foobricate?

Just about anything - SQL statements, XML, CSV Files, you name it.

Foobricate was also designed to make multiple files which match the same data set - so maybe a list of account balances, and customer profiles that automagically agree with eachother.

Test data can't just be random, it needs to be structured too

How does it work?

Simply spec up your data, and foobricate! You can drag and drop your JSON files on the executable, or use the command line:

> Foobricate MyAwesomeSpec.json

Sample:

{
	context: [{
		name:"names", type:"listSampler", source:{ type:"stringList", values:["John", "Bob", "Joe"] }
	}, {
		name:"surnames", type:"listSampler", source:{ type:"stringList", values:["Smith", "Bloggs", "Soap"] }
	}, {
		name:"randomBalance",  type:"randomDecimal", upper: 10000, lower:-10000 
	}, {
		name:"accountBalances", type:"iterator", sources:[ { 
				type:"singleValue", source: {type:"reference", refersTo:"names"} 
			}, { 
				type:"singleValue", source: {type:"reference", refersTo:"surnames"} 
			}, { 
				type:"singleValue", source: {type:"reference", refersTo:"randomBalance"} 
			}				
		]
	}],
	output:[{			
		type:"clipboardOutput",
		targets:[{
			type:"literal",
			value:"<Accounts>\n"
		},{			
			type:"times",
			count:1000,
			targets:[{
				type:"formatString",
				format:"	<Account>
	<Name>{0}</Name>
	<Surname>{1}</Surname>
	<AccountBalance>${2:####0.00}</AcountBalance>
</Account>",
				source:{type:"reference", refersTo:"accountBalances"}
			}]
		},{
			type:"literal",
			value:"</Accounts>"
		}]
	}]
}

Pops the following onto your clipboard:

<Accounts>
	<Account>
		<Name>Joe</Name>
		<Surname>Bloggs</Surname>
		<AccountBalance>$1978.25</AcountBalance>
	</Account>
	<Account>
		<Name>John</Name>
		<Surname>Bloggs</Surname>
		<AccountBalance>$-3623.23</AcountBalance>
	</Account>
	<Account>
		<Name>Joe</Name>
		<Surname>Smith</Surname>
		<AccountBalance>$-6995.71</AcountBalance>
	</Account>
	**... and another 997 more!**
</Accounts>

You can also output directly to a file, or even multiple files!

Licensing

Foobricator is licensed under AGPL. This is in part because of it's dependency on Newtonsoft's JSON.net Schema. See Full text in LICENSE.txt.

Note that there is a limitation on the AGPL licensed JSON.net Schema which limits you to 1000 validations per hour. Foobricator performs one validation per input file. If you have your own license for JSON.net Schema, you are exempt from this restriction.

List of Attributions

• Uses Newtonsoft JSON.net (Version 6.0.8.18111)
• Uses Newtonsoft JSON.net Schema (Version 1.0.9.18628)
• The documentation can compiled into HTML using Pandoc. It uses a template derrived from here (This may change)
• The HTML user doc is styled using buttondown.css
• Special thanks to Dariel

Build instructions

Simply checkout the source code, and build with Visual Studio. If you'd like to compile the user doc you can do so using Pandoc.