Application Development in the Slack Bot Project

The Slack Bot project leverages FastAPI, a modern, fast web framework for building APIs with Python. The project adopts a standard layered architecture, ensuring maintainability and scalability. A significant focus is placed on robust testing, using pytest for both unit and integration testing, with the support of Testcontainers to simulate real-world scenarios.

Architecture

The codebase is structured in a layered architecture, promoting separation of concerns and making it easier to manage and extend the application.

Key layers include:

• Presentation Layer: Handles HTTP requests and responses, interfacing with Slack APIs.
• Service Layer: Contains the core functionality and logic of the Slack Bot.
• Data Access Layer: Manages data persistence and interactions with databases or external APIs.
• App Factory: We employ a create_app factory pattern for FastAPI. This approach allows for a more flexible application setup, making it easier to configure and test different components of the app.

Testing Strategy

We use pytest, a powerful testing framework, to write both simple and complex tests. It offers a clear and concise syntax, making our tests easy to write and understand.

• Unit Testing: Focuses on testing individual components in isolation, ensuring that each part of the business logic performs as expected. Mocking is used extensively to isolate the tested components.

• Integration Testing: Validates the interaction between different layers and external systems, using real network calls and database interactions wherever feasible.

  • Test Containers: For more realistic integration tests, we use test containers. These containers simulate real-world environments, including external services like databases and APIs.