How It Works

Assent compares the output of a test (the received value) with a previously approved value loaded from an approved file.

When the test is run, it will look for an approved file in the same directory as the code file. See the Naming on how this is achieved and how to customise this. On the first run, an empty approvedfile is created.

If the received value does not match the value in the approved file, a received file is written and the diff tool launched comparing the received and approved files. The test execution will resume once the diff tool is closed.

You can then compare the two files and determine whether there is an error in the code, or the approved file needs updating. If it is the latter, use the diff tool to update and save the approved file. If this is done during the test execution, and the files now match, the test will pass. Otherwise it will fail.