Toxiproxy

When developing an application, it can be easy to overlook the network conditions your users can face in various circumstance. If you are working on a tool that relies on an Internet connection, then it is advisable you also try to emulate the network connectivity so that you can fix any faulty load time issues in the future.

Toxiproxy is a TCP proxy designed to help you simulate both network and system conditions to avoid problems with lengthy loading times. The tool consists of a TCP proxy and a client that communicates with it over HTTP. You can get started by configuring your app so that all connections are tested in variable conditions with the tool.

The tool is specifically designed to be used in the testing, CI and development environment and hence, any potential issue found can be addressed immediately. The program can simulate relatively large and crowded environments, such as the one at Shopify during busy times of the year, like Cyber Monday and Black Friday, for instance.

In fact, the developer states that the program started with this need and the end goal was to make sure you get a resilient system that functions with one or more components unavailable or slow. As more and more applications become intertwined with external services, they need to be monitored and the failures predicted. Otherwise, these external dependencies can become quite bothersome single points of failure.