Ghost Data Factory

A minimal test data factory for Ghost e2e tests, written in TypeScript.

Project Structure

e2e/data-factory/          # Source files (TypeScript) - committed to git
├── factory.ts             # Base factory class (adds the persistence lane)
├── factories/             # Factory implementations
│   ├── member-factory.ts
│   ├── post-factory.ts
│   ├── tag-factory.ts
│   └── ...
├── persistence/
│   ├── adapter.ts         # Persistence interface
│   └── adapters/          # Adapter implementations (API, Knex, etc)
├── setup.ts               # Setup helper functions
└── index.ts               # Main exports

Entity shapes, randomised defaults and shared helpers (id/slug generators, Lexical document builders) live in @tryghost/test-data and are re-exported from the @/data-factory barrel.

Setup

This is part of the Ghost e2e test suite. All dependencies are managed by the main Ghost monorepo.

Start Ghost development server (provides database):
bash
```
pnpm dev
```

Configure database connection (optional - uses Ghost's database by default):

bash

cp e2e/data-factory/.env.example e2e/data-factory/.env
# Edit .env if using different database credentials

Build the e2e package (includes data-factory):
bash
```
cd e2e && pnpm build
```

Usage

In Tests

Option 1: Use setup helpers (recommended)

typescript

import {createPostFactory, PostFactory} from '../data-factory';

// Create factory with API persistence
const postFactory: PostFactory = createPostFactory(page.request);

// Build in-memory only (not persisted)
const draftPost = postFactory.build({
    title: 'My Draft',
    status: 'draft'
});

// Create and persist to database
const publishedPost = await postFactory.create({
    title: 'My Published Post',
    status: 'published'
});

Option 2: Manual setup

typescript

import {PostFactory} from '../data-factory/factories/post-factory';
import {GhostAdminApiAdapter} from '../data-factory/persistence/adapters/ghost-api';

const adapter = new GhostAdminApiAdapter(page.request, 'posts');
const postFactory = new PostFactory(adapter);

// Now you can build or create
const post = await postFactory.create({
    title: 'My Published Post',
    status: 'published'
});

Development

Adding New Factories

Add (or reuse) a canonical builder in @tryghost/test-data — it owns the entity's Admin API response shape and randomised defaults
Create a factory class extending Factory<TOptions, TResult> whose build() derives the write/create payload from that builder (see tag-factory.ts for a 1:1 delegation, member-factory.ts and post-factory.ts for shapes where the write payload differs from the response — flattened relations, dropped response-only fields)
Set entityType property (used for persistence)
Create a setup helper in setup.ts for convenient usage in tests

Example:

typescript

import {Factory} from '../factory';
import {member} from '@tryghost/test-data';

export class MemberFactory extends Factory<Partial<Member>, Member> {
    entityType = 'members';

    build(options: Partial<Member> = {}): Member {
        return {
            ...toCreatePayload(member()), // response shape -> write payload
            ...options
        };
    }
}

Then create a setup helper:

typescript

// In setup.ts
export function createMemberFactory(httpClient: HttpClient): MemberFactory {
    const adapter = new GhostAdminApiAdapter(httpClient, 'members');
    return new MemberFactory(adapter);
}