TR-22322: Fixed --verify data verification false failures from TestRail's legacy html field wrapping

tests/test_response_verify.py

@@ -80,6 +80,55 @@ def test_verify_estimate(
             input_data_estimate, response_data_estimate
         ), "Added data and returned data should match"
 
+    @pytest.mark.verifier
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        "added_value, returned_value",
+        [
+            (
+                "IntegrationSuiteNew.schema-controller  :: Should fail (400)",
+                "<p>IntegrationSuiteNew.schema-controller&nbsp;&nbsp;:: Should fail (400)</p>\n",
+            ),
+            # Simple wrap with no whitespace entities.
+            ("plain value", "<p>plain value</p>"),
+            # No trailing newline after the closing tag.
+            ("plain value", "<p>plain value</p>"),
+            # Single leading/trailing nbsp only (no <p> wrapping).
+            ("value", "&nbsp;value&nbsp;"),
+            # No transformation at all - still must match.
+            ("identical", "identical"),
+        ],
+    )
+    def test_verify_simple_comparison_tolerates_legacy_html_wrapping(
+        self, api_response_verify: ApiResponseVerify, added_value, returned_value
+    ):
+        added_data = {"custom_automation_id": added_value}
+        returned_data = {"custom_automation_id": returned_value}
+
+        assert api_response_verify.verify_returned_data(
+            added_data, returned_data
+        ), "TestRail's is_legacy HTML wrapping should not cause a false verification failure"
+
+    @pytest.mark.verifier
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        "added_value, returned_value",
+        [
+            # Genuinely different content must still fail, even if HTML-wrapped.
+            ("expected value", "<p>completely different value</p>"),
+            # Non-string types must never go through the HTML-tolerant fallback.
+            (True, False),
+            (1, 2),
+        ],
+    )
+    def test_verify_simple_comparison_still_fails_on_real_mismatch(
+        self, api_response_verify: ApiResponseVerify, added_value, returned_value
+    ):
+        added_data = {"custom_automation_id": added_value}
+        returned_data = {"custom_automation_id": returned_value}
+
+        assert not api_response_verify.verify_returned_data(
+            added_data, returned_data
+        ), "Genuine content mismatches must still fail verification"
+
     @pytest.mark.verifier
     def test_verify_returned_data_missing_key_fails_gracefully(self, api_response_verify: ApiResponseVerify):
         """

trcli/api/api_response_verify.py

@@ -1,9 +1,40 @@
+import html
+import re
+
 from serde.json import to_dict
 from beartype.typing import List, Union, Any, Callable
 from humanfriendly import parse_timespan
 
 _MISSING = object()
 
+# TestRail (v9.8.1+) can wrap/transform plain-text custom field values when a
+# write request is sent with `is_legacy: True` (TRCLI sends this to request
+# Markdown->HTML conversion for rich-text fields). This can wrap even plain
+# Text fields in a single <p>...</p> block, convert runs of whitespace into
+# &nbsp; entities, and append a trailing newline - none of which represent an
+# actual content change. Strip that formatting before comparing so --verify
+# doesn't false-positive on it.
+_WRAPPING_P_TAG_RE = re.compile(r"^\s*<p>(.*)</p>\s*$", re.DOTALL)
+
+
+def _strip_legacy_html_wrapping(value: str) -> str:
+    """Undo TestRail's is_legacy-driven HTML wrapping of plain-text field values.
+
+    Only unwraps a single outer <p>...</p> pair and decodes HTML entities
+    (e.g. &nbsp;). Does not strip arbitrary/nested HTML, so genuinely
+    HTML-formatted content still compares meaningfully instead of silently
+    matching unrelated values.
+    """
+    match = _WRAPPING_P_TAG_RE.match(value)
+    if match:
+        value = match.group(1)
+    value = html.unescape(value)
+    # &nbsp; decodes to U+00A0 (non-breaking space), not a regular space - normalize
+    # it back to a regular space since it represents the same whitespace semantically
+    # (TestRail substitutes it for whitespace runs during Markdown->HTML conversion).
+    value = value.replace("\xa0", " ")
+    return value.strip()
+
 
 class ApiResponseVerify:
     """Class for verifying if new resources added to Test Rail are created correctly.
@@ -60,7 +91,16 @@ def field_compare(self, added_data_key: str) -> Callable:
 
     @staticmethod
     def __simple_comparison(returned_value: Any, added_value: Any) -> bool:
-        return returned_value == added_value
+        if returned_value == added_value:
+            return True
+        # Fall back to a legacy-HTML-tolerant comparison only for string values -
+        # covers e.g. custom_automation_id coming back wrapped as "<p>...&nbsp;...</p>\n"
+        # when TRCLI's `is_legacy` flag triggered TestRail's Markdown->HTML conversion
+        # on a plain-text field. Non-string types (int, bool, None, etc.) always use
+        # strict equality above - this fallback never changes their result.
+        if isinstance(returned_value, str) and isinstance(added_value, str):
+            return _strip_legacy_html_wrapping(returned_value) == _strip_legacy_html_wrapping(added_value)
+        return False
 
     @staticmethod
     def __compare_estimate(returned_value: str, added_value: str) -> bool: