diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f2e4460..6e6d7a1 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -4,4 +4,5 @@ dist
 .*
 openrefine_client.egg-info
 refine.spec
-README.html
+openrefine-3.*
+tests.log
diff --git a/tests.sh b/tests.sh
index 87e2f87..e065e55 100755
--- a/tests.sh
+++ b/tests.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #!/bin/bash
-# Script for running tests with different OpenRefine and Java versions based on Docker images.
+# Script for running functional tests against the CLI
 
 # Copyright (c) 2011 Paul Makepeace, Real Programmers. All rights reserved.
 
@@ -16,115 +16,92 @@
 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 # along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>
 
-# defaults:
-all=(3.2-java12 3.2-java11 3.2-java10 3.2-java9 3.2 3.1-java9 3.1 3.0-java9 3.0 2.8-java9 2.8 2.8-java7 2.7 2.7-java7 2.5-java7 2.5-java6 2.1-java6 2.0-java6)
-main=(3.2 3.1 3.0 2.8 2.7 2.5-java6 2.1-java6 2.0-java6)
-interactively=false
-port="3333"
+# ================================== CONFIG ================================== #
 
-# help screen
-function usage () {
-    cat <<EOF
-Usage: ./tests.sh [-t TAG] [-i] [-p] [-a] [-h]
+cd "${BASH_SOURCE%/*}/" || exit 1
 
-Script for running tests with different OpenRefine and Java versions.
-It uses docker images from https://hub.docker.com/r/felixlohmeier/openrefine.
-
-Examples:
-./tests.sh -a            # run tests on all OpenRefine versions (from 2.0 up to 3.2)
-./tests.sh -t 3.2        # run tests on tag 3.2
-./tests.sh -t 3.2 -i     # run tests on tag 3.2 interactively (pause before and after tests)
-./tests.sh -t 3.2 -t 2.7 # run tests on tags 3.2 and 2.7
-
-Advanced:
-./tests.sh -j                # run tests on all OpenRefine versions and each with all supported Java versions (requires a lot of docker images to be downloaded!)
-./tests.sh -t 3.1 -i -p 3334 # run tests on tag 3.1 interactively on port 3334
-
-Running tests interactively (-i) allows you to examine OpenRefine GUI at http://localhost:3333.
-Execute the script concurrently in another terminal on another port (-p 3334) to compare changes in the OpenRefine GUI at http://localhost:3333 and http://localhost:3334.
-
-Available tags (java 8 if java not mentioned in tag):
-EOF
-    for t in ${all[*]} ; do
-        echo "$t"
-    done
-    exit 1
-}
-
-# check input
-NUMARGS=$#
-if [ "$NUMARGS" -eq 0 ]; then
-  usage
-fi
-
-# check system requirements
-DOCKER="$(command -v docker 2> /dev/null)"
-if [ -z "$DOCKER" ] ; then
-    echo 1>&2 "This action requires you to have 'docker' installed and present in your PATH. You can download it for free at http://www.docker.com/"
-    exit 1
-fi
-DOCKERINFO="$(docker info 2>/dev/null | grep 'Server Version')"
-if [ -z "$DOCKERINFO" ]
-then
-    echo "command 'docker info' failed, trying again with sudo..."
-    DOCKERINFO="$(sudo docker info 2>/dev/null | grep 'Server Version')"
-    echo "OK"
-    docker=(sudo docker)
-    if [ -z "$DOCKERINFO" ] ; then
-        echo 1>&2 "This action requires you to start the docker daemon. Try 'sudo systemctl start docker' or 'sudo start docker'. If the docker daemon is already running then maybe some security privileges are missing to run docker commands.'"
-        exit 1
-    fi
+if [[ ${1} ]]; then
+  version="${1}"
 else
-    docker=(docker)
-fi
-CURLINFO="$(command -v curl 2>/dev/null)"
-if [ -z "$CURLINFO" ] ; then
-    echo 1>&2 "This action requires you to have 'curl' installed and present in your PATH."
-    exit 1
+  version="3.2"
 fi
 
-# get user input
-options="t:p:iajh"
-while getopts $options opt; do
-   case $opt in
-   t )  tags+=("${OPTARG}");;
-   p )  port="${OPTARG}";export OPENREFINE_PORT="$port";;
-   i )  interactively=true;;
-   a )  tags=("${main[*]}");;
-   j )  tags=("${all[*]}");;
-   h )  usage ;;
-   \? ) echo 1>&2 "Unknown option: -$OPTARG"; usage; exit 1;;
-   :  ) echo 1>&2 "Missing option argument for -$OPTARG"; usage; exit 1;;
-   *  ) echo 1>&2 "Unimplemented option: -$OPTARG"; usage; exit 1;;
-   esac
+refine="openrefine-${version}/refine"
+
+# =============================== REQUIREMENTS =============================== #
+
+# check existence of java and cURL
+if [[ -z "$(command -v java 2> /dev/null)" ]] ; then
+  echo 1>&2 "ERROR: OpenRefine requires JAVA runtime environment (jre)" \
+    "https://openjdk.java.net/install/"
+  exit 1
+fi
+if [[ -z "$(command -v curl 2> /dev/null)" ]] ; then
+  echo 1>&2 "ERROR: This shell script requires cURL" \
+    "https://curl.haxx.se/download.html"
+  exit 1
+fi
+# download OpenRefine
+if [[ -z "$(readlink -e "${refine}")" ]]; then
+  echo "Download OpenRefine..."
+  mkdir -p "$(dirname "${refine}")"
+  curl -L --output openrefine.tar.gz \
+    "https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/releases/download/${version}/openrefine-linux-${version}.tar.gz"
+  echo "Install OpenRefine in subdirectory $(dirname "${refine}")..."
+  tar -xzf openrefine.tar.gz -C "$(dirname "${refine}")" --strip 1 --totals
+  rm -f openrefine.tar.gz
+  # do not try to open OpenRefine in browser
+  sed -i '$ a JAVA_OPTIONS=-Drefine.headless=true' \
+    "$(dirname "${refine}")"/refine.ini
+  # set autosave period from 5 minutes to 25 hours
+  sed -i 's/#REFINE_AUTOSAVE_PERIOD=60/REFINE_AUTOSAVE_PERIOD=1500/' \
+    "$(dirname "${refine}")"/refine.ini
+  echo
+fi
+
+# ================================== SETUP =================================== #
+
+dir="$(readlink -f "tests/tmp")"
+mkdir -p ${dir}
+rm -f tests.log
+
+echo "start OpenRefine server..."
+${refine} -v warn -p 3334 -d "${dir}" &>> tests.log &
+pid_server=${!}
+timeout 30s bash -c "until curl -s 'http://localhost:3334' \
+  | cat | grep -q -o 'OpenRefine' ; do sleep 1; done" \
+  || error "starting OpenRefine server failed!"
+echo
+
+# ================================== TESTS =================================== #
+
+echo "running tests, please wait..."
+tests=()
+results=()
+for t in tests/*.sh; do
+  tests+=("${t}")
+  echo "========================= ${t} =========================" &>> tests.log
+  ${t} ${version} >> tests.log
+  results+=(${?})
 done
-shift $((OPTIND - 1))
+echo
 
-# print config
-echo "Tags: ${tags[*]}"
-echo "Port: $port"
-echo ""
+# ================================= SUMMARY ================================== #
 
-# safe cleanup handler
-cleanup()
-{
-    echo "cleanup..."
-    ${docker[*]} stop "$t"
-}
-trap "cleanup;exit" SIGHUP SIGINT SIGQUIT SIGTERM
-
-# run setup.py tests for each docker tag
-for t in ${tags[*]} ; do
-    echo "=== Tests for $t ==="
-    echo ""
-    echo "Begin: $(date)"
-    ${docker[*]} run -d -p "$port":3333 --rm --name "$t" felixlohmeier/openrefine:"$t"
-    until curl --silent -N http://localhost:"$port" | cat | grep -q -o "Refine" ; do sleep 1; done
-    echo "Refine running at http://localhost:${port}"
-    if [ $interactively = true ]; then read -r -p "Press [Enter] key to start tests..."; fi
-    python2 setup.py test
-    if [ $interactively = true ]; then read -r -p "Press [Enter] key to stop OpenRefine..."; fi
-    ${docker[*]} stop "$t"
-    echo "End: $(date)"
-    echo ""
+for i in "${!tests[@]}"; do
+  printf "%s\t%s\n" "code" "test"
+  printf "%s\t%s\n" "----" "----------------"
+  printf "%s\t%s\n" "${results[$i]}" "${tests[$i]}"
 done
+echo
+if [[ " ${results[@]} " =~ [1-9] ]]; then
+  echo "failed tests! check tests.log for debugging"; echo
+else
+  echo "all tests passed!"; echo
+fi
+
+# ================================= TEARDOWN ================================= #
+
+echo "cleanup..."
+{ kill -9 "${pid_server}" && wait "${pid_server}"; } 2>/dev/null
+rm -rf ${dir}
diff --git a/tests/create-csv.sh b/tests/create-csv.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..04c9dac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/create-csv.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# =============================== ENVIRONMENT ================================ #
+
+t="create-csv"
+
+cd "${BASH_SOURCE%/*}/" || exit 1
+client="python3 ../refine.py -H localhost -P 3334"
+mkdir -p "tmp/${t}"
+
+# =================================== DATA =================================== #
+
+cat << "DATA" > "tmp/${t}/${t}.csv"
+a,b,c
+1,2,3
+0,0,0
+$,\,'
+DATA
+
+# ================================= ASSERTION ================================ #
+
+cat << "DATA" > "tmp/${t}/${t}.assert"
+a	b	c
+1	2	3
+0	0	0
+$	\	'
+DATA
+
+# ================================== ACTION ================================== #
+
+${client} --create "tmp/${t}/${t}.csv"
+${client} --export "${t}" --output "tmp/${t}/${t}.output"
+
+# =================================== TEST =================================== #
+
+diff -u "tmp/${t}/${t}.assert" "tmp/${t}/${t}.output"
diff --git a/tests/template b/tests/template
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..7ec62f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/template
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# =============================== ENVIRONMENT ================================ #
+
+t="test"
+
+if [[ ${1} ]]; then
+  version="${1##*.}"
+fi
+
+cd "${BASH_SOURCE%/*}/" || exit 1
+client="python3 ../refine.py -H localhost -P 3334"
+mkdir -p "tmp/${t}"
+
+# =================================== DATA =================================== #
+
+cat << "DATA" > "tmp/${t}/${t}.csv"
+a,b,c
+1,2,3
+0,0,0
+$,\,'
+DATA
+
+cat << "DATA" > "tmp/${t}/${t}.transform"
+[
+  {
+    "op": "core/column-addition",
+    "engineConfig": {
+      "mode": "row-based"
+    },
+    "newColumnName": "apply",
+    "columnInsertIndex": 2,
+    "baseColumnName": "b",
+    "expression": "grel:value.replace('2','TEST')",
+    "onError": "set-to-blank"
+  }
+]
+DATA
+
+# ================================= ASSERTION ================================ #
+
+# if [[ "$version" >= 2 ]]; then
+cat << "DATA" > "tmp/${t}/${t}.assert"
+a	b	apply	c
+1	2	TEST	3
+0	0	0	0
+$	\	\	'
+DATA
+# else
+# fi
+
+# ================================== ACTION ================================== #
+
+${client} --create "tmp/${t}/${t}.csv"
+${client} --apply "tmp/${t}/${t}.transform" "${t}"
+${client} --export "${t}" --output "tmp/${t}/${t}.output"
+
+# =================================== TEST =================================== #
+
+diff -u "tmp/${t}/${t}.assert" "tmp/${t}/${t}.output"