diff --git a/items/.empty b/items/.empty
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/test/common b/test/common
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0d61ec2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/common
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+lastgiven=''
+lastexpected=''
+
+last()
+{
+    lastgiven="$1"
+    lastexpected="$2"
+}
+
+
+assert-equal()
+{
+    last "$1" "$2"
+    [ "$1" == "$2" ]
+}
+
+
+assert-eq()
+{
+    last "$1" "$2"
+    [ $1 -eq $2 ]
+}
+
+
+fail()
+{
+    echo "FAILURE: $1" >&2
+    echo "Expected '$lastexpected', but received '$lastgiven'" >&2
+    echo >&2
+}
+
diff --git a/test/test-common-inv b/test/test-common-inv
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..0c1e4ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/test-common-inv
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+mypath=$( dirname $0 )
+. "$mypath/common"
+. "$mypath/../util/common-inv"
+
+#expected values
+eid=_foo
+ename="Large Ugly Foobar"
+ecount=5
+
+# test item tag
+item="$ecount:$eid"
+
+
+# let's write a temporary item for testing
+itemfile="$mypath/../items/_foo"
+cat > $itemfile <<EOF
+NAME $ename
+EOF
+
+
+assert-equal "$( inv-item-id "$item" )" "$eid" || {
+    fail "Unable to retrieve item id"
+}
+
+assert-eq $( inv-item-count "$item" ) $ecount || {
+    fail "Unable to retrieve item count"
+}
+
+assert-equal "$( inv-item-name "$item" )" "$ename" || {
+    fail "Unable to retrieve item name"
+}
+
+# we're done with our test item
+rm $itemfile
+
diff --git a/util/common-inv b/util/common-inv
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ee0f67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util/common-inv
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+itemdir="$( dirname $0 )/../items"
+
+
+##
+# Retrieve name of item from item descriptor file
+#
+# @param  string  item tag
+#
+# @output  full item name
+##
+inv-item-name()
+{
+    local id=$( inv-item-id "$1" )
+
+    # we're looking for the NAME line, in the format of "NAME <full name>"
+    cat "$itemdir/$id" <<< "$1" \
+        | grep '^NAME ' \
+        | cut -d' ' -f2-
+}
+
+
+inv-item-id()
+{
+    cut -d':' -f2 <<< "$1"
+}
+
+
+inv-item-count()
+{
+    cut -d':' -f1 <<< "$1"
+}
+