I was writing tests using ginkgo framework, and wanted to reduce duplication within my tests. Suppose I have two tests, which have a exactly common middle section, but different start and end sections. ginkgo provides BeforeEach function to remove duplication from the start, but I couldn't find any syntax to just define a simple utility function within Describe node. The best I could think of was assigning a function to a variable, but variable initialization is not allowed in container nodes.
I am not completely sure what do you mean by syntax to write utility in describe node. If you go through their documentation description, context etc are container nodes and are just sugarcoating to better manage test descriptions and readability. we cannot hold codes in those container nodes. The only code that executes is inside ginkgo.specify
refer this link: https://onsi.github.io/ginkgo/#adding-specs-to-a-suite
Now, to solve your problem, it's basically a test design issue and It totally depends on how you design your test cases. You can simply introduce fixtures files for test data/reusable functions. So for example we have a structure like this:
Testsuite:
|- a_runnertest.go - only controls spec runs
|- b_case.go - handles cases
|- c_fixture.go - handles all reusable functions and test data
now for any functions which are reusable and wanted to be used across various describes, we move that code to fixture and call it in b_case.go. it will also be scalable moving forward.
Related
Not sure if this is possible but given the way we can easily navigate to implementations of method calls (or at least a choice of possible implementations) and can even syntax highlight code coverage - is there any way to perform a 'search' or have an overview of all the code that CAN be run in a given highlighted section?
I.E if I highlight code
CallThirdParty(); // this function calls five other functions from classes X Y and Z
WriteToDatabase(); // no child function calls
PerformReconciliation(); // this function calls fourteen other functions from class A
Could I run a search on code that would be in classes X Y Z and A? Or at least get a view of all the code that would / could be run for that snippet?
Forgive me if it doesn't make much sense, but I think this would be absolutely awesome, especially when jumping into a project you aren't familiar with!
For Visual Studio for the question purposes but I'd be interested in any IDE / plugin that accomplishes this.
The Code Map might do what you're looking for. As the article says it can help you
Understand the overall architecture of a .NET application.
Analyze dependencies surfaced in that architecture by progressively drilling into the details.
Understand and analyze the impact of a proposed change to the code by building a dependency map from a specific code element.
The Call Hierarchy may help too. As the article says the
Call Hierarchy enables you to navigate through your code by displaying all calls to and from a selected method, property, or constructor. This enables you to better understand how code flows and to evaluate the effects of changes to code. You can examine several levels of code to view complex chains of method calls and additional entry points to the code, which enables you to explore all possible execution paths.
Additionally, you could always debug and step through the code to see what it does under different circumstances and then look at the call stack etc. to follow your calls and variables through.
So I'm kind of new to Protractor. I've written a number of parameterised functions (eg loginAs, navigateTo, enterTextIntoSearchField, clickButton etc), which I can then use repeatedly as I create my specs and suites. So for example I might have a "perform search" suite, with specs for "perform search as regular user", "perform search as admin" etc.
All this is fine. I'm using the Jasmine2HTMLReporter which produces output similar to sample Jasmine2HTMLReporter output
Some of my reusable functions have expect statements, some don't (although I may yet go back and try to add them for clarity!)
The problem I have is when an individual spec consists of quite a few function calls, the list of passed / failed expectations in the report can be rather long. In the case of failed expectations it gives details of the failure ("expected Fred to equal Bob" etc). However, I would like to see something similar for the passes aswell ("expected Fred to equal Fred") - as this would allow whoever was reading the report to understand which function call any one "passed" related to - and understand the flow of the test, rather than just seeing an otherwise meaningless list of "Passed" statements.
Is this at all possible? I could have nested specs so that each function call was it's own spec within a "parent" spec, but this strikes me as over the top and messy, and would make the report way bigger than it needed to be? Would a different reporter give me what I want? I've not found one yet that looks like it would...
I trying to follow TDD. So here is my problem
I have interface Risk with method
boolean check(...)
Risk1, and Risk2 are implentations deveped test first, so now they are fully covered.
I decided that unit that check all risks (CompositeRisk) also could implement Risk.
CompositeRisk applies OR on each Risk1 and Risk2 rezult (If one risk is true then whole this is risky). Still everything is test first.
Now I am looking to one of the risk and thinking - this one has word "AND" and checks different fields. It seems that I can split it to two object and create one more CompositeAndRisk which would apply And on both splitted risks. This way I could construct DSL for risks decision tree (seems nice because risks rules could changes a lot).
So what I should do with risk's I split tests? Should I rename i to CompositeAndRiskTest? should I delete it?, should I write test for splitClasses?
First of all, I suggest that you turn the CompositeRisk class into an interface, and have two separate subclasses of it: CompositeOrRisk and CompositeAndRisk. This is just about the design though.
Regarding your question, I believe there's no single right answer, so let me share how I see it.
As you know, in TDD there are concrete steps you follow (that comprise the TDD cycle), and there's a specific state the tests should be at in between each of them. Here's what I mean:
[State = No tests]
1. Write a test that fails
[State = Test fails]
2. Write as little code as possible in order for the test to pass
[State = Test passes]
3. Refactor
[State = Test still passes]
Given that this is what we aim for in TDD, I would do the changes you're talking about in the refactoring phase, including refactoring the tests accordingly.
This means that if I'm splitting a class, I'll be splitting the relevant test as well. At no point should the tests fail, as I'm only changing the structure of the code, not what it does (this is the meaning of refactoring after all).
If you have a larger change to do though, I would go about creating a new class from scratch (TDD of course), and later on, remove the no longer needed functionality from the old class, as well as the now redundant test cases.
The approach I'd take in this case is "play it innocent" -- when you discover a new requirement, just write a test and the implementation for it, pretending to ignore the relationship with previous requirements at first.
The "And" case here is clearly new functionality. No need to modify the contents of the existing test at that point, just create another test with a name that reflects the new requirement, such as CompositeAndRiskTest and create the corresponding implementation.
Then, during the Refactor step, "realize" that the two previous objects are 2 sides of the same coin and refactor them accordingly. That could just mean renaming CompositeRisk to CompositeOrRisk, or more complex things.
Once the 2 sorts of Risks are identified, tested and implemented, you could go on and create new tests for combinations of them.
I'm using VS 2012, but that's not really important.
What is important is that I'm trying to do some TDD by writing all my tests first and then creating the code.
However, the app will not compile because none of my objects or methods exist.
Now, to my mind, I should be able to create ALL my tests but still run my app so I can debug etc. The tests shouldn't prevent compilation because objects and methods are missing.
I thought the whole point of it was that as you develop your tests you can begin to see duplications etc so that you can refactor before writing a single line of code.
So the question is, is there a way to do this or am I doing this wrong?
EDIT
I am using VS2012 and C#
I see a small problem with
writing all my tests first and then creating the code.
You don't need to write ALL your tests first, you just need one, make it fail, make it pass and repeat. That means ideally at any point you should have ideally one failing test.
A compile failure counts as a failed test in that sense. So the next step is to make it pass - i.e. add stubs or return default values to make it compile. The test would then be red.. then work at getting it to green.
Test Driven Development is about very small iterations. You don't define all your tests up front. You create one test based on one fraction of one requirement. Then you implement the code to pass that test. Once it's passing, you work on another fraction of a requirement.
The idea is that trying to do all the design up front (whether it be creating detailed class diagrams or creating a bunch of tests) means that you will find it too expensive to change a weakness in your design, so you won't improve your code.
Here's an example. Let's say you decide to use inheritance to relate two objects, but when you started implementing the objects, you found that made testing them tough. You discover it would be much easier to test each object individually, and relate them via containment instead. What is happening is the tests are driving your design in a more loosely coupled direction. This is a very good outcome of TDD - you are using tests to improve the design.
If you had written all your tests in advance assuming your design decision of inheritance was a good choice, you would either throw away a lot of work, or you would say "it's too tough to make a change like that now, so I'll just live with this sub-optimal design instead."
You can certainly create business-rule-related acceptance tests in advance. Those are called behavior tests (part of Behavior Driven Development, or BDD) and they are good to test features of the software from the user's point of view. But those are NOT unit tests. Unit tests are for testing code from the developer's point of view. Creating the unit tests in advance defeats the purpose of TDD, because it will make testing harder, it will prevent you from improving your code, and will often lead to rebellion and failure of the practice. That's why it's important to do it right.
What is important is that I'm trying to do some TDD by writing all my tests first and then creating the code.
The problem is that "writing all my tests first" is most emphatically not "do[ing] some TDD". Test driven development consists of lots of small repetitions of the "red-green-refactor" cycle:
Add a unit test to the test suite, run it and watch it fail (red)
Add just enough code to the system under test to make all the tests
pass (green)
Improve the design of the system under test (typically
by removing duplication) while keeping all the tests passing
(refactor)
If you code an entire huge test suite up front, you'll spend forever trying to get to the "green" (all tests passing) state.
However, the app will not compile because none of my objects or methods exist.
That's typical of any compiled language; it's not a TDD issue per se. All it means is that, in order to watch the new test fail, you may have to write a minimal stub for whatever feature you're currently working on to make the compiler happy.
For example, I might write this test (using NUnit):
[Test]
public void DefaultGreetingIsHelloWorld()
{
WorldGreeter target = new WorldGreeter();
string expected = "Hello, world!";
string actual = target.Greet();
Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual);
}
And I'd have to then write this much code to get the app to compile and the test to fail:
public class WorldGreeter
{
public string Greet()
{
return String.Empty;
}
}
Once I've gotten the solution to build and I've seen the one failing test, I can add the code to make the first test pass:
public string Greet()
{
return "Hello, world!";
}
Once all tests pass, I can look through the system under test and see what could be done to improve the design. However, it's essential to the TDD discipline to go through both the "red" and "green" steps before playing around with refactoring.
I thought the whole point of it was that as you develop your tests you can begin to see duplications etc so that you can refactor before writing a single line of code.
Martin Fowler defines refactoring as "a disciplined technique for restructuring an existing body of code, altering its internal structure without changing its external behavior" (emphasis added). If you haven't written a single line of code, there's nothing to refactor.
So the question is, is there a way to do this or am I doing this wrong?
If you're looking to do TDD, then, yes, I fear you are doing this wrong. You may well be able to deliver great code doing what you're doing, but it isn't TDD; whether or not that's a problem is for you to decide for yourself.
You should be able to create your empty class with stub functions, no?
class Whatever {
char *foo( const char *name ) {}
int can_wibble( Bongo *myBongo ) {}
}
Then you can compile.
No. It's about coding just enough to verify the implementation of the required use cases
You can define your tests cases early, but to code the test cases them you iteratively write a test, have it fail. Then write some code that ensures that the code passes.
Then rinse and repeat until all your test cases are covered,
Edit to address comment.
As you build out the code, that's where your programming designs and faults are identified. Extreme programming lends it self to you being able to change code with out care as the test base protects your requirements. Your intentions are good but the reality is that you'll refactor/redesign test test cases as you discover design issues and flaws through building out the code and test base.
However IMHO, in a very general case, a test that doesn't compile is effectively a meta test that's failing that needs to be corrected before moving on. It's telling you to write some code!
Use mock, from Wikipiedia: mock objects are simulated objects that mimic the behavior of real objects in controlled ways. A programmer typically creates a mock object to test the behavior of some other object, in much the same way that a car designer uses a crash test dummy to simulate the dynamic behavior of a human in vehicle impacts.
Please refer this.
I found this using dynamic for objects that don't exists yet:
https://coderwall.com/p/0uzmdw
I feel pretty skilled in TDD, and I'm even consired the "TDD expert" in my company, but nevertheless, there are some cases that I feel I don't know how to handle properly, so I would like to hear other's opinions.
My problems is as follows:
Even though in general TDD helps me think of the core responsibility of a class, and extract every other responsibility to dependent classes, there are cases that after some time I realize that one of the classes has multiple responsibilities and it needs to be refactored and split it into 2 classes. This conclusion often comes because the tests of that class start to become complicated or repetitive. I can pretty easily do refactoring to split this class to the design I want (and I do it in small steps, keeping on the green bar). My problem is that I end up with the same complicated and repetitive tests that now tests the 2 classes together, while I would like to have seperate tests for each class.
The only (more-or-less safe) manner I could think of for doing that, is to do the following for each test (after I completed the refactoring of the production code):
Duplicate the test case
Change one copy of the test to use a mock instead of the 1st class, and the other copy of the test to use a mock instead of the 2nd class.
Then if I see that an identical test already exists for one of the copies, I delete it.
I think that sometimes its possible to do the following:
start by creating the 2 classes from scratch (using TDD of course)
Change the old tests to use the new classes instead of the old one
Delete the old class
Delete the old tests
Both of these techniques seems pretty cumbersome and time consuming, so I wonder: how do the "real experts" go about this issue?
Without an actual example I can't be sure I know what exactly you mean. But it sounds like you try to test every class (and maybe even every method) in isolation.
When I get to a point where I want to/have to split a class into multiple classes, I tend to still view the resulting collection of classes as a unit and test it as a whole. Only when they stop building a functional whole and start to become independent units, I test them independently of each other.
I can pretty easily do refactoring to split this class to the design I
want (and I do it in small steps, keeping on the green bar). My
problem is that I end up with the same complicated and repetitive
tests that now tests the 2 classes together, while I would like to
have seperate tests for each class.
I've gotten to this point as well. Here I start refactoring the tests, using the same techniques as for the non-test code - convert variable to field, move field, extract method, move variable, etc etc. Naming is of course very important and provides a lot of design guidance.
eg http://www.kdgregory.com/index.php?page=junit.refactoring
eg http://www.natpryce.com/articles/000686.html
eg http://www-public.it-sudparis.eu/~gibson/Teaching/CSC7302/ReadingMaterial/vanDeursenMdenBK01.pdf
That last article has some example smells and refactorings common to refactoring tests specifically.
I start with asking myself (as you have) what are the responsibilities of a class. Let's say for example that your class is responsible to aggregate weather data and generate a weather report.
At this point I make three (3) lists:
Data aggregation members (attributes, behaviors)
Report generation members
Common members
The first two are easy, the members that exclusively belong in one class exclusively become part of one of the two new classes. I will keep the original dual-responsibility class as a facade, whose members are a pass-through to the new classes, so that tests and functionality will not be broken while refactoring. Depending on circumstances, I may eventually remove the facade, and refactor the tests and dependent objects to use the new classes.
As for the members that are common to both responsibilities - I will move them to a helper class (usually scoped as internal), that the new classes (and any others may use). The functionality has proven to be reused, and may be reused again. Note that the common members might not necessarily all land in one helper class; the helping functionality might be added to one new class, multiple (depending, of course on responsibilities) classes, and some functionality may be added to existing helper classes, if one fits the bill.
I wondered about this a while back, and couldn't really find a satisfactory answer. Here are some discussions I found on the topic:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/testdrivendevelopment/message/27199
and
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/testdrivendevelopment/message/16227
Personally, I've adopted a "hair-trigger" approach to moving responsibilites into dependencies, and while "spinning off" a new dependency before there is a clear need for it smacks of YAGNI, I've found that re-absorbing a dependency that turned out to be too anemic to warrant being a separate class is much easier than the rigmarole involved with splitting out a separate class from a class that already has a significant battery of tests written for it.
Edit:
Oh - and I should probably point out that I'm not at all a "real expert" ;)