I'm trying to run a UnitTest in C#, but only if another UnitTest passes? Can't quite get it to work, does anybody know how I can do this?
Edit: It's in NUnit
I encountered this problem a while back. A solution I came up with may not be the most elegant but it works. What I did to get around the ordering issue is I created my own unit testing framework. It was propriety to the company I worked for so I can't share it with you.
In the testing framework, there existed
A template for each type of test & a generic template to aggregate all the tests
A utility to execute each template type
For example, if I was doing an integration test, I would have a "http utility" and the template would contain the endpoint & payload.
The tests I wanted to run would need to be stored into an intermediate data structure such as json. This allowed me to serialize the tests into templates.
Now this is where it gets tricky... Using some fancy T4 templating, I would get the json data & serialize it to a list of templates. Then I would order the tests by execution order and dependency (one test could be dependent on another for chaining integration tests). I would then generate a unit test for every template. The generated unit tests would then run on build
For your question about canceling test execution if one fails, you can build that into your templating using some fancy logic
static List<ITestTemplate> requiredTests = new List<ITestTemplate>();
...
if(requiredTests.Any(t => t.Failed))
Assert.IsTrue(false) //fail subsequent tests
You could accomplish this, though it may not be the cleanest solution, by using the [Order()] attribute. (docs)
This will allow you to run the dependency-test as [Order(1)] and the test relying on the first test as [Order(2)]. You can share your driver across the tests, and if the first test fails, close the driver, causing the other tests relying on the first test passing to fail.
I would like to create unit tests for data dependent code. For example:
A user class that has the usual create, update & delete.
If I wanted to create a test for "user already exists" scenario, or and update or delete test. I would need to know that a specific user already exists in my database.
In such cases, what would be the best approach to have stand alone tests for these operations that can run in any order?
When you have dependencies like this think about whether you want to be Integration Testing as opposed to Unit Testing. If you do want to do Unit tests take a look at using Mock Data.
Integration Testing:
Tests how you code integrates with different parts of a system. This can be making sure your code connects to a database properly or has created a file on the filesystem. These tests are usually very straight-forward and do not have the same constraint of "being able to run in any order." However, they require a specific configuration in order to pass which means they do float well from developer to developer.
Unit Testing: Tests your code's ability to preform a function. For example "Does my function AddTwoNumbers(int one, int two) actually add two numbers?" Unit tests are to ensure any changes in code does not effect the expected results.
When getting into areas like "Does my code call the database any enter the result correctly?" you need to consider that unit tests are not meant to interact with the system. This is where we get into using "mock data." Mock classes and mock data take the place of an actual system to just ensure that your code "called out in the way we were expecting." The difficult part about this is it can be done but most of the .Net Framework classes do not provide the needed Interfaces in order to do it easily.
See the MSDN page on Tesing for more info. Also, consider this MSDN article on Mock Data.
We have 1000's of coded UI automated test cases written that are not associated with a manual test case. We need sexy pass/fail metrics from these automated test cases. I think getting these pass/fail metrics into TFS (somehow) is probably the best solution... but I don't want to write a manual test case for every single automated test.
Is there a way I can get these metrics to TFS? for example:
Can I automatically Generate stub test cases in MTM based on method
names of the existing tests? ... and then link the automated TCs to
those stubs?
i think what you want can be done by directly importing the test methods to TFS as test case and then can be added to MTM. Refer this link.
You can do what you propose via some custom coding and the TFS API. But there is no way to do that without custom coding as far as I'm aware.
You can create an ordered test containing all your Coded UI tests and then automate the single test case with this ordered test.
You can also organize your Coded UI test into several ordered tests and create a "main" ordered test containing them all (and automate the single test case with the "main" ordered test).
But you will still have to add new created Coded UI tests to the ordered test manually.
If you want to automate this, too, you can code against TFS API in order to add single tests to the ordered test automatically (e.g. during a build) based on tests' names or categories.
I am using Visual Studio 2008 and I would like to be able to split up my unit tests into two groups:
Quick tests
Longer tests (i.e. interactions with database)
I can only see an option to run all or one, and also to run all of the tests in a unit test class.
Is there any way I can split these up or specify which tests to run when I want to run a quick test?
Thanks
If you're using NUnit, you could use the CategoryAttribute.
The equivalent in MSTest is the TestCategory attribute - see here for a description of how to use it.
I would distinguish your unit test groups as follows:
Unit Tests - Testing single methods / classes, with stubbed dependenices. Should be very quick to execute, as there are only internal dependencies.
Integration Tests - Testing two or more components together, such as your Data Access classes with an actual backed database. These are generally lengthy, as you may be dealing with an external dependency such as a DB or web service. However, these could still be quick tests depending on what components you are integrating. The key here is the scope of the test is different than Unit Tests.
I would create seperate test libraries, i.e. MyProj.UniTests.dll and MyProj.IntegrationTests.dll. This way, your Unit Tests library would have fewer dependenices than your Integration tests. It will then be easy to specify which test group you want to run.
You can set up a continuous integration server, if you are using something like that, to run the tests at different times, knowing that group 1 is quicker than the second. For example, Unit Tests could run immediatley after code is checked in to your repository, and Integration Tests could run overnight. It's easy to set something like this up using Team City
There is the Test List Editor. I'm not at my Visual Studio computer now so I'll just point to this answer.
So I've written a class and I have the code to test it, but where should I put that code? I could make a static method Test() for the class, but that doesn't need to be there during production and clutters up the class declaration. A bit of searching told me to put the test code in a separate project, but what exactly would the format of that project be? One static class with a method for each of the classes, so if my class was called Randomizer, the method would be called testRandomizer?
What are some best practices regarding organizing test code?
EDIT: I originally tagged the question with a variety of languages to which I thought it was relevant, but it seems like the overall answer to the question may be "use a testing framework", which is language specific. :D
Whether you are using a test framework (I highly recommend doing so) or not, the best place for the unit tests is in a separate assembly (C/C++/C#) or package (Java).
You will only have access to public and protected classes and methods, however unit testing usually only tests public APIs.
I recommend you add a separate test project/assembly/package for each existing project/assembly/package.
The format of the project depends on the test framework - for a .NET test project, use VSs built in test project template or NUnit in your version of VS doesn't support unit testing, for Java use JUnit, for C/C++ perhaps CppUnit (I haven't tried this one).
Test projects usually contain one static class init methods, one static class tear down method, one non-static init method for all tests, one non-static tear down method for all tests and one non-static method per test + any other methods you add.
The static methods let you copy dlls, set up the test environment and clear up the test enviroment, the non-static shared methods are for reducing duplicate code and the actual test methods for preparing the test-specific input, expected output and comparing them.
Where you put your test code depends on what you intend to do with the code. If it's a stand-alone class that, for example, you intend to make available to others for download and use, then the test code should be a project within the solution. The test code would, in addition to providing verification that the class was doing what you wanted it to do, provide an example for users of your class, so it should be well-documented and extremely clear.
If, on the other hand, your class is part of a library or DLL, and is intended to work only within the ecosystem of that library or DLL, then there should be a test program or framework that exercises the DLL as an entity. Code coverage tools will demonstrate that the test code is actually exercising the code. In my experience, these test programs are, like the single class program, built as a project within the solution that builds the DLL or library.
Note that in both of the above cases, the test project is not built as part of the standard build process. You have to build it specifically.
Finally, if your class is to be part of a larger project, your test code should become a part of whatever framework or process flow has been defined for your greater team. On my current project, for example, developer unit tests are maintained in a separate source control tree that has a structure parallel to that of the shipping code. Unit tests are required to pass code review by both the development and test team. During the build process (every other day right now), we build the shipping code, then the unit tests, then the QA test code set. Unit tests are run before the QA code and all must pass. This is pretty much a smoke test to make sure that we haven't broken the lowest level of functionality. Unit tests are required to generate a failure report and exit with a negative status code. Our processes are probably more formal than many, though.
In Java you should use Junit4, either by itself or (I think better) with an IDE. We have used three environments : Eclipse, NetBeans and Maven (with and without IDE). There can be some slight incompatibilities between these if not deployed systematically.
Generally all tests are in the same project but under a different directory/folder. Thus a class:
org.foo.Bar.java
would have a test
org.foo.BarTest.java
These are in the same package (org.foo) but would be organized in directories:
src/main/java/org/foo/Bar.java
and
src/test/java/org/foo/BarTest.java
These directories are universally recognised by Eclipse, NetBeans and Maven. Maven is the pickiest, whereas Eclipse does not always enforce strictness.
You should probably avoid calling other classes TestPlugh or XyzzyTest as some (old) tools will pick these up as containing tests even if they don't.
Even if you only have one test for your method (and most test authorities would expect more to exercise edge cases) you should arrange this type of structure.
EDIT Note that Maven is able to create distributions without tests even if they are in the same package. By default Maven also requires all tests to pass before the project can be deployed.
Most setups I have seen or use have a separate project that has the tests in them. This makes it a lot easier and cleaner to work with. As a separate project it's easy to deploy your code without having to worry about the tests being a part of the live system.
As testing progresses, I have seen separate projects for unit tests, integration tests and regression tests. One of the main ideas for this is to keep your unit tests running as fast as possible. Integration & regression tests tend to take longer due to the nature of their tests (connecting to databases, etc...)
I typically create a parallel package structure in a distinct source tree in the same project. That way your tests have access to public, protected and even package-private members of the class under test, which is often useful to have.
For example, I might have
myproject
src
main
com.acme.myapp.model
User
com.acme.myapp.web
RegisterController
test
com.acme.myapp.model
UserTest
com.acme.myapp.web
RegisterControllerTest
Maven does this, but the approach isn't particularly tied to Maven.
This would depend on the Testing Framework that you are using. JUnit, NUnit, some other? Each one will document some way to organize the test code. Also, if you are using continuous integration then that would also affect where and how you place your test. For example, this article discusses some options.
Create a new project in the same solution as your code.
If you're working with c# then Visual Studio will do this for you if you select Test > New Test... It has a wizard which will guide you through the process.
hmm. you want to test random number generator... may be it will be better to create strong mathematical proof of correctness of algorithm. Because otherwise, you must be sure that every sequence ever generated has a desired distribution
Create separate projects for unit-tests, integration-tests and functional-tests. Even if your "real" code has multiple projects, you can probably do with one project for each test-type, but it is important to distinguish between each type of test.
For the unit-tests, you should create a parallel namespace-hierarchy. So if you have crazy.juggler.drummer.Customer, you should unit-test it in crazy.juggler.drummer.CustomerTest. That way it is easy to see which classes are properly tested.
Functional- and integration-tests may be harder to place, but usually you can find a proper place. Tests of the database-layer probably belong somewhere like my.app.database.DatabaseIntegrationTest. Functional-tests might warrant their own namespace: my.app.functionaltests.CustomerCreationWorkflowTest.
But tip #1: be tough about separating the various kind of tests. Especially be sure to keep the collection of unit-tests separate from the integration-tests.
In the case of C# and Visual Studio 2010, you can create a test project from the templates which will be included in your project's solution. Then, you will be able to specify which tests to fire during the building of your project. All tests will live in a separate assembly.
Otherwise, you can use the NUnit Assembly, import it to your solution and start creating methods for all the object you need to test. For bigger projects, I prefer to locate these tests inside a separate assembly.
You can generate your own tests but I would strongly recommend using an existing framework.