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Use Spring Data repositories to fill in test data

I'd like to ask whether it is alright to use apps repositories(Spring Data based) to fill in testing data. I know I can use sql file with data, but sometimes I need something more dynamical. I find writing sql or datasets definitions cumbersome(and hard to maintain in case of schema change). Is there anything wrong with using app repositories? There are all basic CRUD operations already there. Note we are talking especially about integration testing.
I feel it is kind of weird to use part of app to test itself. Maybe I can create another set of repositories to be used in test contexts.

No, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using Spring Data repositories to create test data.
I even prefer that since it often allows for simpler refactoring.
As with any use of JPA in tests you need to keep in mind that JPA implementations are a write-behind cache. You probably want to flush and clear the EntityManager after setting up the test data, so that you don't get anything from the 1st level cache that really should come from the database. Also, this ensures data is actually written to the database and problems with that will surface.
You might be interested in a couple of articles about testing with Hibernate. They don't use Spring Data, but it would work with Spring Data JPA just the same.

I would recommand to use Flyway to setup your databases and use Flyway test extension for integration testing.
So that you can do something like that:
#ContextConfiguration(locations = {"/context/simple_applicationContext.xml"})
#TestExecutionListeners({DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.class,
FlywayTestExecutionListener.class})
#Test
#FlywayTest(locationsForMigrate = {"loadmsql"}) // execution once per class
public class MethodTest extends AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests {
#BeforeClass
#FlywayTest(locationsForMigrate = {"loadmsql"}) // execution once per class
public static void beforeClass() {
// maybe some additional things
}
#BeforeMethod
#FlywayTest(locationsForMigrate = {"loadmsql"}) // execution before each test method
public void beforeMethod() {
// maybe before every test method
}
#Test
#FlywayTest(locationsForMigrate = {"loadmsql"}) // as method annotation
public void simpleCountWithoutAny() {
// or just with an annotation above the test method where you need it
}

Shared Transaction between different OracleDB Connections

After several days passed to investigate about the issue, I decided to submit this question because there is no sense apparently in what is happening.
The Case
My computer is configured with a local Oracle Express database.
I have a JAVA project with several JUnit Tests that extend a parent class (I know that it is not a "best practice") which opens an OJDBC Connection (using a static Hikari connection pool of 10 Connections) in the #Before method and rolled Back it in the #After.
public class BaseLocalRollbackableConnectorTest {
private static Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(BaseLocalRollbackableConnectorTest.class);
protected Connection connection;
#Before
public void setup() throws SQLException{
logger.debug("Getting connection and setting autocommit to FALSE");
connection = StaticConnectionPool.getPooledConnection();
}
#After
public void teardown() throws SQLException{
logger.debug("Rollback connection");
connection.rollback();
logger.debug("Close connection");
connection.close();
}
StacicConnectionPool
public class StaticConnectionPool {
private static HikariDataSource ds;
private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(StaticConnectionPool.class);
public static Connection getPooledConnection() throws SQLException {
if (ds == null) {
log.debug("Initializing ConnectionPool");
HikariConfig config = new HikariConfig();
config.setMaximumPoolSize(10);
config.setDataSourceClassName("oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource");
config.addDataSourceProperty("url", "jdbc:oracle:thin:#localhost:1521:XE");
config.addDataSourceProperty("user", "MyUser");
config.addDataSourceProperty("password", "MyPsw");
config.setAutoCommit(false);
ds = new HikariDataSource(config);
}
return ds.getConnection();
}
}
This project has hundreds tests (not in parallel) that use this connection (on localhost) to execute queries (insert/update and select) using Sql2o but transaction and clousure of connection is managed only externally (by the test above).
The database is completely empty to have ACID tests.
So the expected result is to insert something into DB, makes the assertions and then rollback. in this way the second test will not find any data added by previous test in order to maintain the isolation level.
The Problem
Running all tests together (sequentially), 90% of times they work properly. the 10% one or two tests, randomly, fail, because there is dirty data in the database (duplicated unique for example) by previous tests. looking the logs, rollbacks of previous tests were done properly. In fact, if I check the database, it is empty)
If I execute this tests in a server with higher performance but the same JDK, same Oracle DB XE, this failure ratio is increased to 50%.
This is very strange and I have no idea because the connections are different between tests and the rollback is called each time. The JDBC Isolation level is READ COMMITTED so even if we used the same connection, this should not create any problem even using the same connection.
So my question is:
Why it happen? do you have any idea? Is the JDBC rollback synchronous as I know or there could be some cases where it can go forward even though it is not fully completed?
These are my main DB params:
processes 100
sessions 172
transactions 189

I have run into the same problem 2-3 years ago (I have spent a lot of time to get this straight). The problem is that the #Before and #After is not always really sequential. [You could try this by starting the process in debug and place some breakpoints in the annotated methods.
Edit: I was not clear enough as Tonio pointed out. The order of #Before and #After is guarantied in terms of running before the test and afterwards it. The problem was in my case that sometimes the #Before and the #After was messed up.
Expected:
#Before -> test1() -> #After -> #Before -> #test2() -> #After
But sometimes I experienced the following order:
#Before -> test1() -> #Before -> #After -> #test2() -> #After
I am not sure thet it is a bug or not. At the time I dug into the depth of it and it seemed like some kind of (processor?) scheduling related magic.
The solution to that problem was in our case to run the tests on a single thread and call manually the init and cleanup processes... Something like this:
public class BaseLocalRollbackableConnectorTest {
private static Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(BaseLocalRollbackableConnectorTest.class);
protected Connection connection;
public void setup() throws SQLException{
logger.debug("Getting connection and setting autocommit to FALSE");
connection = StaticConnectionPool.getPooledConnection();
}
public void teardown() throws SQLException{
logger.debug("Rollback connection");
connection.rollback();
logger.debug("Close connection");
connection.close();
}
#Test
public void test() throws Exception{
try{
setup();
//test
}catch(Exception e){ //making sure that the teardown will run even if the test is failing
teardown();
throw e;
}
teardown();
}
}
I have not tested it but a much more elegant solution could be to syncronize the #Before and #After methods on the same object. Please update me if You have the chanse to give it a try. :)
I hope it will solve your problem too.

If your problem just needs to be "solved" (e.g. not "best practice") regardless of performance to just make the tests complete in order, try to set:
config.setMaximumPoolSize(1);
You might need to set a timeout higher since the tests in the test queue will wait for its turn and might timeout. I usually don't suggest solutions like this but your setup is suboptimal, it will lead to race conditions and data loss. However, good luck with the tests.

Try configure audit on all statements in Oracle. Then find sessions which live simultaneously. I think that there is the problem in tests. JDBC rollback is synchronous. Commit can be configured as commit nowait but I don't think you do it special in your tests.
Also pay attention on parallel dml. On one table in the same transaction you can't do parallel dml + any other dml without commit because you get Ora-12838.
Do you have autonoumous transaction? Business logic in tests can manually rollback them and during tests autonoumous transaction is like another session and it doesn't see any commits from parent session.

Not sure if this will fix it, but you could try:
public class BaseLocalRollbackableConnectorTest {
private static Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(BaseLocalRollbackableConnectorTest.class);
protected Connection connection;
private Savepoint savepoint;
#Before
public void setup() throws SQLException{
logger.debug("Getting connection and setting autocommit to FALSE");
connection = StaticConnectionPool.getPooledConnection();
savepoint = connection.setSavepoint();
}
#After
public void teardown() throws SQLException{
logger.debug("Rollback connection");
connection.rollback(savepoint);
logger.debug("Close connection");
connection.close();
while (!connection.isClosed()) {
try { Thread.sleep(500); } catch (InterruptedException ie) {}
}
}
Really there are two 'fixes' there - loop after the close to be sure the connection IS closed before returning to the pool. Second, create a savepoint before the test and restore it afterwards.

Like all other answers have pointed out, it's hard to say what goes wrong with the provided information. Further more, even if you manage to find the current issue by audit, it doesn't mean that your tests are free from data errors.
But here's an alternative: because you already have a blank database schema, you can export it to a SQL file. Then before each test:
Drop the schema
Re-create the schema again
Feed the sample data (if needed)
It would save lots of time debugging, make sure the database in its pristine state every time you run the tests. All of this can be done in a script.
Note: Oracle Enterprise has the flashback function to support your kind of operation. Also, if you can manage to use Hibernate and the likes, there's other in-memory databases (like HSQLDB) that you can utilize to both increase testing speed and maintain coherence in your data set.
EDIT: It seems implausible, but just in case: connection.rollback() only takes effect if you don't call commit()
before it.

After all confirmation from your answers that I am not mad with Rollbacks and transactions behavior in unit tests, i deeply checked all queries and all possible causes and fortunately (yes furtunately...even if I'm ashamed for that, I make my mind free) all works as expected (Transactions, Before, After, etc).
There are some queries that get the result of some complex views (and radically deep configured into the DAO layer) to identify the single row information.
This view is based on the MAX of a TIMESTAMP in order to identify latest of a particular event (in the real life the events coming after several months).
Doing the preparation of the database to proceed with the unit tests, these events are added sequentially by each test.
In some cases, when these insert queries under the same transaction are particular fast, more events related to the same object are added in the same Millisecond (The TIMESTAMP is added manually using a JODA DateTime) and the MAX of a date, returns two or more values.
For this reason it is explained the fact that on more performant computers/servers, this happened more frequently than the slower ones.
This view is used in more tests and depending by the test, the error is different and random (NULL value added as Primary Key, duplicated primary Key, etc) .
For Example: in the following INSERT SELECT query is evident this bug:
INSERT INTO TABLE1 (ID,COL1,COL2,COL3)
SELECT :myId, T.VAL1, T.VAL2, T.VAL3
FROM MyView v
JOIN Table2 t on t.ID = v.ID
WHERE ........
the parameter myId is added afterwards as Sql2o Parameter
MyView is
SELECT ID, MAX(MDATE) FROM TABLEV WHERE.... GROUP BY ...
When the view returns at least 2 results due to the same Max Date, it fails because the ID is fixed (generated by a sequence at beginning but stored using the parameter in a second time). This generates the PK constraint violated.
This is only one case but make me (and my colleagues) crazy due to this randomly behaviours...
Adding a sleep of 1 millisecond between those events insert, it is fixed. now we are working to find a different solution even though this case (an user that interact two times in the same millisecond) cannot happen in production system
but the important things is that no magic happens as usual!
Now you can insult me :)

You can do one thing increase the no. of connections in max pool size and rollback the operation in the same place where you committed the operation instead of using it in #after statement.
Hope it will work.

Java Mock data base for testing Spring application

I have made simple application for study perpose and i want to write some unit/intagration tests. I read some information about that i can mock data base insted of create new db for tests. I will copy the code which a write. I hope that some one will explain me how to mock database.
public class UserServiceImpl implements UserService {
#Autowired
private UserOptionsDao uod;
#Override
public User getUser(int id) throws Exception {
if (id < 1) {
throw new InvalidParameterException();
}
return uod.getUser(id);
}
#Override
public User changeUserEmail(int id, String email) {
if (id < 1) {
throw new InvalidParameterException();
}
String[] emailParts = email.split("#");
if (emailParts[0].length() < 5) {
throw new InvalidParameterException();
} else if (!emailParts[1].equals("email.com")) {
throw new InvalidParameterException();
}
return uod.changeUserEmail(id, email);
}
This above i a part of the code that i want to test with the mock data base.

Generally you have three options:
Mock the data returned by UserOptionsDao as #Betlista suggested, thus creating a "fake" DAO object.
Use an in-memory database like HSQLDB to create a database with mock data when the test starts, or
Use something like a Docker container to spin up an instance of MySQL or the like and populate it with data, so you can restart it as necessary.
None of these solutions are perfect.
With #1, your test will skip the intermediate steps of authenticating to the database and looking for data. That leaves a part of your code untested, and as they say, "the devil is in the details." Often people run into problems when they mock DAO's like this when they try to deploy.
With #2, you connect to an actual database, but you have to make sure that either you are using the exact same type of database in your production code or something compatible. It also makes debugging a pain because you have to pause the test to see the contents of the database if something goes wrong.
With #3, you avoid all the problems with #1 and #2, but then you have to wire up all the Docker stuff. (I'm doing this right now, and I'm having problems too). The advantage, though, is that like #2 you can set up all of your test data at once, and be guaranteed that the production database you choose will be exactly the same as your unit test.
In your case, I would go with #2 since the application is for study purposes. Yes, I know this is a long-winded answer, but as you gain experience, you will probably want to know how to "scale up."

What you can do very easily is to have your implementation of UserOptionsDao in test package and set this one to UserServiceImpl. This new implementation can return fixed set of data for example...
This is a highlevel idea. You probably do not want to have many implementations (different for each test in general), so you should use some mocking framework like Mockito or EasyMock, look at the documentation for more details.

Database cleanup after Junit tests

I have to test some Thrift services using Junit. When I run my tests as a Thrift client, the services modify the server database. I am unable to find a good solution which can clean up the database after each test is run.
Cleanup is important especially because the IDs need to be unique which are currently read form an XML file. Now, I have to manually change the IDs after running tests, so that the next set of tests can run without throwing primary key violation in the database. If I can cleanup the database after each test run, then the problem is completely resolved, else I will have to think about other solutions like generating random IDs and using them wherever IDs are required.
Edit: I would like to emphasize that I am testing a service, which is writing to database, I don't have direct access to the database. But since, the service is ours, I can modify the service to provide any cleanup method if required.

If you are using Spring, everything you need is the #DirtiesContext annotation on your test class.
#RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
#ContextConfiguration("/test-context.xml")
#DirtiesContext(classMode = ClassMode.AFTER_EACH_TEST_METHOD)
public class MyServiceTest {
....
}

Unless you as testing specific database actions (verifying you can query or update the database for example) your JUnits shouldn't be writing to a real database. Instead you should mock the database classes. This way you don't actually have to connect and modify the database and therefor no cleanup is needed.
You can mock your classes a couple of different ways. You can use a library such as JMock which will do all the execution and validation work for you. My personal favorite way to do this is with Dependency Injection. This way I can create mock classes that implement my repository interfaces (you are using interfaces for your data access layer right? ;-)) and I implement only the needed methods with known actions/return values.
//Example repository interface.
public interface StudentRepository
{
public List<Student> getAllStudents();
}
//Example mock database class.
public class MockStudentRepository implements StudentRepository
{
//This method creates fake but known data.
public List<Student> getAllStudents()
{
List<Student> studentList = new ArrayList<Student>();
studentList.add(new Student(...));
studentList.add(new Student(...));
studentList.add(new Student(...));
return studentList;
}
}
//Example method to test.
public int computeAverageAge(StudentRepository aRepository)
{
List<Student> students = aRepository.GetAllStudents();
int totalAge = 0;
for(Student student : students)
{
totalAge += student.getAge();
}
return totalAge/students.size();
}
//Example test method.
public void testComputeAverageAge()
{
int expectedAverage = 25; //What the expected answer of your result set is
int actualAverage = computeAverageAge(new MockStudentRepository());
AssertEquals(expectedAverage, actualAverage);
}

How about using something like DBUnit?

Spring's unit testing framework has extensive capabilities for dealing with JDBC. The general approach is that the unit tests runs in a transaction, and (outside of your test) the transaction is rolled back once the test is complete.
This has the advantage of being able to use your database and its schema, but without making any direct changes to the data. Of course, if you actually perform a commit inside your test, then all bets are off!
For more reading, look at Spring's documentation on integration testing with JDBC.

When writing JUnit tests, you can override two specific methods: setUp() and tearDown(). In setUp(), you can set everything thats necessary in order to test your code so you dont have to set things up in each specific test case. tearDown() is called after all the test cases run.
If possible, you could set it up so you can open your database in the setUp() method and then have it clear everything from the tests and close it in the tearDown() method. This is how we have done all testing when we have a database.
Heres an example:
#Override
protected void setUp() throws Exception {
super.setUp();
db = new WolfToursDbAdapter(mContext);
db.open();
//Set up other required state and data
}
#Override
protected void tearDown() throws Exception {
super.tearDown();
db.dropTables();
db.close();
db = null;
}
//Methods to run all the tests

Assuming you have access to the database: Another option is to create a backup of the database just before the tests and restore from that backup after the tests. This can be automated.

If you are using Spring + Junit 4.x then you don't need to insert anything in DB.
Look at
AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests class.
Also check out the Spring documentation for JUnit support.

It's a bit draconian, but I usually aim to wipe out the database (or just the tables I'm interested in) before every test method execution. This doesn't tend to work as I move into more integration-type tests of course.
In cases where I have no control over the database, say I want to verify the correct number of rows were created after a given call, then the test will count the number of rows before and after the tested call, and make sure the difference is correct. In other words, take into account the existing data, then see how the tested code changed things, without assuming anything about the existing data. It can be a bit of work to set up, but let's me test against a more "live" system.
In your case, are the specific IDs important? Could you generate the IDs on the fly, perhaps randomly, verify they're not already in use, then proceed?

I agree with Brainimus if you're trying to test against data you have pulled from a database. If you're looking to test modifications made to the database, another solution would be to mock the database itself. There are multiple implementations of in-memory databases that you can use to create a temporary database (for instance during JUnit's setUp()) and then remove the entire database from memory (during tearDown()). As long as you're not using an vendor-specific SQL, then this is a good way to test modifying a database without touching your real production one.
Some good Java databases that offer in memory support are Apache Derby, Java DB (but it is really Oracle's flavor of Apache Derby again), HyperSQL (better known as HSQLDB) and H2 Database Engine. I have personally used HSQLDB to create in-memory mock databases for testing and it worked great, but I'm sure the others would offer similar results.

How should unit tests set up data sources when not running in an application server?

Thank you all for your help. A number of you posted (as I should have expected) answers indicating my whole approach was wrong, or that low-level code should never have to know whether or not it is running in a container. I would tend to agree. However, I'm dealing with a complex legacy application and do not have the option of doing a major refactoring for the current problem.
Let me step back and ask the question the motivated my original question.
I have a legacy application running under JBoss, and have made some modifications to lower-level code. I have created a unit test for my modification. In order to run the test, I need to connect to a database.
The legacy code gets the data source this way:
(jndiName is a defined string)
Context ctx = new InitialContext();
DataSource dataSource = (DataSource) ctx.lookup(jndiName);
My problem is that when I run this code under unit test, the Context has no data sources defined. My solution to this was to try to see if I'm running under the application server and, if not, create the test DataSource and return it. If I am running under the app server, then I use the code above.
So, my real question is: What is the correct way to do this? Is there some approved way the unit test can set up the context to return the appropriate data source so that the code under test doesn't need to be aware of where it's running?
For Context: MY ORIGINAL QUESTION:
I have some Java code that needs to know whether or not it is running under JBoss. Is there a canonical way for code to tell whether it is running in a container?
My first approach was developed through experimention and consists of getting the initial context and testing that it can look up certain values.
private boolean isRunningUnderJBoss(Context ctx) {
boolean runningUnderJBoss = false;
try {
// The following invokes a naming exception when not running under
// JBoss.
ctx.getNameInNamespace();
// The URL packages must contain the string "jboss".
String urlPackages = (String) ctx.lookup("java.naming.factory.url.pkgs");
if ((urlPackages != null) && (urlPackages.toUpperCase().contains("JBOSS"))) {
runningUnderJBoss = true;
}
} catch (Exception e) {
// If we get there, we are not under JBoss
runningUnderJBoss = false;
}
return runningUnderJBoss;
}
Context ctx = new InitialContext();
if (isRunningUnderJboss(ctx)
{
.........
Now, this seems to work, but it feels like a hack. What is the "correct" way to do this? Ideally, I'd like a way that would work with a variety of application servers, not just JBoss.

The whole concept is back to front. Lower level code should not be doing this sort of testing. If you need a different implementation pass it down at a relevant point.

Some combination of Dependency Injection (whether through Spring, config files, or program arguments) and the Factory Pattern would usually work best.
As an example I pass an argument to my Ant scripts that setup config files depending if the ear or war is going into a development, testing, or production environment.

The whole approach feels wrong headed to me. If your app needs to know which container it's running in you're doing something wrong.
When I use Spring I can move from Tomcat to WebLogic and back without changing anything. I'm sure that with proper configuration I could do the same trick with JBOSS as well. That's the goal I'd shoot for.

Perhaps something like this ( ugly but it may work )
private void isRunningOn( String thatServerName ) {
String uniqueClassName = getSpecialClassNameFor( thatServerName );
try {
Class.forName( uniqueClassName );
} catch ( ClassNotFoudException cnfe ) {
return false;
}
return true;
}
The getSpecialClassNameFor method would return a class that is unique for each Application Server ( and may return new class names when more apps servers are added )
Then you use it like:
if( isRunningOn("JBoss")) {
createJBossStrategy....etcetc
}

Context ctx = new InitialContext();
DataSource dataSource = (DataSource) ctx.lookup(jndiName);
Who constructs the InitialContext? Its construction must be outside the code that you are trying to test, or otherwise you won't be able to mock the context.
Since you said that you are working on a legacy application, first refactor the code so that you can easily dependency inject the context or data source to the class. Then you can more easily write tests for that class.
You can transition the legacy code by having two constructors, as in the below code, until you have refactored the code that constructs the class. This way you can more easily test Foo and you can keep the code that uses Foo unchanged. Then you can slowly refactor the code, so that the old constructor is completely removed and all dependencies are dependency injected.
public class Foo {
private final DataSource dataSource;
public Foo() { // production code calls this - no changes needed to callers
Context ctx = new InitialContext();
this.dataSource = (DataSource) ctx.lookup(jndiName);
}
public Foo(DataSource dataSource) { // test code calls this
this.dataSource = dataSource;
}
// methods that use dataSource
}
But before you start doing that refactoring, you should have some integration tests to cover your back. Otherwise you can't know whether even the simple refactorings, such as moving the DataSource lookup to the constructor, break something. Then when the code gets better, more testable, you can write unit tests. (By definition, if a test touches the file system, network or database, it is not a unit test - it is an integration test.)
The benefit of unit tests is that they run fast - hundreds or thousands per second - and are very focused to testing just one behaviour at a time. That makes it possible run then often (if you hesitate running all unit tests after changing one line, they run too slowly) so that you get quick feedback. And because they are very focused, you will know just by looking at the name of the failing test that exactly where in the production code the bug is.
The benefit of integration tests is that they make sure that all parts are plugged together correctly. That is also important, but you can not run them very often because things like touching the database make them very slow. But you should still run them at least once a day on your continuous integration server.

There are a couple of ways to tackle this problem. One is to pass a Context object to the class when it is under unit test. If you can't change the method signature, refactor the creation of the inital context to a protected method and test a subclass that returns the mocked context object by overriding the method. That can at least put the class under test so you can refactor to better alternatives from there.
The next option is to make database connections a factory that can tell if it is in a container or not, and do the appropriate thing in each case.
One thing to think about is - once you have this database connection out of the container, what are you going to do with it? It is easier, but it isn't quite a unit test if you have to carry the whole data access layer.
For further help in this direction of moving legacy code under unit test, I suggest you look at Michael Feather's Working Effectively with Legacy Code.

A clean way to do this would be to have lifecycle listeners configured in web.xml. These can set global flags if you want. For example, you could define a ServletContextListener in your web.xml and in the contextInitialized method, set a global flag that you're running inside a container. If the global flag is not set, then you are not running inside a container.