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
}
Related
I was reading this article on Unit Testing. It seems pretty straightforward, but there was a section that interested me and I wanted to see if someone could please provide an explanation or example of what this means. I think I understand it but maybe not well enough.
Write test cases that are independent of each other. For example, if a class depends on a database, do not write a case that interacts with the database to test the class. Instead, create an abstract interface around that database connection and implement that interface with a mock object.
What does it mean to:
create an abstract interface around the db connection?
then implement it with a mock object?
I am more questioning the first part (1) but if someone can explain both parts that would be helpful. Thanks.
ONE: The "abstract data interface" simply means that you provide an interface with methods for storing and finding data in a business oriented way, rather than use the database connection directly. You can then implement this interface to store data in different ways: an sql database, a file based approach, etc. Such a class in some patterns is also referred to as "data access object" (DAO).
public interface PersonDao {
void store(Person personToStore);
Person findById(String id);
}
public class SqlPersonDao implements PersonDao {
#Override
void store(Person personToStore) {
// use database connection here ...
}
}
Basically in a unit test you always want to mock anything that is not your system under test and has a complex behaviour you cannot control. That is especially true for things like system time, for example if a class uses system time, for tests you want a way to inject a predefined time overriding the system clock.
TWO:
In unit tests you don't want to be affected by bugs in any dependency. For a unit using the PersonDao, the PersonDaowould be such a dependency. Rather than relying on the real implementation's behaviour, you want to exactly define the results you expect (using the notation of the Mockito mocking framework and the AssertJ validation framework here):
class MyUnitTest {
// system under test
MyUnit sut;
#Mock
PersonDao personDaoMock;
#BeforeEach
public setup() {
initMocks(this);
sut = new MyUnit("some", "parameters");
}
#Test
void myTest() {
// setup test environment using a mock
var somePerson = new Person("101", "John", "Doe");
doReturn(somePerson).when(personDaoMock.findById("101"));
// run test
var actualValue = sut.doSomething();
// check results
assertThat(actualValue).isNotNull();
}
}
I'm writing an application meant to manage a database using both JDBC and JPA for an exam. I would like the user to select once at the beginning the API to use so that all the application will use the selected API (whether it be JPA or JDBC).
For the moment I decided to use this approach:
I created an interface for each DAO class (e.g. interface UserDAO) with all needed method declarations.
I created two classes for each DAO distinguished by the API used (e.g UserDAOImplJDBC and UserDAOImplJPA). Both of them implement the interface (in our case, UserDAO).
I created a third class (e.g. UserDAOImpl) that extends the JDBC implementation class. In all my code I've been always using this class. When I wanted to switch to the JPA I just had to change in all DAO classes the extends ***ImplDAOJDBC to extends ***ImplDAOJPA.
Now, as I'm starting having many DAO classes it's starting being complicate to modify the code each time.
Is there a way to change all extends faster?
I was considering adding an option in the first screen (for example a radioGroup) to select JDBC or JPA. But yet I have no idea how to make it work without having to restructure all code. Any idea?
Use a factory to get the appropriate DAO, every time you need one:
public class UserDaoFactory {
public UserDao create() {
if (SomeSharedSingleton.getInstance().getPersistenceOption() == JDBC) {
return new UserDAOImplJDBC();
}
else {
return new UserDAOImplJPA();
}
}
}
That's a classic OO pattern.
That said, I hope you realize that what you're doing there should really never be done in a real application:
there's no reason to do the exact same thing in two different ways
the persistence model of JPA and JDBC is extremely different: JPA entities are managed by the JPA engine, so every change to JPA entities is transparently made persistent. That's not the case with JDBC, where the data you get from the database is detached. So the way to implement business logic is very different between JPA and JDBC: you typically never need to save any change when using JPA.
You got 1 and 2 right, but 3 completely wrong.
Instead of having Impl extending one of the other implementations, choose which implementation to initialize using a utility method, for example. That's assuming you don't use Dependency Injection framework such as Spring.
UserDAO dao = DBUtils.getUserDAO();
public class DBUtils {
public static boolean shouldUseJdbc() {
// Decide on some configuration what should you use
}
public static UserDAO getUserDAO() {
if (shouldUseJdbc()) {
return new UserDAOImplJDBC();
}
else {
return new UserDAOImplJPA();
}
}
}
This is still jus an examle, as your DAOs don't need to be instantiated each time, but actually should be singletons.
I have a lot of DAO classes I need to test on a Spring project.
I am already using DBUnit to mock my database, however I use the #Before annotation to create objects and compare them after tests on create/update/delete operations.
#DatabaseSetup(value = { "/db_data/dao/common.xml", "/db_data/dao/myDAOCommonTest.xml" })
#DbUnitConfiguration(dataSetLoader = ReplacementDataSetLoader.class)
public class MyDAOImplTest extends AbstractDaoTU {
#Autowired
private MyDAO myDAO;
private Set<ClassNeeded> objectsNeeded = new HashSet<>();
private ClassOne classOne;
private ClassTwo classTwo;
private ClassThree classThree;
#Override
public void setUp() throws Exception {
super.setUp();
this.objectsNeeded.add(somethingComingFromTheMotherClass);
this.classOne = new ClassOne();
this.classOne.setIdClassOne(1L)
this.classOne.setObjectsNeeded(this.objectsNeeded);
// ... Many other sets
this.classTwo = new ClassTwo();
this.classTwo.setIdClassTwo(1L);
this.classTwo.setClassOne(this.classOne);
// ... Many other sets
// ... Other sets follow for a lot of other objects
}
#Test
public void testOne {
// ...
}
// ... Other tests follow
}
I am using an ORM (Hibernate in this case), and most objects are inter-dependent. My dao functions mostly need complete objects to be called, so I must create the objects before testing.
My questions are the following :
Is there a better approach to unit test DAOs ?
What tools do you know to make this easier/faster to write ? (I am using maven for packaging)
Thanks for your help !
DB Unit complicates the maintenance of the tests as it increases the number of places that need updates when something changes. Additionally it separates the data preparation from the tests too much so it's hard to find which of the data relates to which tests.
Ideally each test prepares data for itself. This removes global state and keeps related things together.
To prepare the data just create entities and save them in the very same test. You can use randomization and transaction rollbacks to isolate the tests. Here is an example from one of my projects:
#Test public void returnsExperimentAsItWasSaved() {
Experiment original = Experiment.random();
experimentRepository.save(original);
flushToDbAndClearCache();
Experiment fromDb = experimentRepository.findOne(original.getExperimentId());
assertReflectionEquals(original, fromDb);
}
Note, that the very same DAO class is used to prepare the data.
The best way is to develop your tests as you would develop your code: refactor to minimize duplication, extract reusable services, etc.
So, you'll probably create some TestCaseFactory that chains up a whole set of objects and saves them using your actual DAO's. Then, you can call them from an #Before as you did. If you need a lot of different sets of objects, you can create different methods or a parameter object etc.
And do a cleanup of all test data in an #After.
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.
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.