Spring MVC - testing services - java

i have a question regarding service layer testing in Spring framework.
I have a class ProductService which has method:
public List<Product> getProducts() {
return productDAO.getProducts();
}
Is there any way to test it properly? This method retrieve all products using dao layer, when i, for example fill a list with five products(which are in database right now) and test this method by asserting size of the list it seems useless because when i add one product it still passes, but it shouldn't - after adding one product it should return 6 not 5 products...
If you have any usefull sites/yt videos about spring unit testing please let me know.
Thanks for Your help in advance!
Regards

One technique you could use to test this particular code is to mock the productDAO using a framework. The mock object then provides specific results that you can test for in your unit tests.

Related

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
}

What is the point in unit testing mock returned data?

Consider the scenario where I am mocking certain service and its method.
Employee emp = mock(Employee.class);
when(emp.getName(1)).thenReturn("Jim");
when(emp.getName(2)).thenReturn("Mark");
//assert
assertEquals("Jim", emp.getName(1));
assertEquals("Mark", emp.getName(2));
In the above code when emp.getName(1) is called then mock will return Jim and when emp.getName(2) is called mock will return Mark. My Question is I am declaring the behavior of Mock and checking it assertEquals what is the point in having above(or same kind of) assert statements? These are obviously going to pass. it is simply like checking 3==(1+2) what is the point? When will these tests fail (apart from changing the return type and param type)?
As you noted, these kind of tests are pointless (unless you're writing a unit test for Mockito itself, of course :-)).
The point of mocking is to eliminate external dependencies so you can unit-test your code without depending on other classes' code. For example, let's assume you have a class that uses the Employee class you described:
public class EmployeeExaminer {
public boolean isJim(Employee e, int i) {
return "Jim".equals(e.getName(i));
}
}
And you'd like to write a unit test for it. Of course, you could use the actual Employee class, but then your test won't be a unit-test any more - it would depend on Employee's implementation. Here's where mocking comes in handy - it allows you to replace Employee with a predictable behavior so you could write a stable unit test:
// The object under test
EmployeeExaminer ee = new EmployeeExaminer();
// A mock Employee used for tests:
Employee emp = mock(Employee.class);
when(emp.getName(1)).thenReturn("Jim");
when(emp.getName(2)).thenReturn("Mark");
// Assert EmployeeExaminer's behavior:
assertTrue(ee.isJim(emp, 1));
assertFalse(ee.isJim(emp, 2));
In your case you are testing a getter, I don't know why you are testing it and no clue why would you need to mock it. From the code you are providing this is useless.
There is many scenarios where mocking make sense when you write unit-test you have to be pragmatic, you should test behaviors and mock dependencies.
Here you aren't testing behavior and you are mocking the class under test.
There is no point in that test.
Mocks are only useful for injecting dependencies into classes and testing that a particular behaviour interacts with that dependency correctly, or for allowing you to test some behaviour that requires an interface you don't care about in the test you are writing.
Mocking the class under test means you aren't even really testing that class.
If the emp variable was being injected into another class and then that class was being tested, then I could see some kind of point to it.
Above testcase is trying to test a POJO.
Actually, You can ignore to test POJO's, or in other words, they are automatically tested when testing other basic functionalities. (there are also utilities as mean-beans to test POJO's)
Goal of unit-testing is to test the functionality without connecting to any external systems. If you are connecting to any external system, that is considered integration testing.
Mocking an object helps in creating mock objects that cannot be created during unit-testing, and testing behavior/logic based on what the mocked object (or real object when connecting to external system) data is returned.
Mocks are structures that simulate behaviour of external dependencies that you don't/can't have or which can't operate properly in the context of your test, because they depend on other external systems themselves (e.g. a connection to a server). Therefore a test like you've described is indeed not very helpful, because you basically try to verify the simulated behaviour of your mocks and nothing else.
A better example would be a class EmployeeValidator that depends on another system EmployeeService, which sends a request to an external server. The server might not be available in the current context of your test, so you need to mock the service that makes the request and simulate the behaviour of that.
class EmployeeValidator {
private final EmployeeService service;
public EmployeeValidator(EmployeeService service) {
this.service = service;
}
public List<Employee> employeesWithMaxSalary(int maxSalary) {
List<Employee> allEmployees = service.getAll(); // Possible call to external system via HTTP or so.
List<Employee> filtered = new LinkedList<>();
for(Employee e : allEmployees) {
if(e.getSalary() <= maxSalary) {
filtered.add(e);
}
}
return filtered;
}
}
Then you can write a test which mocks the EmployeeService and simulates the call to the external system. Afterwards, you can verify that everything went as planned.
#Test
public void shouldContainAllEmployeesWithSalaryFiveThousand() {
// Given - Define behaviour
EmployeeService mockService = mock(EmployeeService.class);
when(mockService.getAll()).thenReturn(createEmployeeList());
// When - Operate the system under test
// Inject the mock
EmployeeValidator ev = new EmployeeValidator(mockService);
// System calls EmployeeService#getAll() internally but this is mocked away here
List<Employee> filtered = ev.employeesWithMaxSalary(5000);
// Then - Check correct results
assertThat(filtered.size(), is(3)); // There are only 3 employees with Salary <= 5000
verify(mockService, times(1)).getAll(); // The service method was called exactly one time.
}
private List<Employee> createEmployeeList() {
// Create some dummy Employees
}

doubts about unit testing DAOs

I am looking for information to build unit test for typical DAO methods (find user by username, etc.) and I found several examples using mocks like this one: http://www.christophbrill.de/de_DE/unit-testing-with-junit-and-mockito/
#Test
public void testComeGetSome() {
// Mock the EntityManager to return our dummy element
Some dummy = new Some();
EntityManager em = Mockito.mock(EntityManager.class);
Mockito.when(em.find(Some.class, 1234)).thenReturn(dummy);
// Mock the SomeDao to use our EntityManager
SomeDao someDao = Mockito.mock(SomeDao.class);
Mockito.when(someDao.comeGetSome(1234)).thenCallRealMethod();
Mockito.when(someDao.getEntityManager()).thenReturn(em);
// Perform the actual test
Assert.assertSame(dummy, someDao.comeGetSome(1234));
Assert.assertNull(someDao.comeGetSome(4321));
}
There is also a similar one in Lasse Koskela's book using EasyMock instead of Mockito.
The thing is: what are we really testing in these examples? We are basically telling through mocks what object the query should return, and then asserting that in fact it returned the object we told it to return.
We are not testing if the query is correct or if it returns a different object or no objects at all (or even more than one object). We cannot test if it returns null when the object does not exist in the database. This line
Assert.assertNull(someDao.comeGetSome(4321));
works because there is no scripted interaction for that argument, not because the object does not exist.
It looks like we are just testing if the method calls the proper methods and objects (em.find).
What is the point of unit testing this? Are there any good frameworks in Java to quickly set up an in memory database and perform tests with it?
Your doubts really make sense. Actually there is no need to test DAO with unit tests in most cases because unit tests deal with one layer, but DAO cooperate with database layer.
This article explains this idea:
http://www.petrikainulainen.net/programming/testing/writing-tests-for-data-access-code-unit-tests-are-waste/
Hence we should test DAO and database layer with integration tests.
Integration tests take into account both DAO and database layer.
This article will provide your with Spring + Hibernate example:
https://dzone.com/articles/easy-integration-testing
It looks loke more like service tests, than a real DAO tests.
For example, I'm using dbunit to test my DAO layer.
For example, I have Author table with 2 fields: id and name.
I'm creating a dataset xml file like
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<dataset>
<AUTHOR AUTHOR_ID="1" NAME="FirstAuthor"/>
...
<AUTHOR AUTHOR_ID="10" NAME="TenthAuthor"/>
</dataset>
And then in my test class using Mockito I'm testing my DAO methods like
#Test
#DatabaseSetup(value = "/dao/author/author-data.xml")
public void testFindAll() {
List<Author> authorList = this.authorDAO.findAll();
assertEquals(10, authorList.size());
}

Testing service layer without DAO

Can you give me an example of how I test my service layer without the DAO using mock objects, Spring or any other framework. My Java code looks like this:
public int myServiceMethod(int number) {
int myInt = Factory.getDAOImpl.getNumber();
return myInt + number * 8;
}
I want to test the logic of myServiceMethod but without testing the DAO method.
Is it possible? Do I have to refactor it? Can you show me an example of how to test this simple method.
Thank you
In your example, you would just need to mock your DAO (for example using Mockito), and fix a number to be returned.
DAOImpl myDao = mock(DAOImpl.class);
when(myDao.getNumber()).thenReturn(7);
When calling the method getNumber, you'll always get 7. Pass this DAO when creating your service, and write your test as normal:
assertEquals(224, service.myServiceMethod(4));
I hope this helps!

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.

Categories