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.
Related
I have an old Java project (no frameworks/build tools used) that has a class full of SQL methods and corresponding Bean-classes. The SQL methods mostly use SELECT, INSERT and UPDATE queries like this:
public static void sqlUpdateAge(Connection dbConnection, int age, int id) {
PreparedStatement s = null;
ResultSet r = null;
String sql = "UPDATE person SET age = ? WHERE id = ?";
try {
s = dbConnection.prepareStatement(sql);
s.setInt(1, age);
s.setInt(2, id);
s.addBatch();
s.executeBatch();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
if (r != null)
r.close();
if (s != null)
s.close();
} catch (SQLException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
What is the best practice in unit testing when it comes to SQL queries?
The easiest way I can think of, would be to use my development database; just call the sqlUpdateAge() in the test class, query the database for a result set and assertTrue that the set age is in the result set. However, this would fill up the development database with unnecessary data, and I would like to avoid that.
Is the solution to create a so-called in-memory database or somehow rollback the changes I made?
If I need an in-memory database:
Where and how would I create it? Straight to the test class, or perhaps to a config file?
How do I pass it to the updateAge() method?
I would suggest to see if you can start with autmoating the build. That is either by introducing a build tool such as maven or gradle - or if not possible - scipting the build. In any case, your goal should be to get to a point where it's easy for you to trigger a buil together with tests whenever code changes.
If you are not able to produce a consistent build on every change with the guarantee that all unit tests have been run, then there's really no value in writing unit tests in the first place. That is because otherwise, your tests are going to fail eventually due to code modifications and you wouldn't notice unless all your tests are automatically run.
Once you have that, you might have some hints to how you would like to run unit or integration tests.
As you can't benefit from testing support that many application frameworks provide, you're basically left on your own for how to configure database testing setup. In that case, I don't think that an inmemory database is really the best opion, because:
It's a different database technology than what you are normally using, and as the code indicates you are not using an ORM that will take care of different SQL dialects for you. As that's the case, you might find yourself in a position, where you are unable to accurately test your code because of SQL dialect differeces.
You will need to do all the setup of the inmemory DB yourself - which is of course possible, but still it's a piece of code that you need to maintain and that can also fail.
The two alternatives I can think of are:
Use Docker to start your actual database technology for every time you run the tests. (that's also something you have to script for yourself, but it will most likely be a very simple and short command you need to execute)
have a test database running on your test environment that you use. Every time before you run the tests, esure the database is reset to the original state. (easiest way to do this is to drop the existing schema and restore to the original schema). In this case, you will need to ensure that you don't run multiple builds in parallell against the same test database.
These suggestions apply only if you have experience on the shell and/or have support from someone in ops. If not, setting up H2 might be easier and more straight forward.
Things would have been easy with a Spring Boot project. In your case, you have many strategies:
Configure a H2 database. You can initialize your database with the creation of a schema and insertion of data in a setUp method with the #BeforeEach annotation.
You can use a dedicated framework like DbUnit.
You will have to initialize your dbConnection also in a setUp method in your unit test.
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
}
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 am using hsqldb for testing some of the data access layer in Java. I have certain test cases like 100 around. I create a in memory database and then insert some values in the table so that with my test case i can load it, but the problem is for every test case i need to clear the in memory database, only the values not the tables.
Is it possible, one thing is i need to manually delete the rows from the table and is there some thing else I can use.
Thanks
If you use DbUnit in unit-tests, you can specify that DbUnit should perform a clean-and-insert operation before every test to ensure that the contents of the database are in a valid state before every test. This can be done in a manner similar to the one below:
#Before
public void setUp() throws Exception
{
logger.info("Performing the setup of test {}", testName.getMethodName());
IDatabaseConnection connection = null;
try
{
connection = getConnection();
IDataSet dataSet = getDataSet();
//The following line cleans up all DbUnit recognized tables and inserts and test data before every test.
DatabaseOperation.CLEAN_INSERT.execute(connection, dataSet);
}
finally
{
// Closes the connection as the persistence layer gets it's connection from elsewhere
connection.close();
}
}
Note that it is always recommended to perform any setup activities in a #Before setup method, rather than in a #After teardown method. The latter indicates that you are creating new database objects in a method being tested, which IMHO does not exactly lend easily to testable behavior. Besides, if you are cleaning up after a test, to ensure that a second test runs correctly, then any such cleanup is actually a part of the setup of the second test, and not a teardown of the first.
The alternative to using DbUnit is to start a new transaction in your #Before setup method, and to roll it back in the #After teardown method. This would depend on how your data access layer is written.
If your data access layer accepts Connection objects, then your setup routine should create them, and turn off auto-commit. Also, there is an assumption that your data access layer will not invoke Connection.commit. Assuming the previous, you can rollback the transaction using Connection.rollback() in your teardown method.
With respect to transaction control, the below snippet demonstrates how one would do it using JPA for instance:
#Before
public void setUp() throws Exception
{
logger.info("Performing the setup of test {}", testName.getMethodName());
em = emf.createEntityManager();
// Starts the transaction before every test
em.getTransaction.begin();
}
#After
public void tearDown() throws Exception
{
logger.info("Performing the teardown of test {}", testName.getMethodName());
if (em != null)
{
// Rolls back the transaction after every test
em.getTransaction().rollback();
em.close();
}
}
Similar approaches would have to be undertaken for other ORM frameworks or even your custom persistence layer, if you have written one.
Could you use HSQLDB transactions?
Before every test, start a new transaction:
START TRANSACTION;
After every test, roll it back:
ROLLBACK;
This would also allow you to have some permanent data.
Depending on your test framework, it is possible to execute a delete call after each test. In Junit the annotation is #After and a method with this annotation will be run after each [#Test] method.
You have to use Truncate Query for the Destroy Database Memory or this link can be helpful to you.
http://wiki.apache.org/db-derby/InMemoryBackEndPrimer