This document discusses going beyond unit testing for web applications. It introduces several tools for testing different aspects of web applications, including Selenium IDE for browser-based testing, soapUI for web service testing, and JMeter for performance and load testing. These tools can be run from the command line as part of continuous integration with Jenkins. The document cites research that unit testing only detects an average of 25% of defects, while integration testing detects 45%, and code reviews have even higher effectiveness rates.

1. Nordic Perl Workshop 2013
Beyond Unit Testing
Søren Lund (slu)
slu@369.dk

2. We all know about unit testing
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”t” directory / *.t scripts
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prove command
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or make test
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Integrated part of CPAN/Perl culture for many
years

3. Testing Web Application
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Multi-tier
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Back-end (Perl)
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Front-end (JavaScript)
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Persistence (SQL / SP)
Web Services
Simple unit testing doesn't really cut it

4. Selenium IDE
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Firefox Add-on
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What it user/browser sees
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Black box testing
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Simply record a flow
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Add assertions
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Build test cases and test suites
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You can even do dynamic stuff with JavaScript

5. soapUI
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Stand-alone GUI
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Web Service testing (WSDL)
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Create test cases and test suites
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Dynamic stuff using embedded Groovy
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Also handles REST and more

6. Apache JMeter
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Stand-alone GUI
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Stress and performance testing
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Mainly HTTP(S), but also e.g. FTP or JDBC
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Use as a proxy to record requests/responses
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Visual programming language
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Output as graphs and/or CSV data

7. The Nightly Build
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You can run Selenium IDE test suites from CLI
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On a headless server use Xvfb
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You can run soapUI test suites from CLI
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You can run JMeter test suites from CLI
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Which means you can easily add them to CI
(e.g. Jenkins)

8. Why go beyond?
— the average defect detection
rate is only 25 percent for unit testing, 35
percent for function testing, and 45 percent for
integration testing.
Steve McConnell, Code Complete

9. Testing is not enough
… software testing alone has limited
effectiveness — the average defect detection
rate is only 25 percent for unit testing, 35
percent for function testing, and 45 percent for
integration testing. In contrast, the average
effectiveness of design and code inspections
are 55 and 60 percent
Steve McConnell, Code Complete

10. Testing is not enough
… software testing alone has limited
effectiveness — the average defect detection
rate is only 25 percent for unit testing, 35
percent for function testing, and 45 percent for
integration testing. In contrast, the average
effectiveness of design and code inspections
are 55 and 60 percent
Steve McConnell, Code Complete