Grails build-test-data Plugin

grails
build-test-data
plugin

created by Ted Naleid and Joe Hoover

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

creating test data with
groovy is easy!


iterators
["Alice", "Bob", "Carol", "Dave"].each {
closures }
new Author(name: it).save()

syntactic sugar


modeling your domain in
grails is easy!


a book belongs class Book {
String title
static belongsTo = [author: Author]
to an author }

an author has class Author {
String name
many books }
static hasMany = [books: Book]


class User {
String login
String password
String email
Date birthDate

static constraints = {
login(size: 5..15,
constraints blank: false,
unique: true)
password(size: 5..15,
blank: false)
email(email: true,
blank: false)
birthDate(max: new Date())
}
}


test data must pass constraints

def user = new User(
login: “tnaleid”,
password: “sekrit1”,
birthDate: new Date() - (365 * 36)
).save()


whoops! missed an attribute!

password: “sekrit1”,
email: “contact@naleid.com”,
age: new Date() - (365 * 36)
).save()


constrained attributes are required
even if your test doesn’t care about
them

password: “sekrit”,
email: “contact@naleid.com”,
birthDate: new Date() - (365 * 36)
).save()

// service looks up user in DB by username and deletes it
assertTrue userService.deleteByUsername(“tnaleid”)


problem multiplied by
complex domain models


agile + code coverage =
lots of tests


you need to add a new
constraint...
what happens to all the
tests?


creating maintainable test
data is hard!


existing test data
creation strategies


void testTenDollarPurchase() {
def author = new Author(
name: “David Foster Wallace”
).save()
Book book = new Book(
author: author,
title: "The Pale King",
published: new Date(),
price: 10.00 as BigDecimal
).save()

copy/paste/ }
def ord = service.orderBook(book.id)
//... test assertions

modify for every void testTwentyDollarPurchase() {

test method def author = new Author(
).save()
author: author,
title: "Infinite Jest",
).save()

def ord = service.orderBook(book.id)
}


def author

void setUp() {
author = new Author(
).save()
}

author: author,
title: "The Pale King",
use setUp method published: new Date(),
).save()
to share objects
def order = service.orderBook(book.id)

across tests }

void testTwentyDollarPurchase() {
author: author,
title: "Infinite Jest",
).save()

def result = service.orderBook(book.id)
}

class AuthorObjectMother {
static dfw() {
return new Author(
).save()
}
}

class BookObjectMother {
static thePaleKing() {
return new Book(
author: AuthorObjectMother.dfw(),
title: “The Pale King”,
).save()

object mother }
static infiniteJest() {
return new Book(
author: AuthorObjectMother.dfw(),

pattern title: “Infinite Jest”,
).save()
}
}

testTenDollarPurchase() {
Book book = BookObjectMother.thePaleKing()
}

void testTwentyDollarPurchase() {
Book book = BookObjectMother.infiniteJest()
}

// fixtures/dfwBooks.groovy:
fixture {
davidFosterWallace(Author) {
name = “David Foster Wallace”
}
thePaleKing(Book) {
author = davidFosterWallace
title = "The Pale King"
published = new Date()
price = 10.00 as BigDecimal
}
infiniteJest(Book) {
author = davidFosterWallace
title = "Infinite Jest"
published = new Date()

builder DSL / test }
}
price = 20.00 as BigDecimal

fixtures // test class ...
def fixtureLoader
fixtureLoader.load("dfwBooks")
Book book = Book.findByTitle(“The Pale King”)

}

fixtureLoader.load("dfwBooks")
Book book = Book.findByTitle(“Infinite Jest”)
}

all of these strategies strive
to DRY up your test data
creation


but all of them repeat the same
rules specified in the constraints


)
mockDomain(Book, [book])

grails does have def order = service.orderBook(book.id)
//...test assertions
mocks ... but what }

are they really void testTwentyDollarPurchase() {
testing? )

mockDomain(Book, [book])

def result = service.orderBook(book)
}


void testPurchaseBookService() {
def author = new Author(
name: "First Last",
).save()
what if we could author: author,
title: "title",
turn this price: 10.00 as BigDecimal
).save()

def order = service.orderBook(book.id)
}

void testPurchaseBookService() {
Book book = Book.build(
into this )

def result = service.orderBook(book)
}

you can with the
build-test-data plugin


build-test-data
advantages


testing data documents
what’s being tested


only specify values the
test uses


test coupling is
eliminated


you’re executing real
GORM code paths


unrelated domain
changes won’t break
your tests


build-test-data usage


class Author {
String name
static hasMany = [books: Book]
}
our domain class Book {
String title
static belongsTo = [author: Author]
}


just give me a def book = Book.build()

assertNotNull book.author
book assertNotNull book.title


give me a book,
but let me set the def book = Book.build(title:“Infinite Jest”)

title


let me tweak the def book = Book.build(author:

)
Author.build(name: “Charlie Stross”)

book’s author


build-test-data features


‣ Domain objects (1..1, 1..N, N..N)
‣ Embedded domain objects

build-test-data ‣
‣
String
Boolean
supports all ‣
‣
Number (Integer, Long, Float, etc)
Byte
known attribute ‣ Date

types ‣
‣
Enum
JodaTime
‣ Any other hibernate persistable class
with a zero-argument constructor


‣ nullable
‣ blank
‣ inList
‣ max
‣ maxSize

automatic ‣
‣
min
minSize
constraint support ‣
‣
range
scale
‣ size
‣ url
‣ creditCard
‣ email


manual constraint ‣
‣
matches (regular expressions)
validator (user-defined constraint)
support ‣ unique


configuration file lets you customize
static attribute values

// grails-app/conf/TestDataConfig.groovy

testDataConfig {
sampleData = {
Publisher {
name = “Pragmatic Bookshelf” // default unless overridden
}
}
}


configuration file lets you customize
dynamic attribute values

// grails-app/conf/TestDataConfig.groovy

testDataConfig {
sampleData = {
‘com.example.Hotel’ {
def i = 1
name = {-> “name${i++}” } // “name1”, “name2”, ... “nameN”
}
}
}


build-test-data installation

grails install-plugin build-test-data


live coding demo


links
build-test-data home
http://bitbucket.org/tednaleid/grails-test-data/wiki/Home

intro blog post
http://naleid.com/blog/2009/04/14/grails-build-test-data-01-plugin-released/

photo credits
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/3406169798/in/set-1058884

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Domain_model.png

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickwheeleroz/2474196275/in/photostream


Questions?


Grails build-test-data Plugin

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