Elements of Testing Style

Noel Rappin, Friday, July 3, 2009 @ 7:28 am

Cover image from Amazon.com

It's been way too long since I blathered on about style issues. Today I'd like to talk about testing style. This article assumes you are already writing tests and already using something approaching a Test-Driven Development process -- I'm not here to argue about process, at least not today.

Today the topic is the actual construction of individual tests, how to name them, how to group them, where to get data from and the like.

I suspect I'll think of five more things right after I post this, so look for an update sometime in the future. The update will also address all the places where everybody tells me that I'm totally wrong.

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Upcoming Pathfinder Appearances

Noel Rappin, Friday, June 19, 2009 @ 8:14 am

Windy City Rails is September 12, 2009

Here are a couple of upcoming Ruby and Rails-based appearances by Pathfinder personnel:

On Tuesday, June 23, Noel Rappin (referring to himself in the third person) will be the guest speaker at the Chicago Ruby.org monthly meeting. The meeting starts at 6:00 at Chicago Ruby's downtown loop meeting location, see the link for details. The working title of my talk is "I'd Like To Start Testing. Now What?" and it'll be an informal discussion of testing tools and good practice.

The schedule for WindyCityRails was announced this week. The conference is September 12, 2009 at the Westin Chicago River North. John McCaffrey from Pathfinder will be presenting "Super-easy PDF Generation with Prawn and Prawnto", and I'll be up there with "How To Test Absolutely Anything".

Other speakers include Ryan Singer from 37signals, Ben Scofield from Viget Labs, and Yehuda Katz from Engine Yard.

Registration through August 1st is $99, there are a couple of tutorial sessions also available for purchase.

This was a very well-run regional conference last year, and I'm excited for this year's edition. Hope to see you there.

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How to learn a new programming language or framework

Sharad Jain, Wednesday, June 17, 2009 @ 10:03 am

While never untrue, it is more of a necessity now, that a programmer should know more than just one language or framework. After being a focussed Java/J2EE developer for a long time since college, in the last couple of years, I plunged into .NET, Ruby/Rails and then Javascript/prototype/jQuery etc and now onto groovy/grails. With name like Erlang, Scala, Compass, git, blueprint, flex flying around us everywhere, it can be overwhelming and we need a plan to pick, peruse, acquire them. Here is a list of things I do when learning a new skill.

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The Return of the Cucumber

Noel Rappin, Friday, June 12, 2009 @ 1:37 pm

Same Photo by Nick Atkins Photography

I mentioned last week that the RubyMine post was replacing what I had meant to write about. Well, this week we finally get to it...

It's been about ten weeks since I wrote about Cucumber the first time and the second time. Since then, I've continued to use Cucumber and now seemed like a good time to update some thoughts on how and why it seems to be working for us.

The big headline, of course, is that I'm still using it after ten weeks. I'm pretty quick to abandon tools that aren't pulling their weight, so just the fact that Cucumber is still in the toolbox means that despite the time that it takes to write Cucumber tests and step definitions, I'm finding the process of writing the tests and the tests themselves to be valuable.

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Back To The Ruby Mines

Noel Rappin, Friday, June 5, 2009 @ 1:33 pm

RubyMine

This actually wasn't the post I was planning to write this week, but a couple of days ago I got it in my head to try the latest version of RubyMine, the Ruby and Rails IDE from JetBrains.

Now, I tried this with the beta version back in December, and thought it had a long way to go. However, there's been a lot of online chatter about it over the last few months. (Gregg Pollack was particularly enthusiastic in his RailsConf talk), and I thought I'd go back and try again. And I started Twittering about it again, and got some responses, so I thought I'd do a longer write up.

The executive summary is that I started using this on Wednesday and haven't stopped yet. It's come a very long way, and although there are still annoyances, it felt better to me than the other Ruby IDE's. I think it's not quite as solid as my normal TextMate/termial prompt combination, but it's improving rapidly. Overall, this is the first time that JetBrains' Ruby IDE gave me that pleasant "this is like IntelliJ" feeling.

One thing I definitely learned from my years as a happy IntelliJ user back when I wrote more Java code, is that JetBrains releases often, their betas are usually very solid, and they add new stuff really, really rapidly. So my expectations are high that RubyMine will continue to improve. Continue reading »

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Stick with ERB or move to Haml

Sharad Jain, Wednesday, June 3, 2009 @ 9:04 am

Haml is gaining popularity in Rails community. It claims higher productivity compared to defacto ERB templating. Not everybody agrees though. I see 2 short-term problem with haml.

1. ERB is similar to it pre-decessor and hence easier to learn. Compared to JSP etc. ERB is similar, you still see lots of HTML tag with interleaved ruby (or Java). Although verbose, it is closer to how your HTML would finally look like.
2. If your team has a dedicated HTML programmer (Designer as we may call them). These folks are very good at plain HTML and don't want the trouble of converting files and having all the plumbing around when working. It is not efficient for them.

Despite this, I see Haml as valid alternative for following reasons:

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Comparing Ruby Mock Object Libraries

Noel Rappin, Friday, May 29, 2009 @ 12:23 pm

Masks by exfordy

Continuing on the theme of comparing similar things that I started last week, this week I'll be taking on Mock Object libraries.

The purpose of a mock object library is to allow you to create "fake" objects that can take the place of the regular objects in your application during testing (you'll sometimes see them called "test doubles", by analogy with a stunt double, another kind of stand-in).

There are a several reasons why you might want to use a test double in your tests, the two most common are probably these:

• To take the place of a hard to create or expensive to access object or method call, such as a web services call. Using the test double lets the test system pretend that the expensive object is there, but at a much lower time cost.
• To isolate an object being tested from the details of the rest of the system. In Rails, for example, a controller test might create test doubles for methods in the model so that the controller test can pass or fail separately from whether the model implementation is correct.

Ruby's open object model and duck-typing makes creating test double objects relatively easy compared to stricter languages like Java. There are four major mock objects packages in Ruby:

1. FlexMock is the original Ruby mock object package
2. Mocha is quasi-official in that the Rails team uses it for their tests.
3. RSpec defines its own mock package
4. RRis the newest entry, with shorter syntax and a couple of new features

Here's a tour of what each package looks like, and when you might use each feature.

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Factory tools for fixture replacement: a comparison

Noel Rappin, Friday, May 22, 2009 @ 10:49 am

Assembly line picture by harry_nl

Continuing on the general theme of blog posts that people actually asked me to do... this week, I'll be taking a comparative look at fixture replacement tools. The general request was to have one place that compared the features of the various libraries so that a prospective fixture replacer might make a more informed choice.

So here goes, I'll try to keep the editorializing to a minimum, but no promises.

Fixture replacement or factory tools replace the global nature of Rails fixture data with the ability to easily create new objects based on sample valid data previously defined by the developer. Factory tools have several advantages, including keeping each test independent of other tests, since you are no longer using global fixtures, and allowing the important data for each test to be defined in that test.

Updated to correct some errors caught in the first few comments.

Self-promotion alert: A full description of why to use fixture replacements and an in-depth look at one of these tools is available in the full version of Rails Test Prescriptions available wherever fine PDF books are sold as long as you think the only place fine PDF books are sold is http://www.railsrx.com.
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Catching Ajax Errors with Prototype and Rails

Josh Symonds, Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 2:59 pm

In an exclusively Ajax application it can be difficult for a user to determine when their connection to the server has dropped. For example, we at Pathfinder use an excellent internal tool to keep track of our time, and the primary screen in it provides a lot of Ajax-y fields. But if, say, I disconnect my laptop, plug in at home, and forget to connect to our VPN, I can waste quite a lot of time and energy putting in information without realizing it isn't being sent to the server at all.

To fix this problem is a little less obvious than it might seem at first glance.

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Rails Testing Frequently Asked Questions — The Non-Code Version

Noel Rappin, Friday, May 15, 2009 @ 11:50 am

Test-Taking Robot picture by slavin fpo

Between my sessions at RailsConf, and the book promotion at Ruby Learning I've been fielding a lot of questions about Test-Driven Development and Rails. Here are five of the most common general questions.

Self promotional note: many of these questions and more are covered in detail in Rails Test Prescriptions, only $9 dollars for a book that covers all kinds of testing topics...
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RailsConf ‘09: After the RailsConfening

Noel Rappin, Friday, May 8, 2009 @ 2:52 pm

RailsConf attendees patiently await my session. They have no idea what they are in for...

A rambling set of notes and things while it's still in my head.

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Pathfinder Launches Beer Hunter, A New Flex + Ruby RIA

Bernhard Kappe, Monday, May 4, 2009 @ 6:51 am

We just launched a new rich internet application for Destinationbeer.com, called Beer Hunter.  It was written in Flex and Ruby on Rails and features mapping and 150 beers from around the world.  We think it's pretty cool, so check it out, and let us know what you think.  One of the things I really like about it is that the design pattern can be applied anywhere you're filtering products geographically and on attributes.  Coffee? Wine? Jewelry? Chocolate? Travel Books? I particularly like the way the beer list visually sorts when you change a filter and the zoom interactions on the map.

There's more information in the case study on the Pathfinder web site, Sasha has written a related post on RubyAMF and Flex from the Flex perspective , and Justin has written one on Rails, AMF and Flex from the Rails perspective.

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Process, Environment, and Incentives

Noel Rappin, Friday, May 1, 2009 @ 2:29 pm

This has nothing to do with anything,
but it's such a cool picture...

I was having a conversation with a co-worker this week about the automated build server on a particular project. My co-worker had set up the server to fail the build if test coverage dropped below 100%, and I was less than convinced that this was a good idea.

We didn't debate it much, I wasn't doing a very good job of making my points, and we both had other things to do, but it got me thinking about process, community, and incentives. So I thought I'd ramble on about that for a while.

Thinking about it, I decided that having the build fail on a coverage drop, although I still think it's overkill, is not nearly as important as what happens after the build fails. Is it allowed to stay failed? Does the responsible developer fix it sheepishly? Is the responsible developer forced to wear a silly hat? What incentive is there for the developer to ensure the build status before checkin? Continue reading »

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RailsConf 2009: The RailsConfening

Noel Rappin, Friday, April 24, 2009 @ 1:44 pm

In just over a week, I'll be headed off to RailsConf for my second visit.

Here's an overview of some of the sessions I'm looking forward to.

First, of course, is my own: Below and Beneath TDD: Test-Last Development and Other Real-World Test Patterns. It's at 2:50 on Tuesday, May 5, in Ballroom B. I'll be talking about how Test-Driven Development can fail, how to recognize failure patterns, and how and why to move back to a successful process. No matter what your level of comfort is with testing, I think you'll get something out of this talk. It's going to be fun, and I'm excited about the chance to present.

I'm also going to be giving out free copies of Rails Test Prescriptions (well, it's an ebook, I'll be giving out free licenses). I haven't quite worked out the exact details yet, but it'll be similar to last year's plan, and will involve seeing me or attending my session. Follow the book on Twitter for information about giveaways. Follow me on Twitter for general updates about the conference.

And come up and say hi -- I'd love to meet people who read this blog or the Rails Prescriptions book.

Other talks and sessions that I'm particularly interested in include:

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Nested Contexts and Test Structure

Noel Rappin, Friday, April 10, 2009 @ 10:47 am

Nesting doll photo by Abbey Hendrickson

I first started using Shoulda for my Rails tests, it took me a while to really understand how Shoulda wants me to use contexts.

In a traditional SUnit/JUnit test structure, the test setup gets the data in order, the actual test method does something and then tests assertions about the outcome
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