I'm writing a JUnit test for a method containing the following:
if (p.toString().contains("abc")) {
cCreds(p);
refMgr();
p = new Path(Utils.rmvTkn(p.toString()));
}
cCreds(p); and refMgr(); call void methods. I'm not actually testing these methods but they do get called in the method I am testing so I have to deal with them in some way. I know I need some sort of test double but I'm not sure what. I assume its not with a when().thenReturn(); as nothing is actually returned.
Can anybody advise?
Edit
I should also mention, cCreds(p); and refMgr(); are also private.
Mocking is not necessary the thing to do here.
As these methods :
cCreds(p);
refMgr();
make part of the class under test, you are not compelled to mock them.
Mocking public or private methods of the class under test is not very natural.
It makes generally tests more brittle and less clear.
Mockito provides spy concept to achieve it but it should be favored for legacy code.
In the actual implementation, what you should check is that the method returns or performs a side effect which is expected.
You don't show the whole code of the method, so it is hard to give a more specific pointer.
Note that if these methods :
cCreds(p);
refMgr();
rely some other classes that you need to mock to isolate the component under test, you could refactor your code to extract the method in the dependent classes.
You would invoke them in this way :
foo.cCreds(p);
bar.refMgr();
And you could so mock them easily.
Use doNothing() API from Mockito to mock void methods
doNothing().when(mock).cCreds(p);
doNothing().when(mock).refMgr();
Source: http://www.baeldung.com/mockito-void-methods
Related
I want to test a function in my code. This function calls another function in the same class but in my test I don't want to call it (I don't need it). Somehow, my test always goes into that inner function and makes errors. Is there any means to "skip" the call to that inner function ?
Here's an example :
void function1() {
if(condition == true) {
variable1 = function2()
}
}
Object function2() {
//Do something
return Object;
}
Is there a way to avoid calling function 2 ?
Thank you.
First you should consider fixing those errors thrown from function2().
If however you want to test the function1() isolated then the behavior you are describing is called Test Doubles. One kind of those test doubles is Mocking where you can drive the behavior of a class or a method.
There are frameworks doing this such as Mockito, but of course you can solve that problem on your own not depending on frameworks.
For example if you use Mockito you should end up mocking the function2() method like this
YouClassName mockedClass = mock(YouClassName.class);
when(mockedClass.function2()).thenReturn(new Object()); //you can of course return anything here
Its pretty common to test functions in isolation but in times where are dependencies between objects. If there are no dependencies you should probably consider not using test doubles (unless you are sure what you are doing).
Frameworks such as Mockito offer concepts such as spies. Using a Mockito spy, you can gain full control over which methods get invoked.
But: you only do that for very specific cases.
When you have a hard time testing your production code, then most likely: because you have written hard to test code.
Thus: you could try to use a spy here, but I would rather advice to step back and re-think what exactly you intend to do here.
I am writing test cases for a liferay portal in which I want to mock ActionRequest, ThemeDisplay kind of objects. I have tried with writing expectations in each test method.
Now I want to generalize the approach by creating a BaseTest class which provides me all expectations needed for each method so that I don't have to write it again in the all test classes.
For one class I have tried by writing expectations in #Before method. How can I use same in different classes?
For example I want to do following in several classes:
#Before
public void setUp() {
// All expectations which are required by each test methods
new Expectations() {{
themeDisplay.getPermissionChecker();
returns(permissionChecker);
actionRequest.getParameter("userId");
returns("111");
actionRequest.getParameter("userName");
returns("User1");
}};
}
Also is there a way to provide that whenever I call actionRequest.getParameter() it may return the specific value which I provide?
Any help will be appreciated.
Generally, what you want is to create named Expectations and Verifications subclasses to be reused from multiple test classes. Examples can be found in the documentation.
Note that mocked instances have to be passed in, when instantiating said subclasses.
Methods like getPermissionChecker(), however, usually don't need to be explicitly recorded, since a cascaded instance is going to be automatically returned as needed.
Mocking methods like getParameter, though, hints that perhaps it would be better to use real objects rather than mocks. Mocking isn't really meant for simple "getters", and this often indicates that you may be mocking too much.
Perhaps I have completely fallen short in my search, but I cannot locate any documentation or discussions related to how to write a unit test for a Java class/method that in turn calls other non-private methods. Seemingly, Mockito takes the position that there is perhaps something wrong with the design (not truly OO) if a spy has to be used in order to test a method where mocking internal method calls is necessary. I'm not certain this is always true. But using a spy seems to be the only way to accomplish this. For example, why could you not have a "wrapper" style method that in turn relies on other methods for primitive functionality but additionally provides functionality, error handling, logging, or different branches dependent on results of the other methods, etc.?
So my question is two-fold:
Is it poorly designed and implemented code to have a method that internally calls other methods?
What is the best practice and/or approach in writing a unit test for such a method (assuming it is itself a good idea) if one has chosen Mockito as their mocking framework?
This might be a difficult request, but I would prefer for those who decide to answer to not merely re-publish the Mockito verbiage and/or stance on spies as I already am aware of that approach and ideology. Also, I've used Powermockito as well. To me, the issue here is that Mockito developed this framework where additional workarounds had to be created to support this need. So I suppose the question I am wanting an answer to is if spies are "bad", and Powermockito were not available, how is one supposed to unit test a method that calls other non-private methods?
Is it poorly designed and implemented code to have a method that internally calls other methods?
Not really. But I'd say that, in this situation, the method that calls the others should be tested as if the others where not already tested separately.
That is, it protects you from situations where your public methods stops calling the other ones without you noticing it.
Yes, it makes for (sometimes) a lot of test code. I believe that this is the point: the pain in writing the tests is a good clue that you might want to consider extracting those sub-methods into a separate class.
If I can live with those tests, then I consider that the sub-methods are not to be extracted yet.
What is the best practice and/or approach in writing a unit test for such a method (assuming it is itself a good idea) if one has chosen Mockito as their mocking framework?
I'd do something like that:
public class Blah {
public int publicMethod() {
return innerMethod();
}
int innerMethod() {
return 0;
}
}
public class BlahTest {
#Test
public void blah() throws Exception {
Blah spy = spy(new Blah());
doReturn(1).when(spy).innerMethod();
assertThat(spy.publicMethod()).isEqualTo(1);
}
}
To me, this question relates strongly to the concept of cohesion.
My answer would be:
It is ok to have methods (public) that call other methods (private) in a class, in fact very often that is what I think of as good code. There is a caveat to this however in that your class should still be strongly cohesive. To me that means the 'state' of your class should be well defined, and the methods (think behaviours) of your class should be involved in changing your classes state in predictable ways.
Is this the case with what you are trying to test? If not, you may be looking at one class when you should be looking at two (or more).
What are the state variables of the class you're trying to test?
You might find that after considering the answers to these types of questions, your code becomes much easier to test in the way you think it should be.
If you really need (or want) to avoid calling the lower-level methods again, you can stub them out instead of mocking them. For example, if method A calls B and C, you can do this:
MyClass classUnderTest = new MyClass() {
#Override
public boolean B() {return true;}
#Override
public int C() {return 0;}
};
doOtherCommonSetUp(classUnderTest);
String result = classUnderTest.A("whatever");
assertEquals("whatIWant", result);
I've used this quite a quite a bit with legacy code where extensive refactoring could easily lead to the software version of shipwright's disease: Isolate something difficult to test into a small method, and then stub that out.
But if the methods being called are fairly innocuous and don't requiring mocking, I just let them be called again without worrying that I am covering every path within them.
The real question should be:
What do I really want to test?
And actually the answer should be:
The behaviour of my object in response to outside changes
That is, depending on the way one can interact with your object, you want to test every possible single scenario in a single test. This way, you can make sure that your class reacts according to your expectations depending on the scenario you're providing your test with.
Is it poorly designed and implemented code to have a method that internally calls other methods?
Not really, and really not! These so called private methods that are called from public members are namely helper methods. It is totally correct to have helper methods!
Helper methods are there to help break some more complex behaviours into smaller pieces of reusable code from within the class itself. Only it knows how it should behave and return the state accordingly through the public members of your class.
It is unrare to see a class with helper methods and normally they are necessary to adopt an internal behaviour for which the class shouldn't react from the outside world.
What is the best practice and/or approach in writing a unit test for such a method (assuming it is itself a good idea) if one has chosen Mockito as their mocking framework?
In my humble opinion, you don't test those methods. They get tested when the public members are tested through the state that you expect out of your object upon a public member call. For example, using the MVP pattern, if you want to test user authentication, you shall not test every private methods, since private methods might as well call other public methods from an object on which depend the object under test and so forth. Instead, testing your view:
#TestFixture
public class TestView {
#Test
public void test() {
// arrange
string expected = "Invalid login or password";
string login = "SomeLogin";
string password = "SomePassword";
// act
viewUnderTest.Connect(login, password);
string actual = viewUnderTest.getErrorMessage;
// assert
assertEqual(expected, actual);
}
}
This test method describes the expected behaviour of your view once the, let's say, connectButton is clicked. If the ErrorMessage property doesn't contain the expected value, this means that either your view or presenter doesn't behave as expected. You might check whether the presenter subscribed to your view's Connect event, or if your presenter sets the right error message, etc.
The fact is that you never need to test whatever is going on in your private methods, as you shall adjust and bring corrections on debug, which in turn causes you to test the behaviour of your internal methods simultaneously, but no special test method should be written expressly for those helper method.
I'm using easymock, and I am mocking my UserService class.
My UserService has a few methods:
boolean canUserLogin(..);
boolean canUserJoinClass(...);
Now some of the methods call each other, and if I am testing method#1 I want to stub/mock methods #2 and methods# 3 that are called in method#1.
What I am confused is, how can I mock parts of a class and leave others to run the actual code?
So I want to actually test UserService.method#1, but mock UserService.method#2 and UserService.method#3 that method#1 calls internally.
By specifying return values for the methods you want mocked; see the easymock docs for examples.
The "Specifying Return Values" section discusses creating return values for mocked methods.
The "Partial mocking" section (towards the bottom) discusses mocking actual classes.
I agree with the docs (and other answers) that this may be an indication of sketchy design. Without further details, it's hard to say how sketchy it is, if it is at all.
You can check some library like Easymock, but I don't sure whether it can do this.
And here is my solution without third-party library. Create a subclass of UserService, and override the method you want to mock.
class SubUserService{
#override
boolean canUserJoinClass(...){
return false;
}
}
But notice the mock method can't be private.
And if this is one real problem you meet, you should refactor you methods to different classes.
I know Mockito supports "spy" on real objects. I could not find an equivalent in Easy Mock. So, I am not sure if you can do this.
Having said that, this is a smell to me. Why do you need to mock it? Is that an indication of the fact that your object is doing too much and hence you need to mock the other interactions?
Also, whenever you need to worry about the implementation of a method (method 1 in this case) i.e. the fact that it calls method2 and method3, especially of the same class, that sounds to me like a encapsulation leaking.
Mocking is intended to be used for dependencies, so you can test in isolation. In this case, you don't have any dependencies, since the methods you are calling are on one class. So I wouldn't use mocking here.
If methods 2 and 3 are so complicated that you want to mock them when testing method 1, then perhaps you should separate them out into their own class(es), so you can easily mock them.
Lets say we have method to test in class A that calls method from class B. To test it we created mock for B and then verify if it was called. Is verify(...) enough for unit test or I need assert actual result of tested method?
Below is simplified example to clarify my concern:
public class StringWriterATest {
StringWriterB b = mock(StringWriterB.class);
#Test
public void stringWriterATest() {
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
StringWriterA a = new StringWriterA();
a.stringWriterB=b;
a.append(sb);
ArgumentCaptor<StringBuffer> argument = ArgumentCaptor.forClass(StringBuffer.class);
verify(b).append(argument.capture());
assertEquals("StringWriterA", ((StringBuffer)argument.getValue()).toString());
//do we really need this or above is enough for proper unit test of method a.append(sb);
//assertEquals("StringWriterA_StringWriterB", sb);
}
}
public class StringWriterA {
public StringWriterB stringWriterB;
public void append(StringBuffer sb) {
sb.append("StringWriterA");
stringWriterB.append(sb);
}
}
class StringWriterB {
public void append(StringBuffer sb) {
sb.append("StringWriterB");
}
}
Regards,
Max
There is never a need to mock a return value and verify an object at the same time.
Consider this:
StringWriterA is the class under test. Therefore you'll definitely want to use assertions to verify the behavior of this class. In order to do this, you mock out a dependency, StringWriterB.
You do not want to test StringWriterB in your test of StringWriterA, therefore any assertions of StringWriterB interactions in your test are in the wrong place.
You must assume that StringWriterB is behaving as expected. You either want to verify that StringWriterA called StringWriterB correctly (using verify()) or you want to mock its expected behavior and mock the return values.
If you mock, then the verify is implicit since the mocked return value will not be returned if the method is not called.
In your case, StringWriterA.append() does not return any value, so only a verify is even possible. That StringWriterB.append() also works should have a similar verify test in a stringWriterBTest of its own.
Note: It's nice to be explicit with tests. Since test methods are never called outside of a framework, there is never a need to type them out, so you can have much longer method names than in production code methods. A nice convention is:
<underTest>Should<Expected>[When]<Condition>()
i.e.
stringWriterAShouldAppendConstantAndDelegateToStringWriterB()
stringWriterAShouldThrowNullPointerExceptionWhenNullArgument()
When you have test failures in your build (continuous integration), then you don't have to hunt down what went wrong, the method name appears right by the failure and you can read it to know exactly what behavior must be fixed.
In your example, StringWriterB stores no state and the append method could easily be static. In that case then the call is purely a side effect and does not need to be tested.
However, I suspect your real code is much more complex. If there is a of another object accessing StringWriterB then you maye want to mock it out in case there are unexpected calls to it. You also may want to add the verify of B if you expect it to be expanded in the future -- possibly storing state from the append call and having accessors.
One thing to consider is what the purpose of the call to StringWriterA.append() is. If it's job is to append the string StringWriterAStringWriterB then that is what you should be testing and a mock is not necessary. How StringWriterA accomplishes that task is immaterial. If, however, part of its job is to also call the StringWriterB.append() method then a mock may will be necessary unless you want to test StringWriterB in A's test.
My rule of thumb WRT mocks is to use real objects until the wiring for the objects I'm not directly testing gets too hairy or too brittle. If I feel like a good portion of my tests are in actuality testing other objects then mocks would be a good idea.
First of all try to show somebody the test you wrote. It is hard to read in my opinion. You can't really tell from it what behaviour you are testing. A brief intro for you how to make it a bit more readable can be found here How to Write Clean, Testable Code .
Using argument captors is also a smell. Some examples how to avoid it can be found on this tdd blog.
To answer you question, verify is used to verify interactions between classes. It is used to drive the design of your code. The result (if needed) should be specified by a when or given at the beginning of your test.
Further information how to drive your design with mocks (when, given, verify, ...) and how mocks are different to stubs can be found here: Mocks are not stubs. That example uses JMock not Mockito for defining mocks, but it is very similar (it is about the concepts, not the details of implementation and libraries you use).