There is always a need for both unit and integration testing, I just don't like mixing them. Part of test driven development as I understand it is to write the test for the object, then develop the object. How do you do this if you first have to write the dependent objects? There is a reason for the popularity of the mock and stub frameworks in other languages ... it makes testing more precise. Yes, you may never run into problems with a dependent object breaking the object you are testing, but I don't really see that as a reason to allow the possibility. If it did happen, you could have a long dependency chain, part of which you might not be able to test (the event object in Mach-II for example) and debugging would be as difficult as it would be without unit tests.
I have just seen a lot more posts recently about unit tests and TDD, but I have not seen any examples short of very simple objects with no dependencies. Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sammy Larbi Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 5:47 PM To: cfcdev@cfczone.org Subject: Re: [CFCDEV] TDD for ColdFusion Jeff D. Chastain wrote, On 12/21/2006 4:00 PM: > This is a cross-post with CF-Talk, but I figured this list is a bit > more cfc oriented. I am really trying to get into test driven > development as the benefits are fairly obvious after having done > development any other way. However, in terms of doing this with > ColdFusion, I am either not getting it or there is a lot of talk going > on regarding TDD, but not much in actual practice. > > My biggest issue comes with object dependencies. Ideally, your > objects are as loosely coupled as possible, but it is simply not > possible to have an application full of completely disjoint objects > with no dependencies at all. One of the premises of unit testing > though is to test only the functionality of one individual object or > unit and not test all of its dependencies. Other languages appear to > handle this with mock objects which allow for simulating and testing > any object dependencies. Of course, you could directly test those too. > However, the mock object frameworks for Java and other languages > simply don't port to ColdFusion because of language construct > differences. Without a mock object framework, the only other option I > see is to hand create and maintain stub or mock objects, and this just > does not seem like a feasible practice in an application of any size. > A while back, I thought of attempting to develop a mock object framework for CF (or better put, I thought about thinking about it). But, as I explain below, I haven't seen much use for one in my own development, so I've pretty much dropped the idea. > So, how do you test ColdFusion objects when there are dependencies > involved? > I haven't yet found myself in need of a "true" mock. In cases where I'm testing class A which does have a dependency B, I go ahead and create the stubs in B as I need them, and let that class grow into the real thing over time, as needed. I don't think there's anything wrong with integration tests - in fact, we need those too. In the cases where I have needed "unit" tests (in the proper sense of the term), I might then go ahead and hand create class C, which is basically a "mock" that extends B. It's not really a mock (well, we had a huge discussion about this on the TDD list a couple of months ago), but it serves the purpose of basically truly isolating A. In any case, I don't find that need happening often. Further, I haven't noticed that I've ever gotten into trouble when something in B breaks the tests for A - it's normally pretty obvious, even if it doesn't break the tests for B. In fact, I've often had more trouble with my fake "mocks" than with my integration tests. Of course, this phenomenon is not unique to me in Coldfusion. I've also experienced it in Java. Ron Jeffries talked about never (or very rarely) needing to use a "proper" mock as well. Does that make any sense? -Sam You are subscribed to cfcdev. To unsubscribe, please follow the instructions at http://www.cfczone.org/listserv.cfm CFCDev is supported by: Katapult Media, Inc. We are cool code geeks looking for fun projects to rock! www.katapultmedia.com An archive of the CFCDev list is available at www.mail-archive.com/cfcdev@cfczone.org You are subscribed to cfcdev. To unsubscribe, please follow the instructions at http://www.cfczone.org/listserv.cfm CFCDev is supported by: Katapult Media, Inc. We are cool code geeks looking for fun projects to rock! www.katapultmedia.com An archive of the CFCDev list is available at www.mail-archive.com/cfcdev@cfczone.org
