leah blogs

October 2006

18oct2006 · Announcing test/spec 0.2, a BDD interface for Test::Unit

Today I’m releasing test/spec 0.2, a library to do BDD with Test::Unit.

(See below for changes in version 0.2.)

What is test/spec?

test/spec layers an RSpec-inspired interface on top of Test::Unit, so you can mix TDD and BDD (Behavior-Driven Development).

test/spec is a clean-room implementation that maps most kinds of Test::Unit assertions to a ‘should’-like syntax.

Consider this Test::Unit test case:

class TestFoo < Test::Unit::TestCase
  def test_should_bar
    assert_equal 5, 2 + 3
  end
end

In test/spec, it looks like this:

require 'test/spec'

context "Foo" do
  specify "should bar" do
    (2 + 3).should.equal 5
  end
end

test/spec does not include a mocking/stubbing-framework; use whichever you like to—FlexMock and Mocha have been tested.

test/spec has no dependencies outside Ruby 1.8.

Mixing test/spec and test/unit

test/spec and Test::Unit contexts/test cases can be intermixed freely, run in the same test and live in the same files. You can just add them to your Rake::TestTask, too. test/spec allows you to leverage your full existing Test::Unit infrastructure.

test/spec does not change Test::Unit with the exception of monkey-patching Test::Unit::TestSuite to order the test cases before running them. (This should not do any harm, but if you know a way around it, please tell me.)

Wrapped assertions

  • assert_equal: should.equal, should ==
  • assert_not_equal: should.not.equal, should.not ==
  • assert_same: should.be
  • assert_not_same: should.not.be
  • assert_nil: should.be.nil
  • assert_not_nil: should.not.be.nil
  • assert_in_delta: should.be.close
  • assert_match: should.match, should =~
  • assert_no_match: should.not.match, should.not =~
  • assert_instance_of: should.be.an.instance_of
  • assert_kind_of: should.be.a.kind_of
  • assert_respond_to: should.respond_to
  • assert_raise: should.raise
  • assert_nothing_raised: should.not.raise
  • assert_throws: should.throw
  • assert_nothing_thrown: should.not.throw
  • assert_block: should.satisfy

Additional assertions

These assertions are not included in Test::Unit, but have been added to test/spec for convenience:

  • should.not.satisfy
  • a.should.predicate (works like assert a.predicate?)
  • a.should.be operator (where operator is <, <=, >, >=, or ===)
  • should.output, to check what is printed

SpecDox and RDox

test/spec adds two additional test runners to Test::Unit, based on the console runner but with a different output format.

SpecDox, run with --runner=specdox (or -rs) looks like RSpec’s output:

spec.output
- works for print
- works for puts
- works with readline

RDox, run with --runner=rdox (or -rr) can be included for RDoc documentation (e.g. see SPECS):

== spec.output
* works for print
* works for puts
* works with readline

SpecDox and RDox work for Test::Unit too:

$ ruby -r test/spec test/testunit/test_testresult.rb -rs

Test::Unit::TC_TestResult
- fault notification
- passed?
- result changed notification

Finished in 0.106647 seconds.

3 specifications (30 requirements), 0 failures

specrb

Since version 0.2, test/spec features a standalone test runner called specrb. specrb is like an extended version of testrb, Test::Unit’s test runner, but has additional options. It can be used for plain Test::Unit suites, too.

$ specrb -a -s -n should.output

should.output
- works for print
- works for puts
- works with readline

Finished in 0.162571 seconds.

3 specifications (6 requirements), 0 failures

See specrb --help for the usage.

Changes in version 0.2

  • Better, module-based implementation
  • Official support for FlexMock and Mocha
  • More robust Should#output
  • Should#operator
  • Nested contexts
  • Standalone test/spec runner, specrb
  • -w warning free

Roadmap

  • Version 0.3 (November 2006): deprecate underscore forms.

  • Version 1.0 (Late November 2006): first stable release.

Contact

Please mail bugs, suggestions and patches to chneukirchen@gmail.com.

Darcs repository (“darcs send” is welcome for patches):
http://chneukirchen.org/repos/testspec

Thanks to

  • Eero Saynatkari for writing should.output.
  • Thomas Fuchs for script.aculo.us BDD testing which convinced me.
  • Dave Astels for BDD.
  • The RSpec team for API inspiration.
  • Nathaniel Talbott for Test::Unit.

Copying

Copyright (C) 2006 Christian Neukirchen
test/spec is licensed under the same terms as Ruby itself.

Where can I get it?

You can download test/spec 0.2 at:
http://chneukirchen.org/releases/testspec-0.2.0.tar.gz

Alternatively, you can checkout from the development repository with:

darcs get http://chneukirchen.org/repos/testspec

(Patches using “darcs send” are most welcome.)

Happy hacking and have a nice day, Christian Neukirchen

d59a0412f8930bf8354d1fe2e089a49d  testspec-0.2.0.tar.gz

NP: David Gilmour—Mihalis

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