"; */ ?>

groovy

groovy / spock / stargate — 2 Comments
6
Apr 11

Spock It Like You Mean It!

So here we go.. Yesterday night we hacked our way into The Ancient Database where besides the data about ancients themselves, we found incredible stats about many different living species of all the planets ancients traveled to.

So what do we do now? Well, we need a way to query/read this data. So we asked Sam to develop a reader ( ancients called it a ‘DAO’ ) to find a number of living species on each planet since the “beginning of time”.

So she did, and called this “species reader” a ‘SpeciesDao’.

We, of course, trust Sam. But in ancient technology, trust is always based on challenging the assumption by testing all the possible permutations. So we are calling Mr. Spock to help us out…

Sam of course used a well known ancient technique ( code name: Spring Framework ) to create a “species reader”, so Mr. Spock will use all the goodies of this technique to inject all the dependencies ( e.g. data source, a reader itself, etc.. ) for a test.

Since Mr. Spock is a peaceful inhabitant from a planet Simplicity, it speaks a simple language called Groovy. This language is unique in a way that living beings of all the galaxies can pick it up and understand it within minutes, which by the way makes it a perfect choice for various intergalactic conferences.

To start off, we’ll tell Mr. Spock where to look for all the dependencies:

@ContextConfiguration( locations = [ "classpath:/conf/test-context.xml", "classpath:/conf/persistence-context.xml" ] )

The data we are going to test against will be in a form of DbUnit datasets, which by the way can be XML based, Excel based or even YAML based. In this example we are going to focus on planets of two galaxies that peak our curiosity the most: Milky Way and Pegasus.

  // Species of the Milky Way Galaxy by Planet
  static final P3X_888_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/p3x-888-species.xml"
  static final DAKARA_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/dakara-species.xml"
  ....
 
  // Species of the Pegasus Galaxy by Planet
  static final ASURAS_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/asuras-species.xml"
  static final WRAITH_HOMEWORLD_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/wraith-homeworld-species.xml"
  ....

Since it is a test, we already know the exact number of living spices since the ‘beginning of time’ for each dataset. And we’d need to call the reader Sam wrote ( ‘SpeciesDao’ ) for each dataset and compare it with an expected number. So you see, lots of repetitive actions. But no worries humans! Spock has an elegant way to deal with all these repetitions, by using its ‘WHERE’ power:

    where:
 
             planet                        |          numberOfSpeciesFound
 
      // Milky Way Galaxy
      P3X_888_SPECIES_DATASET              |                  888
      DAKARA_SPECIES_DATASET               |                 123804
      HELIOPOLIS_SPECIES_DATASET           |                   7
      .....

That’s neat. The only problem is if the number does not match ( yes, even Sam has bugs ) for example for planet Dakara, Mr. Spock will tell us that [ “something did not match up..” ], but will forget to mention that “it” did not match up specifically for a Dakara planet. And if we have thousands of such planets, it’ll be extremely difficult to find the culprit. But again, humans, this is easily solvable by using a Mr. Spock’s secret power: The power of ‘@Unroll’!

  @Unroll("#planet should have #numberOfSpeciesFound species found")
  def "only living species since begining of time should be found"() { ... }

By annotating a test method with @Unroll, in case where a number of living species found did not match a number that we expected, Mr. Spock will say just that. For example for Dakara, it’ll now say: “Dakara should have 123804 species found”, while also telling us the actual number that was found to compare. Pretty handy!

One last touch before we can fully trust Mr. Spock.. The way the ancient technology ( Spring ) was written, it won’t allow to inject collaborators ( e.g. data source ) statically before all the specifications / permutations. It can be tweaked to do that, but cmmon, who are we to tweak the ancients.. Instead we’ll tell Mr. Spock to do all the setup it needs only the first time a data source is injected:

    // setupSpec() cannot access Spring beans ( e.g. dataSource ), hence need to check it every time
    if ( ! databaseTester ) {
      databaseTester = new DataSourceDatabaseTester( dataSource )
    }

Now we are ready to roll. Let’s put all the pieces together and make sure Sam’s creation does what it’s supposed to:

 
@ContextConfiguration( locations = [ "classpath:/conf/test-context.xml", "classpath:/conf/persistence-context.xml" ] )
class FindNumberOfSpeciesTest extends Specification {
 
  // Species of the Milky Way Galaxy by Planet
  static final P3X_888_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/p3x-888-species.xml"
  static final DAKARA_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/dakara-species.xml"
  static final HELIOPOLIS_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/heliopolis-species.xml"
  static final ASCHEN_PRIME_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/aschen-prime-species.xml"
  static final P4X_650_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/p4x-650-species.xml"
  static final VIS_UBAN_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/vis-uban-species.xml"
  static final PROCLARUSH_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/proclarush-species.xml"
  static final DAKARA_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/dakara-species.xml"
  static final HEBRIDAN_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/hebridan-species.xml"
 
  // Species of the Pegasus Galaxy by Planet
  static final ASURAS_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/asuras-species.xml"
  static final WRAITH_HOMEWORLD_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/wraith-homeworld-species.xml"
  static final SATEDA_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/sateda-species.xml"
  static final DAGAN_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/dagan-species.xml"
  static final LORD_PROTECTORS_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/lord-protectors-species.xml"
  static final M7G_677_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/m7g-677-species.xml"
  static final ATHOS_SPECIES_DATASET = "/dataset/stage/athos-677-species.xml"
 
  static final THE_BEGINNING_OF_TIME = Date.parse( "yyyy-M-d", "1979-01-01" )
 
  @Autowired
  SpeciesDao speciesDao
  @Autowired
  DataSource dataSource
 
  @Shared IDatabaseTester databaseTester
 
  @Unroll("#planet should have #numberOfSpeciesFound species found")
  def "only living species since the beginning of time should be found"() {
 
    when: stageTestData planet
 
    then: speciesDao.findNumberOfSpeciesLivingSince( THE_BEGINNING_OF_TIME ) == numberOfSpeciesFound
 
    where:
 
             planet                        |          numberOfSpeciesFound
 
      // Milky Way Galaxy
      P3X_888_SPECIES_DATASET              |                  888
      DAKARA_SPECIES_DATASET               |                 123804
      HELIOPOLIS_SPECIES_DATASET           |                   7
      ASCHEN_PRIME_SPECIES_DATASET         |                 2423984
      P4X_650_SPECIES_DATASET              |                  2600
      VIS_UBAN_SPECIES_DATASET             |                   0
      PROCLARUSH_SPECIES_DATASET           |                 8869346
      DAKARA_SPECIES_DATASET               |                  5672
      HEBRIDAN_SPECIES_DATASET             |                   67
 
      // Pagasus Galaxy
      ASURAS_SPECIES_DATASET               |                  823
      WRAITH_HOMEWORLD_SPECIES_DATASET     |                 62634
      SATEDA_SPECIES_DATASET               |                  327
      SATEDA_SPECIES_DATASET               |                   0
      DAGAN_SPECIES_DATASET                |                  777
      LORD_PROTECTORS_SPECIES_DATASET      |                  8786
      M7G_677_SPECIES_DATASET              |                  4739
      ATHOS_SPECIES_DATASET                |                3767822
 
  }
 
  def stageTestData = { dataSetLocation ->
 
    dataSource != null
    speciesDao != null
 
    // setupSpec() cannot access Spring beans ( e.g. dataSource ), hence need to check it every time
    if ( ! databaseTester ) {
      databaseTester = new DataSourceDatabaseTester( dataSource )
    }
 
    databaseTester.setDataSet( new FlatXmlDataFileLoader().load( dataSetLocation ) )
    databaseTester.onSetup()
  }
}

Spock away Humans!

groovy — 7 Comments
10
Mar 11

Having Fun with Groovy Date Parsing

How do you convert a String to Date in Groovy? Well it’s simple:

   Date.parse( "yyyy-M-d", "2011-01-15" )

Now, let’s say I would like to shorten this: yes, it looks to long, remember the actual data I am interested in is “2011-01-15”, everything else means nothing really.. datawise.

Ok, so I can

  Date.metaClass.'static'.fromString = { str ->
    Date.parse( "yyyy-M-d", str )
  }

which gives me a shorter representation ( less fluff around the actual data ):

  Date.fromString( "2011-01-15" )

That’s not bad, but I would like to take it further :) I am staging data ( domain objects ) in my Spock tests, and need as less fluff as possible => “only data matters”. So here it is, the geeky solution:

Create a DataParser:

  class DateParser {
    def static te = { str -> Date.parse( "yyyy-M-d", str ) }
  }

Wherever you need parse dates, import it as ‘d’:

  import org.dotkam.util.date.DateParser as d

Now create your d.tes ( I mean dates :) ) as:

  d.te( "2011-01-05" )

Awesome!
//TODO: it can of course be extended with multiple formats

aop / aspectj / groovy / java — Comments Off on Check If The Aspect Was Applied
9
Sep 10

Check If The Aspect Was Applied

Let’s say you have an aspect defined that will be applied to a class:

<bean id="someComponent"
      class="org.dotkam.SomeComponent" />
 
<aop:config>
	<aop:aspect ref="someAspect">
		<aop:around method="someMethod"
                            pointcut="execution(public * org.dotkam.SomeComponent.*(..))" />
	</aop:aspect>
</aop:config>

and you of course have “proxy-target-class” set to “true”:

<aop:aspectj-autoproxy proxy-target-class="true"/>

Here is how to check if the aspect was applied:

import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
import net.sf.cglib.proxy.Enhancer;
 
  ... ...
@Resource(name="someComponent")
SomeComponent someComponent
 
  ... ...
assertTrue( Enhancer.isEnhanced( someComponent.getClass() ) );

Behind the scenes it is enhanced with CGLIB’s Enhancer that has a convenient isEnhanced method.

Useful when developing aspects.

NOTE: The above is true given, of course, that this is THE ONLY aspect applied to this component.

easyb / groovy / selenium / testing — 3 Comments
21
Oct 09

They say offshore QA team, I say AUTOMATE IT!

automate testing

Part I. Poor Trees

I really see no advantage of having all these test scripts that are made as excel spread sheets and then printed out in hundreds (don’t you hear trees begging: “save us”?) and given to QA team members to spend a couple months to follow and make sure every little condition/case is met.

Guess what happens when new requirements come in, or the old ones get changed… Spend a week or two going through all these excel files, manually refactoring every little condition/case effected. And then what? Regression testing ..ummm.. another two months?

Oh.. shoot requirements changed in the middle of testing, what should we do.. hmm.. print more paper. Poor trees…

Part II. Can I get some sleep please?

Let’s make all this process twice as effective, let’s offshore 50% of the QA (testing). Oh.. ok:

– Hello? Do you speak English?

– Yes, hi we are a great software company, and yes we do speak English.

– Great! Can I outsource 50% of my testing to you guys, so we have 24 hour coverage?

– Sure – we’ll be glad to do that for you.

– Awesome! I just sent you the package with everything that needs to be done.

2 a.m. “Hello. We are looking at requirements, and we did not find any definition for ‘A’..”

3 a.m. “Hello. We need to make an important decision, and we were wondering… ”

5 a.m. “Hello. Before we send you today’s status, we wanted to make sure..”

…

Part III. Open up a little

Of course we need people in charge of QA, and we need QA teams – the guys are great! They make us shine when we ship our high quality creation out the door. But can they be more effective, and do less work at the same time? Can they use technologies that are available, instead of using MS Office for things that it was really not made for? Can they ensure that whoever comes to test after them will not be lost, can pick up where they left off, and keep doing an awesome job? Yes, Yes, and Yes, and many more Yeses!

The hardest part is to let go the fear and the standards that were set 20, 15, 10 years ago for Software Testing. Yes, it made sense then ( maybe :) ), but now there are dozens of tools and practices that will increase productivity tenfold, you just need to open up a little. You can do it!

Part IV. Automate yourself!

Let’s look at the simple example of using some of these time saving tools. Here is how one of the test cases can be automated by using easyB and Selenium. The automated test itself will worth a thousand words, so here it is:

before "start selenium", {
 given "selenium is up and running", {
   // start selenium
 }
}
 
scenario "a valid person has been entered", {
 
 when "filling out the person form with a first and last name", {
   selenium.open("http://acme.racing.net/greport/personracereport.html")
   selenium.type("fname", "Britney")
   selenium.type("lname", "Smith")
 }
 
 and "the submit link has been clicked", {
   selenium.click("submit")
 }
 
 then "the report should have a list of races for that person", {
   selenium.waitForPageToLoad("5000")
   values = ["Mclean 1/2 Marathon", "Reston 5K", "Herndon 10K", "Leesburg 10K"]
   for( i in 0..< values.size() ){
      selenium.getText("//table//tr[${(i+3)}]/td").shouldBeEqualTovalues[i]
   }
 }
}
 
after "stop selenium", {
  then "selenium should be shutdown", {
    // stop selenium
  }
}

And, let’s say Groovy is not your first language, and maybe you’re not a programmer at all, but really, can you read, and understand, that:

 when 'filling out the person form with a first and last name'
 and   'the submit link has been clicked'
 then  'the report should have a list of races for that person'

Ok, granted, you may not know regular expressions, and “//table//tr[${(i+3)}]/td” may be just a little over your head, but guess what.. It was auto-generated (by selenium) for you the first time you drove through the screens. And you know what the beauty of it is? It can run on it’s own, and it can tell you whether your application satisfy “this” particular requirement. You can schedule it to run every day, if you’d like, or every time the code is modified, or every Labor Day, or… you get the point. :)

Part V. We still need people, but they can be more productive!

“So what?”, you say, “One little test case – we have hundreds, and it would take us a month to create all these “automated” cases and scripts.”, and I say – yes, it may take a month now, but it will save you a year later. Why? Because if you create these scripts carefully, reflecting all the business requirements, these scripts will turn into the fastest, most accurate and “easy to interact with” QA team on Earth for your company/project. And that I would say, worth a month of work!

easyB example was taken from an extremely good presentation Industrial Strength Groovy by Paul King. Thank you Paul!