CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2011/ch2 2e ad

Testing frameworks for Ruby

Introduction

This is an introduction to the subject.

Testing Framework Evolution

Explain here how testing in ruby went from regular Test:unit testing to BDD testing.

TDD vs BDD

Give high level example how they differ from each other.

Ruby Testing Frameworks

Compared to five years ago the number of testing framework available for ruby has increased rapidly. Selecting a perfect testing framework for a particular project has become harder.

Overview of testing framework

Selection of testing framework for ruby projects depends on factors like what are we trying to accomplish TDD or BDD, is GUI testing included, is acceptance testing required, do we have to merge legacy ruby test code with new testing framework. Altough GUI testing and acceptance testing are out of scope for this wiki we have made attempt to cover them in some details at the end of this wiki page. Meanwhile, below is the detailed explanation of five most commonly used unit testing framework.

Test:Unit

This testing framework is a base testing framework that is integrated inside ruby. The packages for this testing framework can be downloaded as a gem. The first version gem for this testing framework was released on 20th march 2008.

Testing Framework Details

---

Testing Framework	Released Date	Released Version	Current Version	Testing Type Supported	Install Command	Documentation/Version Support
Test:Unit	03-20-2008	1.2.3	2.4.0	TDD,Mocking	gem install test-unit	Test:Unit Site Versions
Shoulda	04-26-2008	4.1	2.11.3	TDD,Mocking	gem install shoulda	Shoulda Site Versions
RSpec	05-26-2008	1.1.4	2.6.0	TDD,Mocking	gem install rspec	RSpec Site Versions
Riot	10-19-2009	0.9.11	0.12.5	TDD,Mocking	gem install riot	Riot Site Versions
MiniTest	06-10-2008	1.2.1	2.6.9	TDD,Mocking	gem install minitest	Minitest Site
Cucumber	05-20-2009	0.3.6	1.0.6	TDD,Mocking	gem install cucumber	Cucumber Site Versions

Examples

TravelTime

class TravelTime
   attr_accessor :distance
  
  #Divide the distance by 60 and return the float
  def time_to_travel
    @time = @distance.fdiv(60)
  end

  #Format the float to two decimal and return the string
  def format_time_to_travel(time)
    @time = format("%3.2f",time)
  end
  
  def initialize(distance)
    @distance = distance
  end
end

Test:Unit

gem 'test-unit'
require 'test/unit'
require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/travel_time'

class TimeTravelTest_TU < Test::Unit::TestCase

  # Called before every test method runs. Can be used
  # to set up fixture information.
  def setup
    @traveltime1 = TravelTime.new(120)
    @traveltime2 = TravelTime.new(150)
    @traveltime3 = TravelTime.new(160)
  end

  def teardown
    # Do nothing
  end

  def test_time_to_travel_integer
    time = @traveltime1.time_to_travel
    assert_equal 2.0, time
  end

  def test_time_to_travel_floatWithOneDecimal
    time = @traveltime2.time_to_travel
    assert_equal 2.5, time
  end

  def test_time_to_travel_floatWithTwoDecimal
    temp = @traveltime3.time_to_travel
    time = @traveltime3.format_time_to_travel(temp)
    assert_equal "2.67", time
  end

end

Shoulda testing code

gem 'shoulda'
gem 'shoulda-context'
gem 'test-unit'
require 'test/unit'
require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/travel_time'

class TravelTimeTest_Shoulda < Test::Unit::TestCase
  context TravelTime do
    setup do
      @traveltime1 = TravelTime.new(120)
      @traveltime2 = TravelTime.new(150)
      @traveltime3 = TravelTime.new(160)
    end

    should "be 2.0 hours when distance is 120 hours" do
      time = @traveltime1.time_to_travel
      assert_equal 2.0,time
    end

    should "be 2.5 hours with one decimal point when distance is 150 hours" do
      time = @traveltime2.time_to_travel
      assert_equal 2.5,time
    end

    should "be 2.67 hours with two decimal point limit when distance is 160 hours" do
      temp = @traveltime3.time_to_travel
      time = @traveltime3.format_time_to_travel
      assert_equal "2.67",time
    end

  end
end

RSpec testing code

gem 'rspec'
require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/travel_time'
#spec TravelTimeTest_RSpec.rb --format specdoc

describe TravelTime do

  it "should be 2.0 hours when distance is 120 hours" do
    @traveltime1 = TravelTime.new(120)
    time = @traveltime1.time_to_travel
    time.should be == 2.0
  end

  it "should be 2.5 hours with one decimal point when distance is 150 hours" do
    @traveltime1 = TravelTime.new(150)
    time = @traveltime1.time_to_travel
    time.should be == 2.5
  end

  it "should be 2.67 hours with two decimal point limit when distance is 160 hours" do
    @traveltime1 = TravelTime.new(160)
    temp = @traveltime1.time_to_travel
    time = @traveltime1.format_time_to_travel(temp)
    time.should be == "2.67"
  end

end

Riot testing code

gem 'riot'
require 'riot'
require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/travel_time'

context TravelTime do
  setup {TravelTime.new(120)}
  asserts("Travel time is 2.0 hours when distance is 120 miles"){
    topic.time_to_travel == 2.0
  }
end

context TravelTime do
  setup {TravelTime.new(150)}
  asserts("Travel time is 2.5 hours when distance is 150 miles"){
    topic.time_to_travel == 2.5
  }
  end

context TravelTime do
  setup {TravelTime.new(160)}
  asserts("Travel time is 2.67 hours when distance is 160 miles"){
    topic.format_time_to_travel(topic.time_to_travel) == "2.67"
  }
end

References

• [1] Ruby Forge Test:Unit Site
• [2] Shay Friedman A Mini-Review-Benchmark of Ruby’s Different Testing Frameworks

Note

There are many testing frameworks for Rails, but for this topic, I would like you to concentrate on testing frameworks for Ruby itself. Look up information on these frameworks, and describe their evolution.