3 Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Testing - Catalyst Tutorial - Part 8: Testing
8 This is B<Part 8 of 10> for the Catalyst tutorial.
10 L<Tutorial Overview|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial>
16 L<Introduction|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Intro>
20 L<Catalyst Basics|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::CatalystBasics>
24 L<More Catalyst Basics|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::MoreCatalystBasics>
28 L<Basic CRUD|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::BasicCRUD>
32 L<Authentication|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Authentication>
36 L<Authorization|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Authorization>
40 L<Debugging|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Debugging>
48 L<Advanced CRUD|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::AdvancedCRUD>
52 L<Appendices|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Appendices>
59 You may have noticed that the Catalyst Helper scripts automatically
60 create basic C<.t> test scripts under the C<t> directory. This part of
61 the tutorial briefly looks at how these tests can be used to not only
62 ensure that your application is working correctly at the present time,
63 but also provide automated regression testing as you upgrade various
64 pieces of your application over time.
66 You can checkout the source code for this example from the catalyst
67 subversion repository as per the instructions in
68 L<Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Intro|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Intro>.
71 =head1 RUNNING THE "CANNED" CATALYST TESTS
73 There are a variety of ways to run Catalyst and Perl tests (for example,
74 C<perl Makefile.PL> and C<make test>), but one of the easiest is with the
75 C<prove> command. For example, to run all of the tests in the C<t>
80 There will be a lot of output because we have the C<-Debug> flag enabled
81 in C<lib/MyApp.pm> (see the C<CATALYST_DEBUG=0> tip below for a quick
82 and easy way to reduce the clutter). Look for lines like this for
85 # Failed test 'Request should succeed'
86 # in t/controller_Books.t at line 8.
87 # Looks like you failed 1 test of 3.
89 The redirection used by the Authentication plugins will cause several
90 failures in the default tests. You can fix this by making the following
93 1) Change the line in C<t/01app.t> that read:
95 ok( request('/')->is_success, 'Request should succeed' );
99 ok( request('/login')->is_success, 'Request should succeed' );
101 2) Change the C<request('/logout')-E<gt>is_success> to
102 C<request('/logout')-E<gt>is_redirect> in C<t/controller_Logout.t>.
104 3) Change the C<request('/books')-E<gt>is_success> to
105 C<request('/books')-E<gt>is_redirect> in C<t/controller_Books.t>.
107 As you can see in the C<prove> command line above, the C<--lib> option
108 is used to set the location of the Catalyst C<lib> directory. With this
109 command, you will get all of the usual development server debug output,
110 something most people prefer to disable while running tests cases.
111 Although you can edit the C<lib/MyApp.pm> to comment out the C<-Debug>
112 plugin, it's generally easier to simply set the C<CATALYST_DEBUG=0>
113 environment variable. For example:
115 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 prove --lib lib t
117 During the C<t/02pod> and C<t/03podcoverage> tests, you might notice the
118 C<all skipped: set TEST_POD to enable this test> warning message. To
119 execute the Pod-related tests, add C<TEST_POD=1> to the C<prove>
122 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 TEST_POD=1 prove --lib lib t
124 If you omitted the Pod comments from any of the methods that were
125 inserted, you might have to go back and fix them to get these tests to
128 Another useful option is the C<verbose> (C<-v>) option to C<prove>. It
129 prints the name of each test case as it is being run:
131 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 TEST_POD=1 prove --lib lib -v t
134 =head1 RUNNING A SINGLE TEST
136 You can also run a single script by appending its name to the C<prove>
137 command. For example:
139 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 prove --lib lib t/01app.t
141 Also note that you can also run tests directly from Perl without C<prove>.
144 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 perl -Ilib t/01app.t
147 =head1 ADDING YOUR OWN TEST SCRIPT
149 Although the Catalyst helper scripts provide a basic level of checks
150 "for free," testing can become significantly more helpful when you write
151 your own script to exercise the various parts of your application. The
152 L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst|Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> module
153 is very popular for writing these sorts of test cases. This module
154 extends L<Test::WWW::Mechanize|Test::WWW::Mechanize> (and therefore
155 L<WWW::Mechanize|WWW::Mechanize>) to allow you to automate the action of
156 a user "clicking around" inside your application. It gives you all the
157 benefits of testing on a live system without the messiness of having to
158 use an actual web server, and a real person to do the clicking.
160 To create a sample test case, open the C<t/live_app01.t> file in your
161 editor and enter the following:
168 # Load testing framework and use 'no_plan' to dynamically pick up
169 # all tests. Better to replace "'no_plan'" with "tests => 30" so it
170 # knows exactly how many tests need to be run (and will tell you if
171 # not), but 'no_plan' is nice for quick & dirty tests
173 use Test::More 'no_plan';
175 # Need to specify the name of your app as arg on next line
177 # use Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst "MyApp";
179 use ok "Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst" => "MyApp";
181 # Create two 'user agents' to simulate two different users ('test01' & 'test02')
182 my $ua1 = Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst->new;
183 my $ua2 = Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst->new;
185 # Use a simplified for loop to do tests that are common to both users
186 # Use get_ok() to make sure we can hit the base URL
187 # Second arg = optional description of test (will be displayed for failed tests)
188 # Note that in test scripts you send everything to 'http://localhost'
189 $_->get_ok("http://localhost/", "Check redirect of base URL") for $ua1, $ua2;
190 # Use title_is() to check the contents of the <title>...</title> tags
191 $_->title_is("Login", "Check for login title") for $ua1, $ua2;
192 # Use content_contains() to match on text in the html body
193 $_->content_contains("You need to log in to use this application",
194 "Check we are NOT logged in") for $ua1, $ua2;
196 # Log in as each user
197 # Specify username and password on the URL
198 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/login?username=test01&password=mypass", "Login 'test01'");
199 # Use the form for user 'test02'; note there is no description here
202 username => 'test02',
203 password => 'mypass',
206 # Go back to the login page and it should show that we are already logged in
207 $_->get_ok("http://localhost/login", "Return to '/login'") for $ua1, $ua2;
208 $_->title_is("Login", "Check for login page") for $ua1, $ua2;
209 $_->content_contains("Please Note: You are already logged in as ",
210 "Check we ARE logged in" ) for $ua1, $ua2;
212 # 'Click' the 'Logout' link (see also 'text_regex' and 'url_regex' options)
213 $_->follow_link_ok({n => 1}, "Logout via first link on page") for $ua1, $ua2;
214 $_->title_is("Login", "Check for login title") for $ua1, $ua2;
215 $_->content_contains("You need to log in to use this application",
216 "Check we are NOT logged in") for $ua1, $ua2;
219 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/login?username=test01&password=mypass", "Login 'test01'");
220 $ua2->get_ok("http://localhost/login?username=test02&password=mypass", "Login 'test02'");
221 # Should be at the Book List page... do some checks to confirm
222 $_->title_is("Book List", "Check for book list title") for $ua1, $ua2;
224 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/books/list", "'test01' book list");
225 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/login", "Login Page");
226 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/books/list", "'test01' book list");
228 $_->content_contains("Book List", "Check for book list title") for $ua1, $ua2;
229 # Make sure the appropriate logout buttons are displayed
230 $_->content_contains("/logout\">Logout</a>",
231 "Both users should have a 'User Logout'") for $ua1, $ua2;
232 $ua1->content_contains("/books/form_create\">Create</a>",
233 "Only 'test01' should have a create link");
235 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/books/list", "View book list as 'test01'");
237 # User 'test01' should be able to create a book with the "formless create" URL
238 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/books/url_create/TestTitle/2/4",
239 "'test01' formless create");
240 $ua1->title_is("Book Created", "Book created title");
241 $ua1->content_contains("Added book 'TestTitle'", "Check title added OK");
242 $ua1->content_contains("by 'Stevens'", "Check author added OK");
243 $ua1->content_contains("with a rating of 2.", "Check rating added");
244 # Try a regular expression to combine the previous 3 checks & account for whitespace
245 $ua1->content_like(qr/Added book 'TestTitle'\s+by 'Stevens'\s+with a rating of 2./, "Regex check");
247 # Make sure the new book shows in the list
248 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/books/list", "'test01' book list");
249 $ua1->title_is("Book List", "Check logged in and at book list");
250 $ua1->content_contains("Book List", "Book List page test");
251 $ua1->content_contains("TestTitle", "Look for 'TestTitle'");
253 # Make sure the new book can be deleted
254 # Get all the Delete links on the list page
255 my @delLinks = $ua1->find_all_links(text => 'Delete');
256 # Use the final link to delete the last book
257 $ua1->get_ok($delLinks[$#delLinks]->url, 'Delete last book');
258 # Check that delete worked
259 $ua1->content_contains("Book List", "Book List page test");
260 $ua1->content_contains("Book deleted", "Book was deleted");
262 # User 'test02' should not be able to add a book
263 $ua2->get_ok("http://localhost/books/url_create/TestTitle2/2/5", "'test02' add");
264 $ua2->content_contains("Unauthorized!", "Check 'test02' cannot add");
266 The C<live_app.t> test cases uses copious comments to explain each step
267 of the process. In addition to the techniques shown here, there are a
268 variety of other methods available in
269 L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst|Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> (for
270 example, regex-based matching). Consult the documentation for more
273 B<TIP>: For I<unit tests> vs. the "full application tests" approach used
274 by L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst|Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>, see
275 L<Catalyst::Test|Catalyst::Test>.
277 B<Note:> The test script does not test the C<form_create> and
278 C<form_create_do> actions. That is left as an exercise for the reader
279 (you should be able to complete that logic using the existing code as a
282 To run the new test script, use a command such as:
284 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 prove --lib lib -v t/live_app01.t
288 $ DBIC_TRACE=0 CATALYST_DEBUG=0 prove --lib lib -v t/live_app01.t
290 Experiment with the C<DBIC_TRACE>, C<CATALYST_DEBUG>
291 and C<-v> settings. If you find that there are errors, use the
292 techniques discussed in the "Catalyst Debugging" section (Part 7) to
293 isolate and fix any problems.
295 If you want to run the test case under the Perl interactive debugger,
296 try a command such as:
298 $ DBIC_TRACE=0 CATALYST_DEBUG=0 perl -d -Ilib t/live_app01.t
300 Note that although this tutorial uses a single custom test case for
301 simplicity, you may wish to break your tests into different files for
304 B<TIP:> If you have a test case that fails, you will receive an error
305 similar to the following:
307 # Failed test 'Check we are NOT logged in'
308 # in t/live_app01.t at line 31.
309 # searched: "\x{0a}<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Tran"...
310 # can't find: "You need to log in to use this application."
312 Unfortunately, this only shows us the first 50 characters of the HTML
313 returned by the request -- not enough to determine where the problem
314 lies. A simple technique that can be used in such situations is to
315 temporarily insert a line similar to the following right after the
320 This will cause the full HTML returned by the request to be displayed.
323 =head1 SUPPORTING BOTH PRODUCTION AND TEST DATABASES
325 You may wish to leverage the techniques discussed in this tutorial to
326 maintain both a "production database" for your live application and a
327 "testing database" for your test cases. One advantage to
328 L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst|Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> is that
329 it runs your full application; however, this can complicate things when
330 you want to support multiple databases. One solution is to allow the
331 database specification to be overridden with an environment variable.
332 For example, open C<lib/MyApp/Model/DB.pm> in your editor and
333 change the C<__PACKAGE__-E<gt>config(...> declaration to resemble:
335 my $dsn = $ENV{MYAPP_DSN} ||= 'dbi:SQLite:myapp.db';
337 schema_class => 'MyApp::Schema',
343 Then, when you run your test case, you can use commands such as:
345 $ cp myapp.db myappTEST.db
346 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 MYAPP_DSN="dbi:SQLite:myappTEST.db" prove --lib lib -v t/live_app01.t
348 This will modify the DSN only while the test case is running. If you
349 launch your normal application without the C<MYAPP_DSN> environment
350 variable defined, it will default to the same C<dbi:SQLite:myapp.db> as
356 Kennedy Clark, C<hkclark@gmail.com>
358 Please report any errors, issues or suggestions to the author. The
359 most recent version of the Catalyst Tutorial can be found at
360 L<http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/repos/Catalyst/trunk/Catalyst-Manual/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Tutorial/>.
362 Copyright 2006-2008, Kennedy Clark, under Creative Commons License
363 (L<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/>).