3 Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Testing - Catalyst Tutorial - Part 7: Testing
8 This is B<Part 7 of 9> 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<Basic CRUD|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial_BasicCRUD>
28 L<Authentication|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Authentication>
32 L<Authorization|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Authorization>
36 L<Debugging|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Debugging>
44 L<AdvancedCRUD|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::AdvancedCRUD>
48 L<Appendices|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Appendices>
54 You may have noticed that the Catalyst Helper scripts automatically
55 create basic C<.t> test scripts under the C<t> directory. This part of
56 the tutorial briefly looks at how these tests can be used to not only
57 ensure that your application is working correctly at the present time,
58 but also provide automated regression testing as you upgrade various
59 pieces of your application over time.
61 You can checkout the source code for this example from the catalyst
62 subversion repository as per the instructions in
63 L<Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Intro>
65 =head1 RUNNING THE "CANNED" CATALYST TESTS
67 There are a variety of ways to run Catalyst and Perl tests (for example,
68 C<perl Makefile.PL> and C<make test>), but one of the easiest is with the
69 C<prove> command. For example, to run all of the tests in the C<t>
74 The redirection used by the Authentication plugins will cause the
75 default C<t/01app.t> to fail. You can fix this by changing the line in
76 C<t/01app.t> that read:
78 ok( request('/')->is_success, 'Request should succeed' );
82 ok( request('/login')->is_success, 'Request should succeed' );
84 So that a redirect is not necessary. Also, the C<t/controller_Books.t>
85 and C<t/controller_Logout.t> default test cases will fail because of the
86 authorization. You can delete these two files to prevent false error
89 $ rm t/controller_Books.t
90 $ rm t/controller_Logout.t
92 As you can see in the C<prove> command line above, the C<--lib> option
93 is used to set the location of the Catalyst C<lib> directory. With this
94 command, you will get all of the usual development server debug output,
95 something most people prefer to disable while running tests cases.
96 Although you can edit the C<lib/MyApp.pm> to comment out the C<-Debug>
97 plugin, it's generally easier to simply set the C<CATALYST_DEBUG=0>
98 environment variable. For example:
100 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 prove --lib lib t
102 During the C<t/02pod> and C<t/03podcoverage> tests, you might notice the
103 C<all skipped: set TEST_POD to enable this test> warning message. To
104 execute the Pod-related tests, add C<TEST_POD=1> to the C<prove>
107 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 TEST_POD=1 prove --lib lib t
109 If you omitted the Pod comments from any of the methods that were
110 inserted, you might have to go back and fix them to get these tests to
113 Another useful option is the C<verbose> (C<-v>) option to C<prove>. It
114 prints the name of each test case as it is being run:
116 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 TEST_POD=1 prove --lib lib -v t
118 =head1 RUNNING A SINGLE TEST
120 You can also run a single script by appending its name to the C<prove>
121 command. For example:
123 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 prove --lib lib t/01app.t
125 Note that you can also run tests directly from Perl without C<prove>.
128 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 perl -Ilib t/01app.t
130 =head1 ADDING YOUR OWN TEST SCRIPT
132 Although the Catalyst helper scripts provide a basic level of checks
133 "for free," testing can become significantly more helpful when you write
134 your own script to exercise the various parts of your application. The
135 L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst|Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> module
136 is very popular for writing these sorts of test cases. This module
137 extends L<Test::WWW::Mechanize|Test::WWW::Mechanize> (and therefore
138 L<WWW::Mechanize|WWW::Mechanize>) to allow you to automate the action of
139 a user "clicking around" inside your application. It gives you all the
140 benefits of testing on a live system without the messiness of having to
141 use an actual web server, and a real person to do the clicking.
143 To create a sample test case, open the C<t/live_app01.t> file in your
144 editor and enter the following:
151 # Load testing framework and use 'no_plan' to dynamically pick up
152 # all tests. Better to replace "'no_plan'" with "tests => 30" so it
153 # knows exactly how many tests need to be run (and will tell you if
154 # not), but 'no_plan' is nice for quick & dirty tests
156 use Test::More 'no_plan';
158 # Need to specify the name of your app as arg on next line
160 # use Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst "MyApp";
162 use ok "Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst" => "MyApp";
164 # Create two 'user agents' to simulate two different users ('test01' & 'test02')
165 my $ua1 = Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst->new;
166 my $ua2 = Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst->new;
168 # Use a simplified for loop to do tests that are common to both users
169 # Use get_ok() to make sure we can hit the base URL
170 # Second arg = optional description of test (will be displayed for failed tests)
171 # Note that in test scripts you send everything to 'http://localhost'
172 $_->get_ok("http://localhost/", "Check redirect of base URL") for $ua1, $ua2;
173 # Use title_is() to check the contents of the <title>...</title> tags
174 $_->title_is("Login", "Check for login title") for $ua1, $ua2;
175 # Use content_contains() to match on text in the html body
176 $_->content_contains("You need to log in to use this application",
177 "Check we are NOT logged in") for $ua1, $ua2;
179 # Log in as each user
180 # Specify username and password on the URL
181 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/login?username=test01&password=mypass", "Login 'test01'");
182 # Use the form for user 'test02'; note there is no description here
185 username => 'test02',
186 password => 'mypass',
189 # Go back to the login page and it should show that we are already logged in
190 $_->get_ok("http://localhost/login", "Return to '/login'") for $ua1, $ua2;
191 $_->title_is("Login", "Check for login page") for $ua1, $ua2;
192 $_->content_contains("Please Note: You are already logged in as ",
193 "Check we ARE logged in" ) for $ua1, $ua2;
195 # 'Click' the 'Logout' link (see also 'text_regex' and 'url_regex' options)
196 $_->follow_link_ok({n => 1}, "Logout via first link on page") for $ua1, $ua2;
197 $_->title_is("Login", "Check for login title") for $ua1, $ua2;
198 $_->content_contains("You need to log in to use this application",
199 "Check we are NOT logged in") for $ua1, $ua2;
202 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/login?username=test01&password=mypass", "Login 'test01'");
203 $ua2->get_ok("http://localhost/login?username=test02&password=mypass", "Login 'test02'");
204 # Should be at the Book List page... do some checks to confirm
205 $_->title_is("Book List", "Check for book list title") for $ua1, $ua2;
207 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/books/list", "'test01' book list");
208 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/login", "Login Page");
209 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/books/list", "'test01' book list");
211 $_->content_contains("Book List", "Check for book list title") for $ua1, $ua2;
212 # Make sure the appropriate logout buttons are displayed
213 $_->content_contains("/logout\">Logout</a>",
214 "Both users should have a 'User Logout'") for $ua1, $ua2;
215 $ua1->content_contains("/books/form_create\">Create</a>",
216 "Only 'test01' should have a create link");
218 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/books/list", "View book list as 'test01'");
220 # User 'test01' should be able to create a book with the "formless create" URL
221 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/books/url_create/TestTitle/2/4",
222 "'test01' formless create");
223 $ua1->title_is("Book Created", "Book created title");
224 $ua1->content_contains("Added book 'TestTitle'", "Check title added OK");
225 $ua1->content_contains("by 'Stevens'", "Check author added OK");
226 $ua1->content_contains("with a rating of 2.", "Check rating added");
227 # Try a regular expression to combine the previous 3 checks & account for whitespace
228 $ua1->content_like(qr/Added book 'TestTitle'\s+by 'Stevens'\s+with a rating of 2./, "Regex check");
230 # Make sure the new book shows in the list
231 $ua1->get_ok("http://localhost/books/list", "'test01' book list");
232 $ua1->title_is("Book List", "Check logged in and at book list");
233 $ua1->content_contains("Book List", "Book List page test");
234 $ua1->content_contains("TestTitle", "Look for 'TestTitle'");
236 # Make sure the new book can be deleted
237 # Get all the Delete links on the list page
238 my @delLinks = $ua1->find_all_links(text => 'Delete');
239 # Use the final link to delete the last book
240 $ua1->get_ok($delLinks[$#delLinks]->url, 'Delete last book');
241 # Check that delete worked
242 $ua1->content_contains("Book List", "Book List page test");
243 $ua1->content_contains("Book deleted", "Book was deleted");
245 # User 'test02' should not be able to add a book
246 $ua2->get_ok("http://localhost/books/url_create/TestTitle2/2/5", "'test02' add");
247 $ua2->content_contains("Unauthorized!", "Check 'test02' cannot add");
249 The C<live_app.t> test cases uses copious comments to explain each step
250 of the process. In addition to the techniques shown here, there are a
251 variety of other methods available in
252 L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst|Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> (for
253 example, regex-based matching). Consult the documentation for more
256 B<TIP>: For I<unit tests> vs. the "full application tests" approach used
257 by L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst|Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>, see
258 L<Catalyst::Test|Catalyst::Test>.
260 B<Note:> The test script does not test the C<form_create> and
261 C<form_create_do> actions. That is left as an exercise for the reader
262 (you should be able to complete that logic using the existing code as a
265 To run the new test script, use a command such as:
267 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 prove --lib lib -v t/live_app01.t
271 $ DBIC_TRACE=0 CATALYST_DEBUG=0 prove --lib lib -v t/live_app01.t
273 Experiment with the C<DBIC_TRACE>, C<CATALYST_DEBUG>
274 and C<-v> settings. If you find that there are errors, use the
275 techniques discussed in the "Catalyst Debugging" section (Part 6) to
276 isolate and fix any problems.
278 If you want to run the test case under the Perl interactive debugger,
279 try a command such as:
281 $ DBIC_TRACE=0 CATALYST_DEBUG=0 perl -d -Ilib t/live_app01.t
283 Note that although this tutorial uses a single custom test case for
284 simplicity, you may wish to break your tests into different files for
287 B<TIP:> If you have a test case that fails, you will receive an error
288 similar to the following:
290 # Failed test 'Check we are NOT logged in'
291 # in t/live_app01.t at line 31.
292 # searched: "\x{0a}<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Tran"...
293 # can't find: "You need to log in to use this application."
295 Unfortunately, this only shows us the first 50 characters of the HTML
296 returned by the request -- not enough to determine where the problem
297 lies. A simple technique that can be used in such situations is to
298 temporarily insert a line similar to the following right after the
303 This will cause the full HTML returned by the request to be displayed.
306 =head1 SUPPORTING BOTH PRODUCTION AND TEST DATABASES
308 You may wish to leverage the techniques discussed in this tutorial to
309 maintain both a "production database" for your live application and a
310 "testing database" for your test cases. One advantage to
311 L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst|Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> is that
312 it runs your full application; however, this can complicate things when
313 you want to support multiple databases. One solution is to allow the
314 database specification to be overridden with an environment variable.
315 For example, open C<lib/MyApp/Model/MyAppDB.pm> in your editor and
316 change the C<__PACKAGE__-E<gt>config(...> declaration to resemble:
318 my $dsn = $ENV{MYAPP_DSN} ||= 'dbi:SQLite:myapp.db';
320 schema_class => 'MyAppDB',
330 Then, when you run your test case, you can use commands such as:
332 $ cp myapp.db myappTEST.db
333 $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 MYAPP_DSN="dbi:SQLite:myappTEST.db" prove --lib lib -v t/live_app01.t
335 This will modify the DSN only while the test case is running. If you
336 launch your normal application without the C<MYAPP_DSN> environment
337 variable defined, it will default to the same C<dbi:SQLite:myapp.db> as
343 Kennedy Clark, C<hkclark@gmail.com>
345 Please report any errors, issues or suggestions to the author. The
346 most recent version of the Catalyst Tutorial can be found at
347 L<http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/repos/Catalyst/trunk/Catalyst-Runtime/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Tutorial/>.
349 Copyright 2006, Kennedy Clark, under Creative Commons License
350 (L<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/>).