Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Testing - Catalyst Tutorial - Part 7: Testing
-
-
=head1 OVERVIEW
This is B<Part 7 of 9> for the Catalyst tutorial.
=item 9
-L<Appendicies|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Appendicies>
+L<Appendices|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Appendices>
=back
-
-
=head1 DESCRIPTION
-
You may have noticed that the Catalyst Helper scripts automatically
-create C<.t> test scripts under the C<t> directory. This part of the
-tutorial briefly looks at how these tests can be used to not only ensure
-that your application is working correctly at the present time, but also
-provide automated regression testing as you upgrade various pieces of
-your application over time.
+create basic C<.t> test scripts under the C<t> directory. This part of
+the tutorial briefly looks at how these tests can be used to not only
+ensure that your application is working correctly at the present time,
+but also provide automated regression testing as you upgrade various
+pieces of your application over time.
B<TIP>: Note that all of the code for this part of the tutorial can be
pulled from the Catalyst Subversion repository in one step with the
IMPORTANT: Does not work yet. Will be completed for final version.
-
=head1 RUNNING THE "CANNED" CATALYST TESTS
There are a variety of ways to run Catalyst and Perl tests (for example,
plugin, it's generally easier to simply set the C<CATALYST_DEBUG=0>
environment variable. For example:
- CATALYST_DEBUG=0 prove --lib lib t
+ $ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 prove --lib lib t
During the C<t/02pod> and C<t/03podcoverage> tests, you might notice the
C<all skipped: set TEST_POD to enable this test> warning message. To
$ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 TEST_POD=1 prove --lib lib -v t
-
-
=head1 RUNNING A SINGLE TEST
You can also run a single script by appending its name to the C<prove>
$ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 perl -Ilib t/01app.t
-
=head1 ADDING YOUR OWN TEST SCRIPT
Although the Catalyst helper scripts provide a basic level of checks
"for free," testing can become significantly more helpful when you write
your own script to exercise the various parts of your application. The
-L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst|Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> module
-is very popular for writing these sorts of test cases. This module
-extends L<Test::WWW::Mechanize|Test::WWW::Mechanize> (and therefore
-L<WWW::Mechanize|WWW::Mechanize>) to allow you to automate the action of
+L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> module is very popular for writing
+these sorts of test cases. This module extends L<Test::WWW::Mechanize>
+(and therefore L<WWW::Mechanize>) to allow you to automate the action of
a user "clicking around" inside your application. It gives you all the
benefits of testing on a live system without the messiness of having to
-use an actual web server.
+use an actual web server, and a real person to do the clicking.
To create a sample test case, open the C<t/live_app01.t> file in your
editor and enter the following:
use strict;
use warnings;
- # Load testing framework and use 'no_plan' to dynamically pick up all tests. Better
- # to replace "'no_plan'" with "tests => 30" so it knows exactly how many tests need
- # to be run (and will tell you if not), but 'no_plan' is nice for quick & dirty tests
+ # Load testing framework and use 'no_plan' to dynamically pick up
+ # all tests. Better to replace "'no_plan'" with "tests => 30" so it
+ # knows exactly how many tests need to be run (and will tell you if
+ # not), but 'no_plan' is nice for quick & dirty tests
+
use Test::More 'no_plan';
# Need to specify the name of your app as arg on next line
# Can also do:
# use Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst "MyApp";
+
use ok "Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst" => "MyApp";
-
-
+
# Create two 'user agents' to simulate two different users ('test01' & 'test02')
my $ua1 = Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst->new;
my $ua2 = Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst->new;
The C<live_app.t> test cases uses copious comments to explain each step
of the process. In addition to the techniques shown here, there are a
-variety of other methods available in
-L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst|Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> (for
-example, regex-based matching). Consult the documentation for more
+variety of other methods available in L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>
+(for example, regex-based matching). Consult the documentation for more
detail.
B<TIP>: For I<unit tests> vs. the "full application tests" approach used
-by L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst|Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>, see
-L<Catalyst::Test|Catalyst::Test>.
+by L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>, see L<Catalyst::Test>.
B<Note:> The test script does not test the C<form_create> and
C<form_create_do> actions. That is left as an exercise for the reader
Experiment with the C<DBIX_CLASS_STORAGE_DBI_DEBUG>, C<CATALYST_DEBUG>
and C<-v> settings. If you find that there are errors, use the
techniques discussed in the "Catalyst Debugging" section (Part 6) to
-isolate and fix the problem.
+isolate and fix any problems.
If you want to run the test case under the Perl interactive debugger,
try a command such as:
$ DBIX_CLASS_STORAGE_DBI_DEBUG=0 CATALYST_DEBUG=0 perl -d -Ilib t/live_app01.t
-Note that although the tutorial uses a single custom test case for
+Note that although this tutorial uses a single custom test case for
simplicity, you may wish to break your tests into different files for
better organization.
-
-
=head1 SUPPORTING BOTH PRODUCTION AND TEST DATABASES
You may wish to leverage the techniques discussed in this tutorial to
maintain both a "production database" for your live application and a
"testing database" for your test cases. One advantage to
-L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst|Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> is that
+L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> is that
it runs your full application; however, this can complicate things when
you want to support multiple databases. One solution is to allow the
database specification to be overridden with an environment variable.
variable defined, it will default to the same C<dbi:SQLite:myapp.db> as
before.
-
-
=head1 AUTHOR
Kennedy Clark, C<hkclark@gmail.com>