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Date: Sat, 07 May 2005 10:49:35 -0400
From: Gili <cowwoc@bbs.darktech.org>
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To: Cactus Users List <cactus-user@jakarta.apache.org>
Subject: Re: Contacting the container from beginXXX()
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Vincent Massol wrote:
> Gili,
> 
> It's important to choose the right type of test for the job so that the test
> is as easy as possible to write/maintain.
> 
> Here are some ideas:
> 
> * It seems strange that you don't control the data in the database. For
> testing it's a good idea to control what you put in the database. If you do
> then you know exactly what's in there and you shouldn't need to call the
> database to get test input data from it.

	Right, I might go in this direction but it requires me to use two 
different Hibernate mapping files: one for production builds (IDs are 
generated automatically) and one for test builds (IDs are provided by 
the developer). It just makes things a bit more complicated.

> * Calling the database to get a fixture seems too complex to me and it seems
> what you really want to do is a functional test (not an integration or unit
> test). How are you running your functional tests? Why don't you add this
> test to your suite of functional tests?

	I don't know what one uses for functional tests (and how these differ 
from unit tests). I was under the impression that Cactus could be used 
for this.

> * If you really need to perform a unit test, I would suggest that you don't
> hit the database at all, using a MockObjects/Stub approach instead (pure
> JUnit without Cactus). That will allow you to test the code logic in unit
> tests. Then you couple this with a functional test and you should get a
> pretty good coverage

	I don't think there is an easy way to stub out the Hibernate objects. 
Sounds like way too much work for too little gain.

> All that said, if you still want to use Cactus you should be able to write
> the following in your beginXXX() method:
> 
> String serverURL = System.getProperty("cactus.contextURL");

	I suspect (but please let me know) that the webapp to be tested is not 
deployed by the time beginXXX() is called and it is only deployed before 
testXXX(). I already tried hitting localhost:8080 (which is my test 
server address) and got an HTTP which I think was due to a webapp not 
deployed error.

	If you can think of an easier way than using different Hibernate 
mapping files and generating IDs manually, please let me know :)

Thank you,
Gili