eXtreme Programming and Automated Testing.

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Kevin R. Cook >> Thu, 8 Mar 2001 23:58:37 GMT

I'm new to JADE. I'm the sole developer in a small firm (15 ee's). We are in the US.
We are very interested in XP and automated testing of apps. Hoping to share XP software development techniques and perhaps collaborate on how we could automate testing and integration of our app.
Anyone else?

thanks.
krc.

_______________

Kevin R. Cook
317 251 6977

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by krull >> Sat, 10 Mar 2001 23:08:52 GMT

I'm new to JADE. I'm the sole developer in a small firm (15 ee's). We are in the US.

Hi Kevin, welcome to JADE.

We are very interested in XP and automated testing of apps. Hoping to share XP software development techniques and perhaps collaborate on how we could automate testing and integration of our app. Anyone else?

Have you been using XP for other projects? Or are XP and JADE both firsts? I haven't had the opportunity to actually use XP, but from what I have read and seen so far I believe XP will be very well suited to application development with JADE (in contrast with certain 'high ceremony' processes that come to mind ). I suspect, the biggest hurdles in gaining acceptance for XP within an organisation, will be political and/or cultural. I would also be interested to hear feedback or comments from practitioners.

Have you had a look at the Unit Testing Framework links on the XP site at: http://www.xprogramming.com/software.htm ?

Unfortunately, JADE is not yet represented; however, the testing frameworks for other languages such as Jave or Eiffel could provide a good starting point for developing a JADE unit test framework.

All the best!

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Kevin Alcock >> Tue, 13 Mar 2001 3:49:19 GMT

I know that some students at Christchurch polytech created a JadeUnit frame work, as I had an early look at it. I'm not sure where it is now. I will try to find out.

Later,

Kevin

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Kevin Alcock >> Wed, 14 Mar 2001 1:36:45 GMT

JadeUnit TestFrame work attached. Any problems give me a yell.

Kevin

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Robert Barr >> Fri, 30 Mar 2001 2:04:00 GMT

Kevin,

JadeUnit TestFrame looks useful, and I'd be interested to learn where
the students take this in future.

For those that haven't yet loaded the schema files, the test framework provides the developer with a facility to write tests that return a pass/fail (boolean) result, add these tests to a test suite, and to execute the entire test suite on demand. The 'assertion' syntax is a
nice touch as it has been widely accepted in many languages.

An enhancement I would like to see is the ability to store and manage test data, then relate this data (or perhaps data sets) with one or more individual tests (or perhaps test suites). Some abstraction is required as test data for a particular test may take many formats, from a simple primitive value, through formatted strings and binary, to collections of objects, homogeneous and otherwise. Although the developer would determine the test to data relationship, I expect the tester would want to override this, e.g. to repeat a test selecting a variety data sets. Note there's a crossover here with DataGenerator facilities I have seen written for various systems (c.f. the InitialDataLoader class in the Erewhon Investments System).

Cheers,
Rob


(Note that handleException() relies on an Ex_Pass_Back from any local application exception handler that may be executed - other return values may cause invalid test results)

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Dr Mike Lance >> Tue, 1 May 2001 8:42:51 GMT

JadeUnit TestFrame looks useful, and I'd be interested to learn where the students take this in future.

Hi

I'm the lecturer in charge of the BCPR301,
the CPIT class which has created the Jade version of the Unit Testing Framework.
I've just caught up with this thread.

The students finished the framework just before Easter,
and I am now putting together a 'best of the best' version
and adapting the JUnit documentation to JadeUnit.

There have been many 'happy noises'
from students able to write tests before writing the code
and then being able to get confirmation
from the successful running of the tests
that their refactoring has not broken anything.

We are working through Martin Fowler's Refactoring book
and will soon have a JADE version of the demonstration chapter
from the beginning of the book.

An enhancement I would like to see is the ability to store and manage test data, then relate this data (or perhaps data sets) with one or more individual tests (or perhaps test suites).

I've looked with interest at XMLUnit as a way to do this http://sourceforge.net/projects/xmlunit/
and at the more developed JXUnit
http://jxunit.sourceforge.net/

It also strikes me as cute / useful if JADE could also generate some of the test data
for the unit tests.

Dr Mike Lance
Programme Leader
Bachelor of Business Computing
Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Carl Ranson >> Mon, 4 Apr 2005 5:28:36 GMT

Is the Jade unit testing framework still being worked on?

I've started to use it in earnest for one of my projects and have a number of add on helper methods I'd like to donate. (Verify file contents = X etc)

Carl Ranson.

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by carlranson >> Sat, 10 Apr 2004 11:05:43 GMT

Im just looking at adding this framework to an existing project.

It looks very promising but was wondering if anyone has enhanced or extened this unit since it was first constructed.

Would also be keen to hear any war stories relating to JUnit unit testing.

Thanks
CR

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Errol Thompson >> Wed, 14 Mar 2001 4:21:47 GMT

I know that some students at Christchurch polytech created a JadeUnit frame work, as I had an early look at it. I'm not sure where it is now. I will try to find out.

I have a student looking at JadeUnit now with the aim of using it in a teaching environment. I would certainly be keen to hear how other are finding using XP concepts in relation to Jade.

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Robert Barr >> Wed, 28 Mar 2001 12:57:02 GMT

I have a student looking at JadeUnit now with the aim of using it in a teaching environment. I would certainly be keen to hear how other are finding using XP concepts in relation to Jade.

I have yet to come across a project that has been "formally" declared
as, and run as an XP methodology project. However, on reading Kent Beck and other's narratives describing XP, there was little that was unfamiliar. In fact, many XP principles and practices are familiar ingredients in my own recipes for succesful project delivery. I am therfore very pleased to see these practices formalised, and principles publicly endorsed. Of course, like any methodology, success is likely to rely more upon pragmatic than zealous application.

Re XP in relation to JADE, there are a few areas where JADE exhibits a special suitability to an evolutionary development process:

1. interpreted code makes the adoption of a unit testing discipline easier because of the immediacy of feedback - opening a workspace or jadescript to run test cases is often near effortless. In spite of the apparent interuption to my productivity, I always experience a warm feeling when I find a bug during unit testing because I know how much more effort would be involved in fixing it later. It should be a small step to provide formalised support for automated regression testing.

2. Although continual refactoring is a cornerstone of XP, XProponents admit that database refactoring is a problem, likening database definition to pouring a concrete foundation - once set, then it's well nigh impossible to change. Perhaps a weakness inherent in the way relational databases manage indices? JADE's integrated OO database makes data refactoring practical, with system-wide referential symbol/type integrity and hierarchical aggregation, I've seen massive and sweeping model refactoring take place in a matter of hours on JADE projects,
often with no impact on GUI developers. Tools to assist in relational database 'redesign' in line with changing requierments do exist, but change cycles can be days or weeks, and can involve massive incidental manual work.


I'd be interested in the thoughts and experience of others. Have you
come across further areas of JADE/XP synergy or defficiency?


For those new to XP and looking for somewhere to start, the following
get a gold star:

http://users.vnet.net/wwake/xp/
http://www.cutter.com/ead/ead0002.html http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/designDead.html
Beck, Kent. Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change. Addison-Wesley, 1999.