What is a unit test?
Unit testing confirms that code in a codebase called a “unit” (a small piece that can be isolated) behaves as it should and that a full isolation approach is used when testing the smallest component of an application against the expected behavior. Since the term “full isolation” is used here, it implies that the developer requires the application to be isolated from external sources or dependencies, such as databases, HTTP servers, or the file system. Unit tests become faster and more stable because they do not fail due to integration issues with these external services.
Best practices for creating unit tests
The following are best practices for creating unit tests:
- Test cases need to run at a high speed for developers. Developers need fast and easy testing. The development team will not be able to run test cases as frequently if they are slow.
- Simple unit test cases also lead to more accurate test results.
- It is not a good idea to duplicate implementation logic in test cases.
- For test cases to be deterministic, they must behave the same as long as the code remains unchanged, and when performing deterministic tests, you must use real devices and browsers, not simulators or emulators. Without exposure to real production environments, test results are far from accurate or deterministic.
- An effective naming convention will help test cases stand out.
Selenium JavaScript Frameworks for Unit Testing
Unit testing for JavaScript involves writing JavaScript code to test all of the functionality of a web page or web application module. After the code is added to the HTML as an embedded event handler, it is executed in the browser. Test suites are created by organizing unit tests.
There are several frameworks available for JavaScript unit tests. Here are some of them:
Node.js: Node.js and a browser-based assertion library for Javascript. There is a wide variety of test runners and unit testing frameworks that can be used with this framework, such as Protractor, Karma, Mocha, QUnit, Jasmine, etc.
Jasmine – With Jasmine, you can easily write tests for JavaScript code. It doesn’t require the DOM or any other JavaScript framework and has an easy-to-understand syntax that makes writing tests simple.
Mocha – The framework works both in the browser and in Node.js. Tests run serially in Mocha, providing flexibility and reporting accuracy while catching uncaught exceptions and mapping them to the correct test case.
Joke: unit tests often can’t be very useful when running in a front-end application, so this open source framework is designed to work with both React Native and React-based web applications. Setting up front-end unit tests can be time consuming, but Jest makes this process much easier.
Karma – The primary goal of Karma is to provide developers with a productive environment to run tests. Where developers don’t have to set up multiple configurations, but one where they can just write code and get instant feedback. You can run your code in a headless PhantomJS instance or in a real browser on a real device, such as a mobile phone, tablet, or desktop.
Cypress – A Mocha-based JavaScript framework for running Cypress E2E tests. JavaScript tests can be run in the browser using Cypress, allowing for convenient and easy asynchronous testing. Unit tests in Cypress run even without the need for a web server. Consequently, Cypress is ideal for testing JS/TS libraries intended for browser use.
Integration Testing: An Overview
Essentially, an integration test aims to verify that the joint implementation of several program units that have previously been unit tested works correctly. It is challenging to write integration tests on complex software systems due to the multitude of interconnections suitable for some specific functions.
Integration tests consist of several general components:
Develop functions – write test cases
Once you’ve developed your features first, you can start writing test cases. Test cases are sent to a remote branch for integration testing.
Creating a native integrated test environment
A dedicated environment is essential for testing as it can provide proper monitoring, resource management, and logging. Therefore, every integration test should start in a clean environment.
Testing, programming and performance
Testing of new business features is essential, and testing should be integrated into a continuous integration server and triggered at development milestones, such as pull request merges. Additionally, integration tests can be scheduled or run after the code and tests are complete.
Integration Test Results Report
As a result of reporting test results, the development team will receive an update on progress so that if there is a problem, the development team can take immediate action. However, this reporting needs to be done through the usual channels of development tools like Slack or Jira for the process to be seamless.
Integration testing: why should you do it?
Each software module is subject to component testing, but may still contain bugs. And some of the best known reasons are:
- APIs contain instructions on how to communicate between different components. Having a great API for your business is crucial because it makes software development easier. In order to incorporate a user-friendly design, the modules usually communicate with these APIs or third-party tools. But integration tests are very valuable to verify that what is received from the API is correct and meets expectations.
- It is not uncommon for data to change when transferred from one module to another; the developer may have designed the module differently than what was actually delivered. Due to such changes, it causes problems in module integration.
- Manual testing is problematic because each aspect of the system is tested separately. For this reason, developers must use integration tests to ensure that the final product is free of bugs.
What are mock tests?
Mocking allows you to create a mock version of an external or internal service that can be used as a substitute for the real thing, speeding up your testing. In cases where you are interacting with an object’s properties rather than its behavior or function, mocking can be used.
What is the chunk test?
In case your implementation only interacts with a specific behavior of an object, you can use a part to simulate the behavior instead of the whole object.
Mocking and spoofing in unit tests
If your program uses external dependencies, for example system calls or database access, then mocking or stubbing is a good idea. You practice the implementation every time you run the test. Suppose that when you use the delete/create function, it doesn’t allow the process to be efficient, allowing you to create or delete files, and the data it generates and deletes is not useful. Also, you will have to go through the process of manually deleting something every time. And again, it’s expensive to clean. Mocking/sneering can help a lot in this case.
Let’s use an example. Imagine that the test writes a file to a .txt file, and then the system under test deletes the file. This indicates that the real problem is not whether the test is independent, but the slowness of the system call. In that case, you can block the response of the filesystem call, which will take much less time because it would return immediately.
Mocking in integration tests
As part of integration testing, evaluate the relationships between services. One approach is to start and run all dependent services for the test environment. However, this is not necessary. You may encounter multiple points of failure due to services you cannot control, increasing the complexity and time required for testing. You should write multiple service integration tests with mocks and headers to reduce their scope. Integration tests follow different rules than unit tests. Here, you should only test functionality and implementations that you have control over. You can use mocks and headers for this purpose. First, determine which integrations are important. Then decide which external or internal services can be simulated.
Tests: What makes it good?
Launching a successful software product requires extensive testing. If your software doesn’t work properly, end users won’t buy or use it. Even so, error testing takes time. It’s repetitive, expensive, and error-prone. Before you release your software to the public, you should spend enough time testing each component.
Here are some tips. You can’t automate every test, so it’s important to decide which ones you want to automate first. Automating the following will benefit you the most:
- Testing often leads to operational errors.
- Tests that require multiple registrations.
- A test designed to identify frequently used features that can lead to high-risk conditions.
- These tests require a lot of time and effort to run manually.
You should also test often and early. Run your tests immediately and repeat them as many times as necessary to capture the full potential of your product.
Last words
A faster time to market for your web application is possible if you run unit tests during the development phase. Therefore, a unit testing framework that produces fast unit tests, in addition to offering compatibility with Selenium, is crucial. As part of this article, we have introduced some frameworks for unit tests. You can use the unit test frameworks discussed to perform automated browser tests for your web application on cloud-based testing platforms such as LambdaTest. It provides a web browser farm of over 3,000 combinations of browsers and operating systems for your test automation needs. In addition, it offers premium features like Cypress tests, Selenium tests, Appium tests, and HyperExecute to take your test automation experience to the next level.
Categories: How to
Source: HIS Education