Test::Inline - Inlining your tests next to the code being tested
Embedding tests allows tests to be placed near the code it's testing.
This is a nice supplement to the traditional .t files.
It's like XUnit, Perl-style.
Put simply, Test::Inline lets you write small fragments of general or method-specific testing code, and insert it anywhere you want in your modules, inside a specific tagged POD segment, like the following.
# A fragment of general test code =begin testing ok( -f /proc/cpuinfo, 'Host has a standard /proc/cpuinfo file' ); =end testing # Completely test a single method =begin testing label # Test generation of the <label> HTML tag is( My::HTML->label('foo'), '<label>foo</label>', '->label(simple) works' ); is( My::HTML->label('bar', 'foo'), '<label for="bar">foo</label>', '->label(for) works' ); =end testing
You can add as many, or as few, of these chunks of tests as you wish. The key condition when writing them is that they should be conceptually independant of each other. Each chunk of testing code should not die or crash if it is run before or after another chunk.
Using inline2test or another test compiler, you can then transform these chunks in a test script, or an entire tree of modules into a complete set of standard Test::More-based test scripts.
inline2test
These test scripts can then be executed as normal.
Firstly, Test::Inline is incredibly useful for doing ad-hoc unit testing.
In any large groups of modules, you can add testing code here, there and everywhere, anywhere you want. The next time the test compiler is run, a test script will just appear.
It's also useful for systematically testing all self-contained code.
That is, any code which can be independantly tested from external dependencies such as databases, and that has no side-effects on external systems.
All of this code, written by multiple people, can then have one single set of test files generated. You can check all the bits and pieces of a large API, or anything you like, in fine detail.
Test::Inline is not a complete testing solution, and there are several types of testing you probably DON'T want to use it for.
Static testing across the entire codebase
Functional testing
Tests with side-effects such as those that might change a testing database
... to be completed
my $Tests = Test::Inline->new( verbose => 1, output => 'auto', manifest => 'auto.manifest', );
The new constructor creates a new test generation framework. Once the constructor has been used to create the generator, the add_class method can be used to specify classes, or class heirachies, to generate tests for.
new
add_class
verbose - The verbose option causes the generator to write state and debugging information to STDOUT as it runs.
verbose
manifest - The manifest option, if provided, will cause a manifest file to be created and written to disk. The manifest file contains a list of all the test files generated, but listed in the prefered order they should be processed to best satisfy the class-level dependency of the tests.
manifest
check_count - The check_count value controls how strictly the test script will watch the number of tests that have been executed.
check_count
When set to false, the script does no count checking other than the standard total count for scripts (where all section counts are known)
When set to 1 (the default), Test::Inline does smart count checking, doing section-by-section checking for known-count sections only when the total for the entire script is not known.
1
Test::Inline
When set to 2 or higher, Test::Inline does full count checking, doing section-by-section checking for every section with a known number of tests.
2
file_content - The file_content option should be provided as a CODE reference, which will be passed as arguments the Test::Inline object, and a single Test::Inline::Script object, and should return a string containing the contents of the resulting test file. This will be written to the OutputHandler.
file_content
OutputHandler
output - The output option provides the location of the directory where the tests will be written to. It should both already exist, and be writable. If using a custom OutputHandler, the value of output should refer to the location within the OutputHandler the files will be written to.
output
InputHandler - The InputHandler option, if provided, supplies an alternative FileHandler from which source modules are retrieved.
InputHandler
FileHandler
OuputHandler - The OutputHandler option, if provided, supplies an alternative FileHandler to which the resulting test scripts are written.
Returns a new Test::Inline object on success.
Returns undef if there is a problem with one of the options.
undef
The ExtractHandler accessor returns the object that will be used to extract the test sections from the source code.
ExtractHandler
The InputHandler method returns the file handler object that will be used to find and load the source code.
The OutputHandler accessor returns the file handler object that the generated test scripts will be written to.
The add method is a parameter-sensitive method for adding something to the build schedule.
add
It takes as argument a file path, a directory path, a reference to a SCALAR containing perl code, or an IO::Handle (or subclass) object. It will retrieve code from the parameter as appropriate, parse it, and create zero or more Test::Inline::Script objects representing the test scripts that will be generated for that source code.
Returns the number of test scripts added, which could be zero, or undef on error.
$Tests->add_class( 'Foo::Bar' ); $Tests->add_class( 'Foo::Bar', recursive => 1 );
The add_class method adds a class to the list of those to have their tests generated. Optionally, the recursive option can be provided to add not just the class you provide, but all classes below it as well.
recursive
Returns the number of classes found with inline tests, and added, including 0 if no classes with tests are found. Returns undef if an error occurs while adding the class or it's children.
0
The add_all method will search the InputHandler for all *.pm files, and add them to the generation set.
add_all
Returns the total number of test scripts added, which may be zero, or undef on error.
The classes method returns a list of the names of all the classes that have been added to the Inline object, or the null list () if nothing has been added.
classes
()
For a given class name, fetches the Test::Inline::Script object for that class, if it has been added to the Test::Inline object. Returns undef if the class has not been added to the Test::Inline object.
For all of the classes added, the filenames method generates a map of the filenames that the test files for the various classes should be written to.
filenames
Returns a reference to a hash with the classes as keys, and filenames as values.
Returns 0 if there are no files to write.
Returns undef on error.
While the filenames method generates a map of the files for the various classes, the schedule returns the list of file names in the order in which they should actually be executed.
schedule
Returns a reference to an array containing the file names as strings.
The manifest generates the contents of the manifest file, if it is both wanted and needed.
Returns the contents of the manifest file as a normal string, false if it is either not wanted or needed, or undef on error.
$Tests->save;
The save method generates the test files for all classes, and saves them to the output directory.
save
Returns the number of test files generated. Returns undef on error.
- Add support for example sections
example
- Add support for =for sections
=for
Bugs should always be submitted via the CPAN bug tracker
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Test-Inline
Professional support, assistance, or customisations for large scale uses of Test::Inline are available from http://phase-n.com/.
For other issues, contact the maintainer.
Adam Kennedy (Maintainer), http://ali.as/, cpan@ali.as
Thank you to Phase N (http://phase-n.com/) for permitting the open sourcing and release of this distribution.
Copyright (c) 2004 - 2005 Phase N Austalia. All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.
To install Test::Inline, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Test::Inline
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Test::Inline
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.