Test::Inline - Lets you put tests in your modules, next to tested code
Embedding tests allows tests to be placed near the code being tested.
This is a nice supplement to the traditional .t files.
It's like XUnit, only better and Perl-style.
Test::Inline lets you write small fragments of general or
function-specific testing code, and insert it anywhere you want in your
modules, inside a specific tagged POD segment, like the
following.
=begin testing
# This code assumes we have a cpuinfo file
ok( -f /proc/cpuinfo, 'Host has a standard /proc/cpuinfo file' );
=end testing
=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 logically 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.
These test scripts can then be executed as normal.
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 new test script will just appear.
This also makes it great for testing assumptions you normally wouldn't bother to write run-time code to test. It ensures that your assumptions about the way Perl does some operation, or about the state of the host, are confirmed at install-time.
If your assumption is ever wrong, it gets picked up at install-time and based on the test failures, you can correct your assumption.
It's also extremely useful for systematically testing self-contained code.
That is, any code which can be independantly tested without the need for external systems 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 also introduces the concept of unit-tested documentation.
Not only can your code be tested, but if you have a FAQ or some other pure documentation module, you can validate that the documentation is correct for the version of the module installed.
If the module ever changes to break the documentation, you can catch it and correct the documentation.
Test::Inline is not a complete testing solution, and there are several
types of testing you probably DON'T want to use it for.
Because Test::Inline creates test scripts with file names that don't start with a number (for ordering purposes), the first step is to create your normal test scripts using file names in the CPAN style of 01_compile.t, 02_main.t, 03_foobar.t, and so on.
You can then add your testing fragments wherever you like throughout your code, and use the inline2test script to generate the test scripts for the inline tests. By default the test scripts will be named after the packages/classes that the test fragments are found in.
Tests for Class::Name will end up in the file class_name.t.
These test files sit quite happily alongside your number test scripts.
When you run the test suite as you normally would, the inline scripts will be run after the numbered tests.
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.
verbose - The verbose option causes the generator to write state and
debugging information to STDOUT as it runs.
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.
check_count - The check_count value controls how strictly the
test script will watch the number of tests that have been executed.
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.
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.
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.
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 that the files will be
written to.
InputHandler - The InputHandler option, if provided, supplies an
alternative FileHandler from which source modules are retrieved.
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.
The InputHandler method returns the file handler object that will be
used to find and load the source code.
The ExtractHandler accessor returns the object that will be used
to extract the test sections from the source code.
The ContentHandler accessor return the script content generation handler.
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.
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.
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.
The add_all method will search the InputHandler for all *.pm files,
and add them to the generation set.
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 Test::Inline object, or the null list () if
nothing has been added.
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.
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.
Returns a reference to an array containing the file names as strings.
Returns 0 if there are no files to write.
Returns undef on error.
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.
Returns the number of test files generated. Returns undef on error.
The "Extended =begin" syntax used for non-trivial sections is not formalised as part of the POD spec yet, although it is on the track to being included.
While simple '=begin testing' sections are fine and will pass POD testing, extended begin sections may cause POD errors.
- Add support for example sections
- Add support for =for sections
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 <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 - 2006 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.