Book Image

Test-Driven iOS Development with Swift 4 - Third Edition

By : Dr. Dominik Hauser
Book Image

Test-Driven iOS Development with Swift 4 - Third Edition

By: Dr. Dominik Hauser

Overview of this book

Test-driven development (TDD) is a proven way to find software bugs early. Writing tests before you code improves the structure and maintainability of your apps. Using TDD, in combination with Swift 4's improved syntax, means there is no longer any excuse for writing bad code. This book will help you understand the process of TDD and how to apply it to your apps written in Swift. Through practical, real-world examples, you’ll learn how to implement TDD in context. You will begin with an overview of the TDD workflow and then delve into unit-testing concepts and code cycles. You will also plan and structure your test-driven iOS app, and write tests to drive the development of view controllers and helper classes. Next, you’ll learn how to write tests for network code and explore how the test-driven approach—in combination with stubs—helps you write network code even before the backend component is finished. Finally, the book will guide you through the next steps to becoming a testing expert by discussing integration tests, Behavior Driven Development (BDD), open source testing frameworks, and UI Tests (introduced in Xcode 9).
Table of Contents (9 chapters)

Planning and Structuring Your Test-Driven iOS App

In the previous chapter, you learned how to write unit tests and saw an easy example of TDD. When starting TDD, writing unit tests is easy for most people. The hard part is to transfer knowledge from writing test to driving development. What can be assumed? What should be done before one writes the first test? What should be tested to end up with a complete app?

As a developer, you are used to thinking in terms of code. When you see a feature on the requirement list for an app, your brain already starts to layout the code for this feature. For recurring problems in iOS development (such as building table views), you most probably have already developed your own best practices.

In TDD, you should not think about the code while working on the test. The tests have to describe what the unit under test should do and not how it should...