Book Image

Python Testing Cookbook

By : Greg L. Turnquist
Book Image

Python Testing Cookbook

By: Greg L. Turnquist

Overview of this book

<p>Are you looking at new ways to write better, more efficient tests? Are you struggling to add automated testing to your existing system? The Python unit testing framework, originally referred to as "PyUnit" and now known as unittest, is a framework that makes it easier for you to write automated test suites efficiently in Python. This book will show you exactly how to squeeze every ounce of value out of automated testing.<br /><br />The Python Testing Cookbook will empower you to write tests using lots of Python test tools, code samples, screenshots, and detailed explanations. By learning how and when to write tests at every level, you can vastly improve the quality of your code and your personal skill set. Packed with lots of test examples, this will become your go-to book for writing good tests.<br /><br />This practical cookbook covers lots of test styles including unit-level, test discovery, doctest, BDD, acceptance, smoke, and load testing. It will guide you to use popular Python tools effectively and discover how to write custom extensions. You will learn how to use popular continuous integration systems like Jenkins (formerly known as Hudson) and TeamCity to automatically test your code upon check in. This book explores Python's built-in ability to run code found embedded in doc strings and also plugging in to popular web testing tools like Selenium. By the end of this book, you will be proficient in many test tactics and be ready to apply them to new applications as well as legacy ones.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

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Python Testing Cookbook
Greg L. Turnquist
May, 2011 | 364 pages
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Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Python Testing Cookbook
Python Testing Cookbook
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Using Unittest To Develop Basic Tests
Using Unittest To Develop Basic Tests
Introduction
Asserting the basics
Setting up and tearing down a test harness
Running test cases from the command line with increased verbosity
Running a subset of test case methods
Chaining together a suite of tests
Defining test suites inside the test module
Retooling old test code to run inside unittest
Breaking down obscure tests into simple ones
Testing the edges
Testing corner cases by iteration
2
Running Automated Test Suites with Nose
Running Automated Test Suites with Nose
Introduction
Getting nosy with testing
Embedding nose inside Python
Writing a nose extension to pick tests based on regular expressions
Writing a nose extension to generate a CSV report
Writing a project-level script that lets you run different test suites
3
Creating Testable Documentation with doctest
Creating Testable Documentation with doctest
Introduction
Documenting the basics
Catching stack traces
Running doctests from the command line
Coding a test harness for doctest
Filtering out test noise
Printing out all your documentation including a status report
Testing the edges
Testing corner cases by iteration
Getting nosy with doctest
Updating the project-level script to run this chapter's doctests
4
Testing Customer Stories with Behavior Driven Development
Testing Customer Stories with Behavior Driven Development
Introduction
Naming tests that sound like sentences and stories
Testing separate doctest documents
Writing a testable story with doctest
Writing a testable novel with doctest
Writing a testable story with Voidspace Mock and nose
Writing a testable story with mockito and nose
Writing a testable story with Lettuce
Using Should DSL to write succinct assertions with Lettuce
Updating the project-level script to run this chapter's BDD tests
5
High Level Customer Scenarios with Acceptance Testing
High Level Customer Scenarios with Acceptance Testing
Introduction
Installing Pyccuracy
Testing the basics with Pyccuracy
Using Pyccuracy to verify web app security
Installing the Robot Framework
Creating a data-driven test suite with Robot
Writing a testable story with Robot
Tagging Robot tests and running a subset
Testing web basics with Robot
Using Robot to verify web app security
Creating a project-level script to verify this chapter's acceptance tests
6
Integrating Automated Tests with Continuous Integration
Integrating Automated Tests with Continuous Integration
Introduction
Generating a continuous integration report for Jenkins using NoseXUnit
Configuring Jenkins to run Python tests upon commit
Configuring Jenkins to run Python tests when scheduled
Generating a CI report for TeamCity using teamcity-nose
Configuring TeamCity to run Python tests upon commit
Configuring TeamCity to run Python tests when scheduled
7
Measuring your Success with Test Coverage
Measuring your Success with Test Coverage
Introduction
Building a network management application
Installing and running coverage on your test suite
Generating an HTML report using coverage
Generating an XML report using coverage
Getting nosy with coverage
Filtering out test noise from coverage
Letting Jenkins get nosy with coverage
Updating the project-level script to provide coverage reports
8
Smoke/Load Testing—Testing Major Parts
Smoke/Load Testing—Testing Major Parts
Introduction
Defining a subset of test cases using import statements
Leaving out integration tests
Targeting end-to-end scenarios
Targeting the test server
Coding a data simulator
Recording and playing back live data in real time
Recording and playing back live data as fast as possible
Automating your management demo
9
Good Test Habits for New and Legacy Systems
Good Test Habits for New and Legacy Systems
Introduction
Something is better than nothing
Coverage isn't everything
Be willing to invest in test fixtures
If you aren't convinced on the value of testing, your team won't be either
Harvesting metrics
Capturing a bug in an automated test
Separating algorithms from concurrency
Pause to refactor when test suite takes too long to run
Cash in on your confidence
Be willing to throw away an entire day of changes
Instead of shooting for 100 percent coverage, try to have a steady growth
Randomly breaking your app can lead to better code
Index
Index

Using Pyccuracy to verify web app security

Applications often have login screens. Testing a secured web application requires us to capture the login process as a custom action. That way, we can re-use it repeatedly for as many scenarios as we need.

Getting ready

  1. If it isn't already running, start up the selenium server in another shell or window by typing: java -jar selenium-server.jar.

  2. If the satchmo store application isn't already running, start it up in another shell or window by typing: python manage.py runserver.

    Tip

    NOTE: This must run inside the virtualenv environment.

How to do it...

With the following steps, we will exercise a web application's security and then see how to extend Pyccuracy by creating a custom action that does the same:

  1. Create a new file called recipe37.acc to contain this recipe's scenario.

  2. Create a story for exercising Django's admin application. 

    As a system administrator
I want to login to Django's admin page 
So that I can check the product catalog.

  3. Add a scenario that...

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