Book Image

Crafting Test-Driven Software with Python

By : Alessandro Molina
Book Image

Crafting Test-Driven Software with Python

By: Alessandro Molina

Overview of this book

Test-driven development (TDD) is a set of best practices that helps developers to build more scalable software and is used to increase the robustness of software by using automatic tests. This book shows you how to apply TDD practices effectively in Python projects. You’ll begin by learning about built-in unit tests and Mocks before covering rich frameworks like PyTest and web-based libraries such as WebTest and Robot Framework, discovering how Python allows you to embrace all modern testing practices with ease. Moving on, you’ll find out how to design tests and balance them with new feature development and learn how to create a complete test suite with PyTest. The book helps you adopt a hands-on approach to implementing TDD and associated methodologies that will have you up and running and make you more productive in no time. With the help of step-by-step explanations of essential concepts and practical examples, you’ll explore automatic tests and TDD best practices and get to grips with the methodologies and tools available in Python for creating effective and robust applications. By the end of this Python book, you will be able to write reliable test suites in Python to ensure the long-term resilience of your application using the range of libraries offered by Python for testing and development.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Section 1: Software Testing and Test-Driven Development
6
Section 2: PyTest for Python Testing
13
Section 3: Testing for the Web
16
About Packt

Understanding acceptance tests and doubles

We saw our Connection object works with the FakeServer but does our acceptance test finally pass now? Not yet. We still have to provide a server there (fake or not) and we still have to finish the implementation of the client.

Acceptance tests are meant to verify that the software really does what we wanted once it's in the hands of our users. For this reason, it's usually a good idea to limit the usage of test doubles in the context of acceptance tests. They should work as much as possible by reproducing the real usage of the software.

While mocks, stubs, dummies, and so on are rarely seen in acceptance tests, it's pretty common to see fakes in that context too. As fakes are supposed to mimic the behavior of the real service they replace, the software should notice no difference. But if you used fakes in your acceptance tests, it's a good idea to introduce a set of system tests that verify the software on the real services...