commit 1914a156238b16e0907ad142477f8fe6d6112cb4
parent 4460dd01b1c9937e44cbbaef13cd62546d7ab77a
Author: David Eisinger <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 22 May 2023 23:05:57 -0400
More testing notes
Diffstat:
1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/content/notes/good-tests/index.md b/content/notes/good-tests/index.md
@@ -7,6 +7,11 @@ draft: false
_(Notes for a Viget article I'm putting together)_
* Most importantly: **give you confidence to make changes**
+ * This gets more and more important over time
+* Secondarily:
+ * Tells you it works during development
+ * Help your code reviewers
+ * Serves as a kind of documentation (though not a very concise one)
* Focus on two kinds of tests: unit and integration
* Unit: test your objects/functions directly
* Integration: simulated browser interactions
@@ -30,24 +35,28 @@ _(Notes for a Viget article I'm putting together)_
* If it's, say, 94%, and you add 100 lines, six of those can be untested -- hope they're perfect!
* In other words, at less than 100% coverage, you don't know if your new feature is fully covered or not
* Occasionally you have to ignore some code -- e.g. something that only runs in production
+ * It's OK if you're not at 100% right now -- set the threshold to your current level, and increase it as you add tests and new well-tested features
* Third-party/network calls
* Major libraries often have mock services (e.g. [stripe-mock][2])
* VCR is … OK but can become a maintenance problem
- * Block access to the web
+ * Blocking access to the web is good though -- [webmock][3]
* A better approach
* Move your integration code into a module
* Create a second stub module with the same API
- * Use [JSON Schema][3] to ensure stub stays in sync (i.e. both the real client and the stub client validate against the schema)
+ * Use [JSON Schema][4] to ensure stub stays in sync (i.e. both the real client and the stub client validate against the schema)
* This will lead to more reliable tests and also more robust code
* Flaky tests are bad
* They eat up a lot of development time (esp. as build times increase)
* Try to stay on top of them and squash them as they arise
* Some frameworks have `retry` options/libraries that can help (bandage not cure)
+ * [rspec-retry][5]
* In general, though, flaky tests suck and generally indicate lack of quality with either your code or your tools
* So write better code or pick better tools
-[3]: https://json-schema.org/
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development
[2]: https://github.com/stripe/stripe-mock
+[3]: https://github.com/bblimke/webmock#real-requests-to-network-can-be-allowed-or-disabled
+[4]: https://json-schema.org/
+[5]: https://github.com/NoRedInk/rspec-retry
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