Writing Tests

Index

1. Toc
2. Contributing
   1. Understanding Any Module
   2. Style Guide
   3. Writing Documents
   4. Examples Over Testing
   5. Git
   6. Iex
   7. Mnesia Vs Actor State
   8. Observer
   9. Testing
      1. Running Tests
      2. Writing Tests
3. Visualization
   1. Actors
4. Hoon
   1. Calling
   2. Dumping
   3. Setting Up
5. Analysis

Conventions

Since the figuring out page demonstrates that well laid out test files are the key to understanding how modules work, it is important to write tests so this can always be achieved.

The following sections will lay out how we can achieve this.

Make sure names from the test matches setup_all

ExUnit.start()

:ok

defmodule AnomaTest.LiveBook.Nam do
  use ExUnit.Case

  setup_all do
    special = 3
    [special: special]
  end

  test "this is acceptable", %{special: special} do
    assert special == 3
  end

  test "this test is not acceptable", %{special: spec} do
    assert spec == 3
  end
end

{:module, AnomaTest.LiveBook.Nam, <<70, 79, 82, 49, 0, 0, 14, ...>>,
 {:"test this test is not acceptable", 1}}

If this convention is not followed, then the user can not simply be copy and paste the lines to figure out how to use the module.

Write setup_all to not crash on reevaluation

defmodule AnomaTest.LiveBook.NoCrash do
  use ExUnit.Case

  setup_all do
    name = :intent_example

    unless Process.whereis(name) do
      Anoma.Node.Intent.init(name)
    end

    [intent_pool: name]
  end
end

warning: Anoma.Node.Intent.init/1 is undefined (module Anoma.Node.Intent is not available or is yet to be defined)
  documentation/contributing/testing.livemd#cell:qbrtwwd53rvqgtpz:8: AnomaTest.LiveBook.NoCrash.__ex_unit_setup_all_0/1

{:module, AnomaTest.LiveBook.NoCrash, <<70, 79, 82, 49, 0, 0, 11, ...>>,
 {:__ex_unit_setup_all_0, 1}}

• Here we check if the process is running. This way if it is already in IEX we simply don't disturb it but rename it to point to the correct one we wish to operate over.
• If we did not do this check the other commands may fail and IEX may not be trapped to continue.
• mix test will not catch this

Try to make tests idempotent

Let us demonstrate this point, by making a simple queue service.

defmodule Queue do
  use GenServer

  def init(_init) do
    {:ok, :queue.new()}
  end

  def start_link(arg) do
    GenServer.start_link(__MODULE__, arg, name: arg)
  end

  def reset(queue) do
    GenServer.cast(queue, :reset)
  end

  def enqueue(queue, name) do
    GenServer.cast(queue, {:enqueue, name})
  end

  def pop(queue) do
    GenServer.call(queue, :pop)
  end

  def handle_cast(:reset, _pool) do
    {:noreply, :queue.new()}
  end

  def handle_cast({:enqueue, val}, pool) do
    {:noreply, :queue.cons(val, pool)}
  end

  def handle_call(:pop, _from, queue) do
    {:reply, :queue.get_r(queue), :queue.drop_r(queue)}
  end
end

{:module, Queue, <<70, 79, 82, 49, 0, 0, 18, ...>>, {:handle_call, 3}}

defmodule AnomaTest.LiveBook.Idempotent do
  use ExUnit.Case

  setup_all do
    name = :queue_name

    unless Process.whereis(name) do
      Queue.start_link(name)
    end

    [queue: name]
  end

  test "reset", %{queue: name} do
    # Make sure we get reliable results!
    Queue.reset(name)
    Queue.enqueue(name, 5)
    Queue.enqueue(name, 4)
    assert 5 == Queue.pop(name)
  end
end

{:module, AnomaTest.LiveBook.Idempotent, <<70, 79, 82, 49, 0, 0, 15, ...>>, {:"test reset", 1}}

Here before getting values from the queue, we make sure it's fresh by resetting it.

In the Queue case it's contrived, however a lot of genservers in the codebase work like this!

Something important to note is that mix test will not catch this!

So please try to keep tests isolated from each other.

Try to Name Values

For debugging purposes, it is best to name values, and so you can rerun values on command, or help the debugging process.