AppFuseEasyMock

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Simplify you test using EasyMock

This articel will give a short overview how to integrate EasyMokc in AppFuse. I assume that you have a running AppFuse project:

• [1] Download a suitable version of EasyMock
• [2] Integrate the libraries in AppFuse
• [3] Write some Tests using EasyMock
• [4] Run the Tests and have fun.
• [5] Change all AppFuse (1.9) Service tests to easymock (optional)
• [6] Take a moment to think of what is happening...

Download a suitable version of EasyMock [#1]

• The latest version of Easymock is 2.0 but this version works only with Java 2 Version 5.0 and above. As I use Java 1.4x the rest of this tutorial is based on EasyMock 1.2.

Integrate the libraries in AppFuse [#2]

• Create a new folder named 'easymock-1.2' int the /lib directory of your AppFuse project.
• Copy easymock.jar in the new directory
• Add the following part to the lib/lib.properties file:

• Finally you have to add the reference to the easymock.jar to the service test classpath (or whatever module you want to mock). In order to do this, you have to edit your properties.xml file and add the following element to your service.test.classpath:

So the complete service.test.classpath would look like

    <path id="service.test.classpath">
        <path refid="service.compile.classpath"/>
        <pathelement location="${junit.jar}"/>
        <pathelement location="${log4j.jar}"/>
        <pathelement location="${log4j.jar}"/>
    	<fileset dir="${servletapi.dir}" includes="*.jar"/>
        <pathelement location="${jakarta-oro.jar}"/>
        <pathelement location="${dumbster.jar}"/>
        <pathelement location="${jmock.jar}"/>
        <pathelement location="${easymock.jar}"/>
        <path location="test/dao"/>
    </path>

• If you are using Eclipse, you also have to add the easymock.jar to your buildpath (Project properties -> java buildpath -> jar)

Now you are set up to write some tests with EasyMock.

Write the tests. [#3]

The difference to Mocktests known from the tutorial is simply that we don't use the Mock themselves but an MockControl that will ease the use of the actual Mock. In this case I use the static Method MockControl.createStrictControl(PersonDao.class); that will create a MockControl object that will take care of ordering of methodcalls to the Mocked object. Let's take a look at the actual TestMethods:

I think this form of mocking your test is very simple to understand. The MockControl simply keeps track of the calls you make to the mocked instance. This way it becomes very easy to write down your expectations and the rather complicated setup of expectaions using bare Mocks is not needed anymore. Just like with bare Mocks you can set (void) return values or exceptions to be thrown. There are even convenience methods to specify that a method i supposed to be called n times. For more information on what EasyMock can do for you visit the EasyMock Documentation.

Run the tests [#4]

Change all AppFuse (1.9) Service tests to easymock [#5]

Some further thougts. [#6]