----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Cheesman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2001 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: [cactus] Add functional tests to Cactus scope ?
> At 10:54 AM 4/14/2001, you wrote:
> >Hi to all Cactusers,
> >
> >I have added a web page to the Cactus web site giving the current scope
and
> >status of Cactus (you can check it at
> >http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/cactus/scope.html). There is a nice (I
> >hope you find it nice !) diagram showing Cactus scope in regards to the
MVC
> >architecture. You can see that Cactus already (or soon will) handles the
> >Controller and Model part.
> >
> >However, there is a part which is not handled at all by Cactus so far. It
is
> >the View part, or in other words, the functional testing of the MVC
> >architecture. Hence this message.
> >
> >I wanted to have your opinion on whether Cactus should go on that path or
> >not.
>
>
>
> I'd say yes - and no. ;)
>
> From a functionality point of view, it's a great idea. Having just the
one
> framework lessens the learning, speeds up the implementation and
encourages
> testing.
>
> But... it's not unit testing, at least not as I understand the term. As an
> extension to JUnit, it doesn't really "fit". Would this impact on any
> linking from, for example, junit.org and related extreme programming
pages?
> (And so hinder take up?)
>
1) Well, yes ... but look at HttpUnit for example. It extends JUnit but does
functional testing
2) If you think at what Cactus uses from JUnit, it is the following :
- assertions,
- the client side that run the tests in a Test Runner and display the
results (eitheir in text or graphically)
We can still use these 2 features even if we do a funtional test framework.
The good part to reusing JUnit are :
- everyone already use JUnit and thus everyone knows how to start tests
using JUnit. Thus everyone knows how to start Cactus tests (almost)
- there are tools that have been written for JUnit to integrate it with IDE,
... We can leverage this wealth of tools for starting our tests
That's all of these features that Cactus uses from JUnit but as you can see
they are not really related to unit testing.
3) HttpUnit is referenced on the JUnit web site
>
> On balance, though, I'd go with the former as being far more important
than
> the semantic problems of the latter. Having the ability to do these tests
> explicitly supported without yet another download is a great advantage.
>
good ! So you're +1 for adding functional tests to Cactus, right ?
>
>
> Jim
Vincent
