EXist-db testing - Revision history

Mligtvoet at 11:32, 25 October 2018

2018-10-25T11:32:54Z

ESiegel: /* Testing function libraries */

2018-10-15T12:34:05Z

‎Testing function libraries

ESiegel: /* Background information */

2018-10-15T12:33:17Z

‎Background information

ESiegel: /* Background information */

2018-10-15T11:59:24Z

‎Background information

ESiegel: /* Why the eXist-db XQSuite is unsuitable */

2018-10-15T11:55:35Z

‎Why the eXist-db XQSuite is unsuitable

ESiegel at 09:28, 15 October 2018

2018-10-15T09:28:57Z

Mligtvoet: Created page with "first version"

2018-10-08T09:56:46Z

Created page with "first version"

New page

first version

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:32, 25 October 2018
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	This page will explore how to add (~~autmated~~) tests to the XQuery code of art-decor.	+	This page will explore how to add (automated) tests to the XQuery code of art-decor.

	== Background information ==		== Background information ==

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 Testing function libraries means calling the functions with several different inputs and compare the output. Some properties of this:
-* In- and output parameters can be ''any'' data type. This includes, besides the usual atomic types like strings and numbers,  sequences, elements, attributes, documents, maps, arrays, etc. art-decor uses at least elements.
+* In- and output parameters can be ''any'' data type. This includes, besides the usual atomic types like strings and numbers:  sequences, elements, attributes, documents, maps, arrays, etc. Art-decor uses at least elements.
 * eXist has a native test suite called XQSuite, but its utterly incomplete and totally insufficient. See below.
 * There is no directly applicable test framework for eXist to the best of my knowledge.

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 ** A Schematron schema
 ** Some XPath expressions
 === Testing function libraries ===
@@ Line 26: / Line 27: @@
 * eXist has a native test suite called XQSuite, but its utterly incomplete and totally insufficient. See below.
 * There is no directly applicable test framework for eXist to the best of my knowledge.
-* A promising candidate is [https://github.com/xspec/xspec/wiki XSpec]. This is able to test XQuery modules (experimentally) but it runs outside eXist only.
+* A promising candidate is [https://github.com/xspec/xspec/wiki XSpec]. This is able to test XQuery modules (experimentally) but it runs outside eXist only, so no deal.
-==== Why the eXist-db XQSuite is unsuitable ====
+=== Testing XQuery scripts ===
 eXist offers a standard testing framework for testing XQuery function modules, [http://exist-db.org/exist/apps/doc/xqsuite.xml XQSuite]. It seems however totally unsuitable for anything but simple testing scenarios.

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 * Testing of any kind is done best using some kind of testing framework: An application in which you can ''declare'' the tests (usually in some XML dialect), run them and finally generates a report.
 * In an elaborate  system, like art-decor, simple tests are not enough. You'll have to do things like, for instance, setting up a some art-decor reference project, because what comes out of functions and scripts depends on the state of the database. A test framework should be able to set this up.
 * Comparing a result when its XML is not trivial. To be complete, a test framework must be able to compare a piece of XML with one or more of the following:
@@ Line 17: / Line 18: @@
 ** A Schematron schema
 ** Some XPath expressions
 === Testing function libraries ===

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 This page will explore how to add (autmated) tests to the XQuery code of art-decor.
-== Why the eXist-db XQSuite is unsuitable ==
+== Background information ==
 eXist offers a standard testing framework for testing XQuery function modules, [http://exist-db.org/exist/apps/doc/xqsuite.xml XQSuite]. It seems however totally unsuitable for anything but simple testing scenarios.

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:28, 15 October 2018
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	~~first version~~	+	This page will explore how to add (autmated) tests to the XQuery code of art-decor.
		+
		+	== Why the eXist-db XQSuite is unsuitable ==
		+
		+	eXist offers a standard testing framework for testing XQuery function modules, [http://exist-db.org/exist/apps/doc/xqsuite.xml XQSuite]. It seems however totally unsuitable for anything but simple testing scenarios.
		+
		+	XQSuite works by adding annotations to the function declaration, for example:
		+
		+	declare
		+	%test:arg("a", 3) %test:assertEquals(27)
		+	%test:arg("a", 4) %test:assertEquals(64)
		+	function tt:testthis(
		+	$a as xs:integer
		+	) as xs:integer
		+	{
		+	$a * $a * $a
		+	};
		+
		+	XQsuite doesn't fit the bill because:
		+
		+	* It does '''not''' support passing parameters other than atomic types (strings, integers, etc.). You can't pass elements, attributes or documents as function parameters.
		+	* The same is true for the function's result type. You can't test it when it's not an atomic type.
		+	* You can't add any documentations or annotations to a test or a bunch of tests. This means that when you get an error you have to search the tests where it came from and infer from that what's wrong.
		+	* You can't use other functions, variables, etc. in setting up the test or testing the result. Everything passed in and tested against must be literal.
		+	* When your function is more than trivial (and most are) the list of test annotations will be rather long and clutter the code
		+	* According to the documentation you can do a test setup and tear-down, but I couldn't get that working. Anyway, that will only work for testing a single function. But what if you want to do an extensive time-consuming setup/tear-down (e.g. setting up a reference art-decor-project) once for a whole group of tests?