Unit Module

This XQuery Module contains annotations and functions for performing XQUnit tests.

Introduction

The more complex a software application grows, the more error-prone it gets. This is why testing frameworks have been developed, which provide a standardized, automated way of testing software. The XUnit frameworks (such as SUnit or JUnit) allow testing of atomic units of a program, such as single functions and algorithms.

This module borrows heavily from the existing frameworks: it provides various annotations for testing XQuery functions. Unit functions are provided to assert the validity of arbitrary conditions expressed in XQuery and to raise errors whenever a condition is not satisfied. Some additional functions exist to run all unit tests of the current module or a set of specified library modules.

Usage

Tests are started via the TEST command. It compiles all XQuery modules in a given file or directory and runs all functions that are annotated with %unit:test. A test report is generated and returned, which resembles the format returned by other xUnit testing frameworks, such as the Maven Surefire Plugin (see below).

Conventions

All annotations, functions and errors in this module are assigned to the http://basex.org/modules/unit namespace, which is statically bound to the unit prefix.

Annotations

unit:test

Syntax	%unit:test %unit:test("expected", CODE)
Summary	With this annotation, a function can be marked as unit test. It will be evaluated if a test report is created for the module in which this function is located. error can be supplied as additional string argument. It is followed by CODE, which must be a valid EQName string. If the function expression does not raise that error, the test will fail.
Examples	The following test will be successful, as it does nothing (and, hence, nothing wrong): declare %unit:test function local:void() { () }; The following test will be successful, as the function body will raise err:XPTY0004: declare %unit:test('expected', "err:XPTY0004") function local:add() { 123 + 'strings and integers cannot be added' };

unit:before

Syntax	%unit:before %unit:before(FUNCTION)
Summary	A function decorated with this annotation will be evaluated before each unit test as a separate transaction. FUNCTION can be supplied as additional argument. It must be a valid EQName string. If specified, the function will only be evaluated before a function with the given name is tested. This extension is e. g. helpful if the results of updates need to be tested.
Examples	The first function will be evaluated before the actual test: declare %updating %unit:before("local:check") function local:before-check() { db:create('test-db') }; declare %updating %unit:test function local:check() { unit:assert(db:exists('test-db')) };

unit:after

Syntax	%unit:after %unit:after(FUNCTION)
Summary	A function decorated with this annotation will be evaluated after each unit test as a separate transaction. FUNCTION can be supplied as additional argument. It must be a valid EQName string. If specified, the function will only be evaluated after a function with the given name is tested.

unit:before-module

Syntax	%unit:before-module
Summary	If a function is decorated with this annotation, it will be evaluated before all unit tests in the current module as a separate transaction.

unit:after-module

Syntax	%unit:after-module
Summary	If a function is decorated with this annotation, it will be evaluated after all unit tests in the current module as a separate transaction.

unit:ignore

Syntax	%unit:ignore %unit:ignore(MESSAGE)
Summary	If a function is decorated with this annotation, it will temporarily be ignored by the test suite runner.

Functions

unit:assert

Signature	unit:assert( $test as item()*, $info as item() := () ) as empty-sequence()
Summary	Asserts that the effective boolean value of the specified $test is true and returns an empty sequence. Otherwise, raises an error. The effective boolean value of an expression can be explicitly computed by using the fn:boolean function. The default failure message can be overridden with the $info argument.
Errors	fail: the assertion failed, or an error was raised.

unit:assert-equals

Signature	unit:assert-equals( $returned as item()*, $expected as item()*, $info as item() := () ) as empty-sequence()
Summary	Asserts that the specified arguments are equal according to the rules of the fn:deep-equal function. Otherwise, raises an error. The default failure message can be overridden with the $info argument.
Errors	fail: the assertion failed, or an error was raised.

unit:fail

Signature	unit:fail( $info as item() := () ) as empty-sequence()
Summary	Raises a unit error. The default failure message can be overridden with the $info argument.
Errors	fail: default error raised by this function.

Example

The following XQUnit module tests.xqm contains all available unit annotations:

Query

module namespace test = 'http://basex.org/modules/xqunit-tests';

(:~ Initializing function, which is called once before all tests. :)
declare %unit:before-module function test:before-all-tests() {
  ()
};
  
(:~ Initializing function, which is called once after all tests. :)
declare %unit:after-module function test:after-all-tests() {
  ()
};
  
(:~ Initializing function, which is called before each test. :)
declare %unit:before function test:before() {
  ()
};
  
(:~ Initializing function, which is called after each test. :)
declare %unit:after function test:after() {
  ()
};
  
(:~ Function demonstrating a successful test. :)
declare %unit:test function test:assert-success() {
  unit:assert(<a/>)
};
  
(:~ Function demonstrating a failure using unit:assert. :)
declare %unit:test function test:assert-failure() {
  unit:assert((), 'Empty sequence.')
};
  
(:~ Function demonstrating a failure using unit:assert-equals. :)
declare %unit:test function test:assert-equals-failure() {
  unit:assert-equals(4 + 5, 6)
};
  
(:~ Function demonstrating an unexpected success. :)
declare %unit:test("expected", "err:FORG0001") function test:unexpected-success() {
  ()
};
  
(:~ Function demonstrating an expected failure. :)
declare %unit:test("expected", "err:FORG0001") function test:expected-failure() {
  1 + <a/>
};
  
(:~ Function demonstrating the creation of a failure. :)
declare %unit:test function test:failure() {
  unit:fail("Failure!")
};
  
(:~ Function demonstrating an error. :)
declare %unit:test function test:error() {
  1 + <a/>
};
  
(:~ Skipping a test. :)
declare %unit:test %unit:ignore("Skipped!") function test:skipped() {
  ()
};

By running TEST tests.xqm, the following report will be generated (timings may differ):

Result

<testsuites time="PT0.256S">
  <testsuite name="file:///C:/Users/user/Desktop/test.xqm" time="PT0.212S" tests="8" failures="4" errors="1" skipped="1">
    <testcase name="assert-success" time="PT0.016S"/>
    <testcase name="assert-failure" time="PT0.005S">
      <failure line="30" column="15">
        <info>Empty sequence.</info>
      </failure>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="assert-equals-failure" time="PT0.006S">
      <failure line="35" column="22">
        <returned item="1" type="xs:integer">9</returned>
        <expected item="1" type="xs:integer">6</expected>
        <info>Item 1: 6 expected, 9 returned.</info>
      </failure>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="unexpected-success" time="PT0.006S">
      <failure>
        <expected>FORG0001</expected>
      </failure>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="expected-failure" time="PT0.004S"/>
    <testcase name="failure" time="PT0.004S">
      <failure line="50" column="13">
        <info>Failure!</info>
      </failure>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="error" time="PT0.004S">
      <error line="55" column="6" type="FORG0001">
        <info>Cannot cast to xs:double: "".</info>
      </error>
    </testcase>
    <testcase name="skipped" skipped="Skipped!" time="PT0S"/>
  </testsuite>
</testsuites>

Errors

Code	Description
fail	An assertion failed, or an error was raised.
no-args	A test function must have no arguments.
private	A test function must not be private.

Changelog

Version 9.0

• Updated: error codes updated; errors now use the module namespace

Version 8.0.2

• Updated: (expected) errors are compared by QNames instead of local names (including namespaces).

Version 8.0

• Deleted: UNIT0006 (ignore results returned by functions).
• Added: unit:fail, 0-argument signature.
• Updated: the info argument of functions can now be an arbitrary item.
• Updated: infos are now represented in an info child element.
• Updated: unit:before and unit:after can be extended by a filter argument.

Version 7.9

• Added: TEST command
• Removed: unit:test, unit:test-uris

Version 7.8

• Added: unit:assert-equals
• Updated: enhanced test report output

This module was introduced with Version 7.7.