Ray Lischner, Proteus Technologies
Sometimes, an idea isn’t valuable because it’s new but because it’s old. Unit testing isn’t new. Databases aren’t new. Database client libraries aren’t new. Writing a database client library that directly supports unit testing via mock database classes and the injection of mock results—that’s valuable.
Unit testing is not new, and has long been a common element of software testing. Various design and development techniques, such as extreme programming and test-driven design, have reinvigorated unit testing as a best practice. In order to unit-test an application effectively, the developer must be able to isolate the code under test. The most common method of isolating code for unit testing is to use mock classes or objects to stand in for other classes, especially external services and interfaces.
Java and similar languages offer language support for easy definition and construction of mock objects. C++ presents additional challenges. Some C++ utilities help you write mock classes, but in order to unittest effectively, a C++ library must be designed for testability. Given the evident value of unit testing, it is unfortunate that so many important libraries are not designed with unit testing in mind.
This paper presents a new C++ database client library, one that has been designed from the start with unit testing as a primary design goal. This library uses abstract interfaces to enable the developer to follow a clean database interface, and to substitute a mock implementation for unit testing and a real implementation for production use. The application code needs to be compiled only once, so you can be sure that you are unit testing the real application code, even when linked with the mock database library.
The resulting library enabled delivery of a database application with zero known defects. The paper presents the design decisions and shows how testability drove the library design, and how the library and resulting applications benefited from the emphasis on unit testing.
Ray Lischner, 2011 Technical Paper, Abstract, Paper, Slides, Notes
