Posts Tagged ‘testing’
[NDCOslo2024] No More SQLite: How to Write Tests With EF Core Using TestContainers – Daniel Ward
Amid the arduous arena of application assurance, where integration inspections intersect infrastructure intricacies, Daniel Ward, a .NET navigator and testing tactician, torpedoes the tired trope of SQLite as EF Core’s ersatz examiner. With a penchant for precision and a portfolio of pragmatic patterns, Daniel decries the discrepancies—dialect drifts, devious defaults—that delude developers into dubious dependability. His herald: TestContainers, a titan of transient testing, tethering true-to-type databases to dotnet diagnostics, ensuring examinations echo environments exactly.
Daniel dives direct: SQLite’s siren song—simplicity’s shadow—seduces with speed yet sabotages similitude, spawning spurious successes in schema shadows. Real realms revel in PostgreSQL or SQL Server; sans such sentinels, tests tantalize with triumphs that tumble in truth. His thesis: TestContainers triumphs, turbocharging temporaries—containers conjured cleanly, configured crisply—for credible, containerized corroboration.
Ditching the Decoy: Drawbacks of Database Doppelgangers
SQLite’s shortcomings spotlight starkly: syntax schisms—TOP versus LIMIT—thwart translations; transaction treatments transmute, transactions toggling differently. Daniel details dev database dilemmas: devious dependencies, drift-prone data, deployment drudgery. False flags flourish: tests triumph trivially, only to falter in flight, fostering fragile faith.
His horror stories: SQLite’s solitary schema swallows specifics, sans stored procedures or sequences; in-memory imposters ignore indexes, inflating illusions. Daniel’s decree: discard decoys for doppelgangers divine—TestContainers delivers, Docker-driven duplicates that duplicate dynamics deftly.
Containers as Champions: TestContainers’ Triumphs
TestContainers, Daniel declaims, democratizes diligence: NuGet-nimble, it nurtures nodes—Postgres pods, SQL Server ships—spinning sans setup strife. Benefits burgeon: bit-for-bit fidelity, flakeless flurries, fleet-footed forays. Reusability reigns: withReuse() recycles realms, reining runtime rigorously.
Daniel demos deftly: dotnet add package Testcontainers.PostgreSql; a builder begets a beast, beckoning a bespoke bastion. Connection strings cascade, EF contexts calibrate, tests transact transparently—Respawn resets, restoring rectitude routinely.
Precision in Practice: Pitfalls and Panaceas
Pitfalls persist: parallelism’s pandemonium, port pandemonium—Daniel dispels with Docker Desktop’s discipline, orchestration’s oversight. His heuristic: harness health checks, heed horizons—hundreds hum harmoniously, hovering at half-minutes for hordes.
Respawn’s renaissance: rollback routines, resetting relations rigorously, rectifying residue. Daniel’s distillation: TestContainers transmutes testing from torment to triumph, true tests tempering temper tantrums.
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[PHPForumParis2022] Testing Through OpenAPI, or How to Validate Your Documentation – Stéphane Hulard
Stéphane Hulard, CTO at Chstudio, delivered a compelling session at PHP Forum Paris 2022 on using OpenAPI to validate API documentation. With four years of experience maintaining a PHP-based project, Stéphane shared a practical approach to ensuring documentation aligns with implementation. His talk emphasized the synergy between testing and documentation, offering developers a workflow to enhance collaboration and maintainability in API-driven projects.
The Role of OpenAPI in Documentation
Stéphane introduced OpenAPI as a standardized format for describing APIs, enabling both human-readable documentation and automated testing. He explained how OpenAPI specifications serve as a contract between backend and frontend teams, ensuring consistency. By documenting a single API endpoint, developers can validate its behavior through automated tests, creating a virtuous cycle of reliable documentation and robust code. Stéphane emphasized starting small, documenting one endpoint at a time to build momentum.
Implementing Documentation-Driven Testing
Delving into technical details, Stéphane demonstrated how to integrate OpenAPI with PHP projects, using tools to generate and validate API requests. He shared code examples from Chstudio’s workflow, illustrating how tests derived from OpenAPI specs catch discrepancies early. This approach, akin to Test-Driven Development (TDD), ensures that documentation remains accurate as the codebase evolves. Stéphane highlighted the importance of enriching test suites with edge cases to uncover potential bugs, enhancing overall API reliability.
Enhancing Collaboration Across Teams
Stéphane underscored OpenAPI’s role in fostering collaboration between backend and frontend developers. By defining API contracts upfront, teams can make informed design decisions, reducing miscommunication. He described Chstudio’s experience with a monolithic repository, where OpenAPI facilitated smoother interactions despite the absence of microservices. Stéphane’s approach, which he termed Documentation-Driven Design (DDD), aligns development and documentation efforts, ensuring both are prioritized from the project’s outset.
Encouraging Community Contributions
Concluding, Stéphane invited developers to contribute to open-source OpenAPI tools, emphasizing their accessibility for PHP projects. He encouraged attendees to adopt incremental documentation practices, noting that even partial coverage yields significant benefits. By sharing Chstudio’s workflow, Stéphane inspired developers to integrate OpenAPI into their projects, fostering a culture of disciplined documentation and testing.