[TIP] Unit testing functions which call super

[Harry Percival]

Cheers Ned ;-)


On 14 August 2014 15:04, Ned Batchelder <ned at nedbatchelder.com> wrote:

>  "I guess you're not a django user"!!  Harry is the author of Test-Driven
> Development with Python (http://www.obeythetestinggoat.com/) which
> features Django....
>
> --Ned.
>
>
> On 8/14/14 9:09 AM, Marcin Tustin wrote:
>
>  I guess you’re not a django user – that would cut against the grain of
> the design of class based views. Inheritance IS the composition mechanism,
> and it works well, but it leads to this particular challenge with testing.
> In fact, I’m very satisfied with mocking super as a solution; it will only
> be in a minority of cases that anything more sophisticated is required.
>
>
>
> *From:* testing-in-python-bounces at lists.idyll.org [
> mailto:testing-in-python-bounces at lists.idyll.org
> <testing-in-python-bounces at lists.idyll.org>] *On Behalf Of *Harry Percival
> *Sent:* Thursday, August 14, 2014 8:51 AM
> *Cc:* testing-in-python at lists.idyll.org
> *Subject:* Re: [TIP] Unit testing functions which call super
>
>
>
> Any mileage in doing the "prefer composition over inheritance" thing?
>
>
>
> On 14 August 2014 13:31, Marcin Tustin <Marcin.Tustin at dealertrack.com>
> wrote:
>
> I can’t share real code, but what I can tell you is that it’s django code
> – we’ve got a lot multiple inheritance going on with class based views.
> None of these methods are going to stop having super calls (or if they do,
> that will very much be the exception).
>
>
>
> As to behaviour-driven testing: I usually use that, and minimize mocks.
> With class based views, each class implements a different behaviour, and
> the inheritance hierarchy is fairly deep (at least three classes).
> Accordingly, each method really does need to be tested independently,
> because it is not that the method uses super to implement one behaviour;
> rather it is triggering the next behaviour, whatever that may be.
>
>
>
> *From:* David Stanek [mailto:dstanek at dstanek.com]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 13, 2014 7:13 PM
> *To:* Marcin Tustin
> *Cc:* Ned Batchelder; testing-in-python at lists.idyll.org
>
>
> *Subject:* Re: [TIP] Unit testing functions which call super
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 6:54 PM, Marcin Tustin <
> Marcin.Tustin at dealertrack.com> wrote:
>
> It’s not  question of terminology. What happens if I let the test call
> it’s super is impossible to anticipate (but in practice will be some kind
> of exception). Even if it successfully calls the super methods, the output
> won’t be defined by this code, but some other code, so I can’t usefully
> test anything about it other than its type. If it doesn’t work, then I have
> to deal with those exceptions, but then I can’t very well distinguish
> between exceptions originating in the code I’m testing, and exceptions in
> the super methods. It’s all the usual reasons for mocking out calls.
>
>
>
>
>
> I think about my tests differently. I don't care how the feature is
> implemented all I care about is if it works. Mocking super means that you
> can't refactor your code without changing tests.
>
>
>
> Do you have any real code to share?  I suspect that the method you had in
> your original post isn't real production code.  But if I just look at that
> example the only thing I would mock is `do_some_stuff` because it's a
> collaborator.
>
>
>
> --
> David
> blog: http://www.traceback.org
> twitter: http://twitter.com/dstanek
>
> www: http://dstanek.com
>
>
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>
>
> --
> ------------------------------
> Harry J.W. Percival
> ------------------------------
> Twitter: @hjwp
> Mobile:  +44 (0) 78877 02511
> Skype:         harry.percival
>
>
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-- 
------------------------------
Harry J.W. Percival
------------------------------
Twitter: @hjwp
Mobile:  +44 (0) 78877 02511
Skype:         harry.percival
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