1<html> 2<head> 3<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> 4<title>Declaring and organizing tests</title> 5<link rel="stylesheet" href="../boostbook.css" type="text/css"> 6<meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.79.1"> 7<link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="Boost.Test"> 8<link rel="up" href="../index.html" title="Boost.Test"> 9<link rel="prev" href="usage_variants.html" title="Usage variants"> 10<link rel="next" href="tests_organization/test_cases.html" title="Test cases"> 11</head> 12<body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"> 13<table cellpadding="2" width="100%"><tr> 14<td valign="top"><img alt="Boost C++ Libraries" width="277" height="86" src="../../../../../boost.png"></td> 15<td align="center"><a href="../../../../../index.html">Home</a></td> 16<td align="center"><a href="../../../../../libs/libraries.htm">Libraries</a></td> 17<td align="center"><a 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29</h2></div></div></div> 30<div class="toc"><dl class="toc"> 31<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_cases.html">Test cases</a></span></dt> 32<dd><dl> 33<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_cases/test_organization_nullary.html">Test 34 cases without parameters</a></span></dt> 35<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_cases/test_case_generation.html">Data-driven 36 test cases</a></span></dt> 37<dd><dl> 38<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_cases/test_case_generation/datasets.html">Datasets</a></span></dt> 39<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_cases/test_case_generation/datasets_auto_registration.html">Declaring 40 and registering test cases with datasets</a></span></dt> 41<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_cases/test_case_generation/operations.html">Operations 42 on dataset</a></span></dt> 43<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_cases/test_case_generation/generators.html">Datasets 44 generators</a></span></dt> 45</dl></dd> 46<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_cases/test_organization_templates.html">Template 47 test cases</a></span></dt> 48<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_cases/param_test.html">Parametrized 49 test cases</a></span></dt> 50</dl></dd> 51<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_tree.html">Test tree</a></span></dt> 52<dd><dl> 53<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_tree/test_suite.html">Test 54 suite</a></span></dt> 55<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_tree/master_test_suite.html">Master 56 test suite</a></span></dt> 57<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_tree/test_naming.html">Tests 58 naming</a></span></dt> 59<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/test_tree/test_tree_content.html">Test 60 tree content</a></span></dt> 61</dl></dd> 62<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/decorators.html">Decorators</a></span></dt> 63<dd><dl> 64<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/decorators/suite_level_decorators.html">Suite-level 65 decorators</a></span></dt> 66<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/decorators/explicit_decorator_declaration.html">Explicit 67 decorator declaration</a></span></dt> 68</dl></dd> 69<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/fixtures.html">Fixtures</a></span></dt> 70<dd><dl> 71<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/fixtures/models.html">Fixture 72 models</a></span></dt> 73<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/fixtures/case.html">Test case 74 fixture</a></span></dt> 75<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/fixtures/per_test_suite_fixture.html">Test 76 suite entry/exit fixture</a></span></dt> 77<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/fixtures/global.html">Global 78 fixture</a></span></dt> 79</dl></dd> 80<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/tests_dependencies.html">Managing 81 test dependencies</a></span></dt> 82<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/tests_grouping.html">Grouping 83 tests into logical units by labels</a></span></dt> 84<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/enabling.html">Enabling or disabling 85 test unit execution</a></span></dt> 86<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/semantic.html">Adding semantic 87 to a test</a></span></dt> 88<dt><span class="section"><a href="tests_organization/summary_of_the_api_for_declaring.html">Summary 89 of the API for declaring and organizing tests</a></span></dt> 90</dl></div> 91<p> 92 If you look at many legacy test modules, big chance is that it's implemented 93 as one big test function that consists of a mixture of check and output statements. 94 Is there anything wrong with it? Yes. There are various disadvantages in single 95 test function approach: 96 </p> 97<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "> 98<li class="listitem"> 99 One big function tends to become really difficult to manage if the number 100 of checks exceeds a reasonable limit (true for any large function). What 101 is tested and where - who knows? 102 </li> 103<li class="listitem"> 104 Many checks require similar preparations. This results in code repetitions 105 within the test function. 106 </li> 107<li class="listitem"> 108 If a fatal error or an exception is caused by any checks within the test 109 function the rest of tests are skipped and there is no way to prevent this. 110 </li> 111<li class="listitem"> 112 No way to perform only checks for a particular subsystem of the tested 113 unit. 114 </li> 115<li class="listitem"> 116 No summary of how different subsystems of the tested unit performed under 117 in the test. 118 </li> 119</ul></div> 120<p> 121 The above points should make it clear that it's preferable to split a <a class="link" href="section_glossary.html#ref_test_module">test module</a> into smaller <span class="bold"><strong>units</strong></span>. 122 These units are the <span class="bold"><strong>test cases</strong></span>, the <span class="bold"><strong>test suites</strong></span> and the <span class="bold"><strong>fixtures</strong></span>. 123 </p> 124<div class="variablelist"> 125<p class="title"><b>Subjects covered by this section</b></p> 126<dl class="variablelist"> 127<dt><span class="term">Declaration</span></dt> 128<dd><p> 129 The <span class="emphasis"><em>Unit Test Framework</em></span> supports several methods 130 for declaring a <a class="link" href="tests_organization/test_cases.html" title="Test cases">test 131 case</a>. Test cases can be implemented using free function like syntax 132 or based on actual free function, function object, that can be defined 133 with or without parameters/data, or as template functions to be run against 134 various types. 135 </p></dd> 136<dt><span class="term">Organization</span></dt> 137<dd><p> 138 The <span class="emphasis"><em>Unit Test Framework</em></span> provides facilities to group 139 several test cases into <a class="link" href="tests_organization/test_tree/test_suite.html" title="Test suite">test 140 suites</a>. The test suites can be nested, and the set of test suites 141 and test cases defines the <a class="link" href="tests_organization/test_tree.html" title="Test tree">test 142 tree</a>, where the leaves are the test cases. Besides hierarchical 143 structure the <span class="emphasis"><em>Unit Test Framework</em></span> allows you to 144 organize the test tree using <a class="link" href="tests_organization/tests_grouping.html" title="Grouping tests into logical units by labels">logical 145 grouping</a> and <a class="link" href="tests_organization/tests_dependencies.html" title="Managing test dependencies">dependencies</a> 146 and provides you with controls to utilize the defined test tree organization 147 the way you want (eg. from command line). 148 </p></dd> 149<dt><span class="term">Attributes</span></dt> 150<dd><p> 151 It is possible to specify test unit <span class="emphasis"><em>attributes</em></span> by 152 using <a class="link" href="tests_organization/decorators.html" title="Decorators">decorators</a>. 153 Attributes are used for a fine grained control over various aspects of 154 test module execution, such as <span class="emphasis"><em>logical grouping</em></span>, 155 <span class="emphasis"><em>dependencies</em></span>, <span class="emphasis"><em>expected failures</em></span>, 156 etc. 157 </p></dd> 158<dt><span class="term">Setup/teardown test unit actions</span></dt> 159<dd><p> 160 When several tests shares the same set-up (environment, test data preparation, 161 etc.), the preparation and cleanup code may be factorized in <a class="link" href="tests_organization/fixtures.html" title="Fixtures">fixtures</a>. 162 In the <span class="emphasis"><em>Unit Test Framework</em></span>, fixtures can be associated 163 to test cases, test suites or globally to the test module. 164 </p></dd> 165</dl> 166</div> 167</div> 168<table xmlns:rev="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~gregod/boost/tools/doc/revision" width="100%"><tr> 169<td align="left"></td> 170<td align="right"><div class="copyright-footer">Copyright © 2001-2020 Boost.Test contributors<p> 171 Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying 172 file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>) 173 </p> 174</div></td> 175</tr></table> 176<hr> 177<div class="spirit-nav"> 178<a accesskey="p" href="usage_variants.html"><img src="../../../../../doc/src/images/prev.png" alt="Prev"></a><a accesskey="u" href="../index.html"><img src="../../../../../doc/src/images/up.png" alt="Up"></a><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html"><img src="../../../../../doc/src/images/home.png" alt="Home"></a><a accesskey="n" href="tests_organization/test_cases.html"><img src="../../../../../doc/src/images/next.png" alt="Next"></a> 179</div> 180</body> 181</html> 182
