testing

* Testing

	Daily <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/tests/index.php">test</a> results.

	Testing is an important part of the Mono project: every one of its
	three major components has a test suite tailored for its needs.  This
	is very helpful, because in the course of developing the software it
	is very common to introduce bugs in existing code.  A test suite
	helps us fix the bugs as soon as they are introduced.

	There are various kinds of tests in Mono:
	<ul>
		<li><a href="#unit"><b>Class Library Unit
		Tests:</b></a> These are used to test the class
		libraries.

		<li><a href="#compiler"><b>Compiler tests</b></a>: Both
		tests that should pass and tests that should fail are included. 

		<li><a href="#runtime"><b>Runtime tests</b></a>: Tests for 
		the virtual machine.

		<li><a href="#aspnet"><b>ASP.NET tests</b></a>: ASP.NET tests.

		<li><a href="#ws"><b>Web Services tests</b></a>: Web Services 
		client/server tests.
	</ul>

<a name="unit"></a>
* Class Library Tests

	All classes in Mono libraries should have comprehensive unit test
	suites to go with them.  Unit testing is a software engineering
  	methodology that makes it easier to build correct code.  Every
  	method in every class should have a set of tests to verify
  	that they work correctly.  Mono also needs a testing framework
	to make it easy to write and run lots of tests. 

	In some classes, we might also provide standalone tests because of
	some reasons such as too huge testcases, another downloading and so on.
	(For example, managed XSLT has standalone test which downloads and
	expands some megabytes of OASIS test suite.)

	Here I list them up as long as I know. If you are going to add another
	standalone tests, please add one line here. It is also recommended that
	you add some notes on how to build and run tests.

	<ul>

		* Mono.Data/test/
		* System.Data/Test, and some individual ADO.NET libraries:
		  there are some standalone tests. See the bottom of <a href="ado-net.html">
		  ADO.NET page</a> for detail.
		* System.Web/Test/TestMonoWeb : see README
		* System.Web.Services/Test/standalone : see README
		* System.Windows.Forms/SWFTest/
		* System.XML/Test/System.Xml/standalone_tests : see README
		* System.XML/Test/System.Xml.Schema/standalone_tests : see README
		* System.XML/System.Xml.Serialization/standalone_tests/
		* System.XML/Test/System.Xml.Xsl/standalone_tests : see README
		* Commons.Xml.Relaxng/Test/standalone_tests : see README

	</ul>

** Getting started

	If you are new to writing NUnit tests, there is a template you may use
	to help get started. The file is:

		<b>mcs/class/doc/TemplateTest.cs</b>

	Save a copy of this file in the appropriate test subdirecty
	(see below), and replace all the {text} markers with
	appropriate code. Comments in the template are there to guide
	you. You should also look at existing tests to see how other
	people have written them.
	mcs/class/corlib/Test/System.Collections/CollectionBaseTest.cs
	is a small one that might help.

	The directory that will contain your new file depends on the
	assembly/namespace of the class for which you are creating the
	tests.  Under mcs/class there is a directory for each
	assembly. In each assembly there is a Test directory,
	e.g. mcs/class/corlib/Test. In the Test directory there are
	sub-directories for each namespace in the assembly,
	e.g. mcs/class/corlib/Test/Sytem. Put your new test file in
	the appropriate sub-directory under Test for the class you are
	testing.
	
	Once all of that is done, you can do a 'make test' from the top mcs
	directory.  Your test class needs also to be listed in the
	.sources file at the top of the Test directory.

* Tips on writing Unit tests.

	You should look at the <a href="http://nunit.org">NUnit documentation</a>,
	as it is a fantastic product, and includes fantastic documentation,
	but here are some tips for those of you who are already reading
	this web page.


** Provide an unique error message for Assert()

	Include an unique message for each Assert() so that when the assert
	fails, it is trivial to locate it in the source. Otherwise, it may be
	difficult to determine which part of the test is failing. A good way
	to ensure unique messages is to use something like #A01, #A02 etc.

	    Ok:
	<pre>
	
		AssertEquals("array match", compare[0], i1[0]);
		AssertEquals("array match", compare[1], i1[1]);
		AssertEquals("array match", compare[2], i1[2]);
		AssertEquals("array match", compare[3], i1[3]);
	</pre>

	    Excellent:
	<pre>
		AssertEquals("#A01", compare[0], i1[0]);
		AssertEquals("#A02", compare[1], i1[1]);
		AssertEquals("#A03", compare[2], i1[2]);
		AssertEquals("#A04", compare[3], i1[3]);
	</pre>
	
	Once you used such a number in an Assert(), don't change it later on -
	people might use it it identify the test in bug reports or in mailing
	lists.

** Use AssertEquals() to compare things, not Assert().

	Do not compare two values with Assert() - if the test fails,
	people have no idea what went wrong while AssertEquals()
	reports the failed value.

	Ok:
	<pre>
	        Assert ("A01", myTicks[0] == t1.Ticks);
	</pre>

	Excellent:
	<pre>
	        AssertEquals ("A01", myTicks[0], t1.Ticks);
	</pre>

** Test your test with the Microsoft runtime
	
	If possible, try to run your testsuite with the Microsoft runtime on
	.NET on Windows and make sure all tests in it pass. This is especially
	important if you're writing a totally new testcase - without this
	check you can never be sure that your testcase contains no bugs ....
	
	Don't worry if you're writing your test on Linux, other people can
	test it for you on Windows.
	
	Sometimes you may discover that a test doesn't show the expected
	result when run with the Microsoft runtime - either because there is a
	bug in their runtime or something is misleading or wrong in their
	documentation. In this case, please put a detailed description of the
	problem to mcs/class/doc/API-notes and do also report it to the 
	<a href="mailing-lists.html">mailing list</a> - we'll forward this to the
	Microsoft people from time to time to help them fix their documentation
	and runtime.

** Unit tests.

	Why do unit testing? It becomes simple to run automated tests
	for the whole library. Unit tests are a safety net - you can
	change part of the code and verify that you haven't broken
	anything. Ideally, tests are written before the actual library
	code itself. And every time a bug is discovered, a test should
	be written to demonstrate the bug and its fix. Then, if
	you ever reintroduce the bug, you will know immediately. For
	more info, read <a
	href="http://junit.sourceforge.net/doc/testinfected/testing.htm">
	JUnit Test Infected: Programmers Love Writing Tests</a>.


** Getting Started

	We welcome all contributions to the Class Libary Test Suite.

	There is information to help you get started in CVS at
	mcs/class/doc/NUnitGuidelines. Once you have written your test, please
	post it to <a href="mailing-lists.html">mono-list</a>.

	Someone will make sure to add the file or apply the patch as
	appropriate. If you plan to be an on-going contributor and
	would like to get cvs account, email <a href="mailto:miguel@ximian.com">miguel</a>.

	Normally, after you send a couple of well-written new files
	and/or patches to the list, you will be given cvs access.

<a name="compiler"></a>
* Compiler tests

	Mono ships with three compilers: C#, VB.NET and JScript.  The
	tests are ran by running the makefile target `make
	run-test-local' in the appropriate directory.

	The C# compilation tests live in mcs/tests, and the C# error
	tests live in mcs/errors.

	The VB.NET compilation tests live in mcs/btests. 

<a name="runtime"></a>
* Runtime Tests

	These tests verify the virtual machine, to run these tests, do:

<pre>
	cd mono/mono/tests
	make test
</pre>

<a name="aspnet"></a>
* ASP.NET tests

	XSP, the Mono ASP.NET server has tests for ASP.NET pages. It uses
	<a href="http://nunitasp.sourceforge.net">NUnitAsp</a>. Right now
	it only has standalone tests, ie., tests that do not need their own
	global.asax or web.config files.

	If you want to run them, get the xsp CVS module and install it. Then:
<pre>
	cd xsp/nunit-tests
	make
	cd standalone
	xsp
</pre>

	And from another terminal:
<pre>
	cd xsp/nunit-tests/standalone
	nunit-console standalone-tests.dll
</pre>

<a name="ws"></a>
* Web Services tests

	The Test directory for the System.Web.Services assembly contains a
	standalone test suite for testing web services. It tests:

	<ul>
	<li>Proxy generation using the wsdl tool</li>
	<li>Access to web services using the generated client proxies</li>
	<li>Execution of web services in the server</li>
	</ul>

	This suite not only tests web services running on XSP, but it can also test
	services running on other platforms and that are available in internet. This
	will help track down interoperability issues.

	To build the test suite, just run:
	
<pre>
	cd mcs/class/System.Web.Services/Test/standalone
	xsp --root server
</pre>
	
	And from another terminal:
<pre>
	cd mcs/class/System.Web.Services/Test/standalone
	make
	nunit-console testclient.dll
</pre>
	
	This will download the wsdl documents, generate the proxies, build a dll with
	the proxies, and build the nunit tests. Then you can use nunit-console or
	gnunit to run the tests (the nunit dll is testclient.dll).

	Read the README file in mcs/class/System.Web.Services/Test/standalone for
	more info.