MockObject

A mock object library for MATLAB.

Overview

I initially wrote MockObject to help me unit test code that connected to hardware devices using COM objects. By swapping in a mock for the actual COM object, I could could simulate any device behavior I wanted.

I've since used it to mock HTTP sessions as well, and it's probably useful wherever you want to mock out Something Big.

Features

The MockObject class has two main features:

• It maintains a lookup table of function return values: for any function, for a specific function, or for a specific function with specific arguments
• It maintains a list of what methods were called, along with the arguments used.

Installation

To add MockObject to your MATLAB path, run onLoad. To remove it from your path, run onUnload.

How to Use

1. Create a subclass of MockObject.(Let's call it MockFoo.) Add functions to this subclass that match the signatures of the functions in the class you're mocking(RealFoo). Each function in MockFoo will make a call to addToCallStack to record that it's been called, and a call to getReturnValue to find out what it should return.
2. At runtime, create an instance of MockFoo. Call addReturnValueEntry to add values to the return value lookup table.
3. Use MockFoo in place of RealFoo.
4. Inspect the MockFoo.CallStack property to see what methods were called.

Examples

See the example subdirectory for an example of how this would work.

Requirements

• Supported on Matlab R2012a and newer. (May work on older versions but no guarantees.)
• matlab-xunit-4.0.0 if you want to run the unit tests.

Bug Reports And Contributions

The code for this project lives at GitHub.

To file a bug report or feature request, create an issue there.

Licensing

Licensed under the BSD license. See the LICENSE file in this directory.

Last Updated:
Paul Sexton
2014-10-02