Published: 2019-07 (July 2019)
Relevant for: JUnit 5.5.0

JUnit5 Blog Series

Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Test Basics
Part 3 – Display Names
Part 4 – Filtering tests

In Part 1 of the blog series, we looked at several annotations used in JUnit5. We covered test methods as well as lifecycle methods.

In Part 2 of the blog series, we covered the basics of testing using JUnit5. We covered test annotations such as marking a test method and asserting. We saw how a test method could be tagged and how assumptions can be used. We finally wrapped up with test execution ordering mechanisms.

In Part 3 of the blog series, we detailed ways in which JUnit test classes and test methods could be customized with readable and meaningful names rather than the standard class and method names.

This post will cover filtering JUnit tests for execution. There are several reasons for running a subset of your comprehensive suite of tests. Some example usages include:

• You may have unit and integration tests and wish to only run unit tests.
• You may want a sanity check with the core features alone being tested.
• You may wish to bypass a few tests to test a specific situation.
• You may wish to skip a few failing tests, since you know they fail.

Filtration Types

Dynamic filtration

In Part 2 of the blog series, we covered what I term, dynamic filtration. This was done using Assumptions (https://junit.org/junit5/docs/5.5.0/user-guide/#writing-tests-assumptions). Assumptions are conditions that when not met, cause the test to be aborted rather than fail. Assumptions are a great feature to dynamically filter unit tests.

Assumptions are evaluated during execution of the test class, and are embedded within the code block of the test method. Repeating the example we covered in that blog:

class TestWithAssumptions {

    @Test
    void testOnlyOnHost123() {
        assumeTrue("host123".equals(System.getenv("HOSTNAME")));
        // remainder of test
    }

    @Test
    void testOnHost123OrAbortWithMessage() {
        assumeTrue("host123".equals(System.getenv("HOSTNAME")),
            () -> "Aborting test: not on host123");
        // remainder of test
    }

}

Static filtration

In Part 2 of the blog series, we covered the @Tag (https://junit.org/junit5/docs/5.5.0/api/org/junit/jupiter/api/Tag.html) annotation on the unit test method. This annotation can be used to statically label classes and methods. The benefit of such an identification (or label or category) is that a predicate check can be made of such.

Filtering tests based on static labels is what I term static filtration. Since the Tag is an annotation, it is not a part of the code block that executes the unit test. A Tag is a @Repeatable (https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/docs/api/java.base/java/lang/annotation/Repeatable.html) annotation, which implies a class or method can have several tags annotating them.

How Static Filtration works

Code Katas are means to teach a concept, a feature or a functionality. In some Code Katas we deliberately remove logic to make tests fail. The mission for the student is to “fix” these tests. Since this is a learning process, there is a known solution also provided. In order to verify that the solutions are not failing, we can run a build that executes only the solutions (and other tests that are expected to pass). A way of doing that is to leverage Tags.

In this above example, we can thus tag known passing tests as “PASSING” and the kata tests as “TODO”.

See PublicMethodInvocationTest (https://github.com/c-guntur/java-katas/blob/baseline/java-handles/src/test/java/none/cvg/methods/PublicMethodInvocationTest.java).

• On line 37, the test method is tagged as PASSING. This is a test that is expected to always pass, since it is already solved.
• On line 63, the other test method is tagged as TODO, since it is what needs to be fixed (and is expected to fail).

We will now look at how we can filter tests both in an IDE (IntelliJ IDEA) as well as during a build process (Apache Maven).

Filtering tests in IDE

When we run all tests in the IDE, screen shot below, ALL tests found are executed, which is not the ideal outcome since several tests marked TODO will fail.

The Runner configuration can be edited. Select a Test Kind, with value Tags. In this example we used PASSING and TODO as the tags. We are trying to only run the PASSING tests, thus the Tag expression we use is PASSING.

When this run configuration is executed, any test tagged as PASSING is included and executed. Tests without this tag (or with the TODO tag, in this example), are filtered out and ignored.

Filtering tests in a build

It is great to setup the IDE on a desktop to work as needed. Repeatability and automation drives using a build tool to do the same. We can also filter tests based on Tags using a build tool such as maven.

JUnit tests are executed in the test phase of the maven lifecycle. A common (and default) plugin to run unit tests is the maven-surefire-plugin. The plugin can be configured to include and exclude groups (generic name corresponding to tags in JUnit5, other unit test frameworks may have other names).

Example: pom.xml (https://github.com/c-guntur/java-katas/blob/baseline/pom.xml#L59-L67)

                <plugin>
                    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                    <version>2.22.2</version>
                    <configuration>
                        <groups>PASSING</groups>
                        <excludedGroups>TODO</excludedGroups>
                    </configuration>
                </plugin>

In this example, when the maven build is run, any test with a Tag of PASSING is included and any test with a Tag of TODO is excluded.

Summary

In this blog, we saw how we could filter test class and test method names both dynamically using assumptions and more statically using Tags.

Hope this was helpful !

Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Test Basics
Part 3 – Display Names
Part 4 – Filtering tests

Published: 2019-07 (July 2019)
Relevant for: JUnit 5.5.0

JUnit5 Blog Series

Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Test Basics
Part 3 – Display Names
Part 4 – Filtering tests

In Part 1 of the blog series, we looked at several annotations used in JUnit5. We covered test methods as well as lifecycle methods.

In Part 2 of the blog series, we looked at the basics of testing using JUnit5. We covered test annotations such as marking a test method and asserting. We saw how a test method could be tagged and how assumptions can be used. We finally wrapped up with test execution ordering mechanisms.

This post will cover some customization of names for tests. First, a justification of why names should be customized.

Why customize names?

When test class with a few test methods is run with JUnit, the output produced lists the name of the class and a status of execution for each method. The name of the class is used as the top level identifier

As is visible from the image above, a JUnit test was run on a class STestSolution3PeriodsAndDurations. This has four test methods that were tested and they all verify something. All tests passed. However, one really has to peer into the names of all the tests to understand what they executed. For instance, the second test verifies creation of a Period using fluent methods. This was inferred and hopefully most developers name their test methods to convey meaningful intent to anyone who looks at the result.

Let’s compare that to the next image.

Clearly the latter image communicates a lot better about what was tested and what the intent was. The test class is replaced with a meaningful text of what the overall theme for all test methods enclosed was : “Periods (days, months, years) and Durations (hours, minutes, seconds)“. Also individual test methods had proper space-separated words rather than a camel-cased name.

Let’s now look at how we customize the names in JUnit5.

Customizing names in JUnit5

There are primarily two ways in which JUnit5 allows for customizing names.

1. Using a @DisplayName on a test class or a test method.
2. Using a @DisplayNameGeneration on the test class which accepts an attribute of a DisplayNameGenerator class.

DisplayName API: https://junit.org/junit5/docs/5.5.0/api/org/junit/jupiter/api/DisplayName.html
DisplayNameGeneration API: https://junit.org/junit5/docs/5.5.0/api/org/junit/jupiter/api/DisplayNameGeneration.html
DisplayNameGenerator API: https://junit.org/junit5/docs/5.5.0/api/org/junit/jupiter/api/DisplayNameGenerator.html

Using a DisplayName annotation

Adding a @DisplayName annotation on a given class or test method can help customize a single class or method name. Let us look at examples.

DisplayName on a test class

Example: @DisplayName (https://github.com/c-guntur/java-katas/blob/baseline/java-datetime/src/solutions/java/none/cvg/datetime/STest3PeriodsAndDurationsTest.java#L35)

/**
* DateTime ranges: Period, Duration tests.
*
* Note: We create a Clock instance in setup() used for some of the tests.
*
* @see Clock
* @see Period
* @see Duration
* @see ChronoUnit
*/
@DisplayNameGeneration(DateTimeKataDisplayNames.class)
@DisplayName("Periods (days, months, years) and Durations (hours, minutes, seconds)")
@TestMethodOrder(MethodOrderer.OrderAnnotation.class)
public class STest3PeriodsAndDurationsTest {

DisplayName on a test method

Example: @DisplayName (https://github.com/c-guntur/java-katas/blob/baseline/java-datetime/src/solutions/java/none/cvg/datetime/STest2LocalAndZonedDateTimesTest.java#L304)

    @Test
    @Tag("PASSING")
    @Order(10)
    @DisplayName("verify conversion of UTC date time to Indian Standard Time")
    public void verifyConversionOfUTCDateTimeToIndianStandardTime() {

        ZonedDateTime allDateTimeOhFives =
                ZonedDateTime.of(5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 555, ZoneId.ofOffset("", ZoneOffset.UTC));

        ZoneId gmtPlusOneZoneId = ZoneId.ofOffset("", ZoneOffset.of("+0530"));

        // DONE: Replace the ZonedDateTime.now() below to display the below UTC time in GMT +0530
        //  The ZonedDateTime created in GMT. Fix the calls so a ZonedDateTime
        //  can be created with the offset of GMT +0530. Use an ofInstant from a toInstant.
        //  Check: java.time.ZonedDateTime.ofInstant(java.time.Instant, java.time.ZoneId)
        //  Check: java.time.ZonedDateTime.toInstant()
        ZonedDateTime gmtPlusOneHourTimeForAllFives =
                ZonedDateTime.ofInstant(
                        allDateTimeOhFives.toInstant(),
                        gmtPlusOneZoneId);

        assertEquals(10,
                gmtPlusOneHourTimeForAllFives.getHour(),
                "The hour should be at 10 AM when Zone Offset is GMT +0530");

        assertEquals(35,
                gmtPlusOneHourTimeForAllFives.getMinute(),
                "The minute should be 35 when Zone Offset is GMT +0530");
    }

Using DisplayNameGenerator

Using a generator to modify display names is a two step process.

1. Create a DisplayNameGenerator class.
2. Set DisplayNameGeneration annotation on the Test class.

Setting up the DisplayNameGenerator

DisplayNameGenerator is an interface that has three methods with very sensible names that convey theor purpose:

• generateDisplayNameForClass(Class<?> testClass) – This method can be implemented to provide a meaningful display name to the test class.
• generateDisplayNameForNestedClass(Class<?> nestedClass) – This method can be implemented to provide a meaningful display name to a nested class in the test class.
• generateDisplayNameForMethod(Class<?> testClass, Method testMethod) – This method can be implemented to provide a meaningful display name to a test method of a given test class.

Usage

DisplayNameGenerator is an interface, but has two out-of-the-box implementations that can be extended/adapted as needed.

1. DisplayNameGenerator.Standard – converts camel case to spaced words.
2. DisplayNameGenerator.ReplaceUnderscores – converts underscores in names as space-separated words.

The example extends the Standard implementation.

Example: DisplayNameGenerator (https://github.com/c-guntur/java-katas/blob/baseline/java-handles/src/main/java/none/cvg/handles/HandlesKataDisplayNames.java)

package none.cvg.handles;

import java.lang.reflect.Method;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.DisplayNameGenerator;

import static java.lang.Character.isDigit;
import static java.lang.Character.isLetterOrDigit;
import static java.lang.Character.isUpperCase;

public class HandlesKataDisplayNames extends DisplayNameGenerator.Standard {
    @Override
    public String generateDisplayNameForClass(Class<?> aClass) {
        return super.generateDisplayNameForClass(aClass);
    }

    @Override
    public String generateDisplayNameForNestedClass(Class<?> aClass) {
        return super.generateDisplayNameForNestedClass(aClass);
    }

    @Override
    public String generateDisplayNameForMethod(Class<?> aClass, Method method) {
        String methodName = method.getName();
        if (methodName.startsWith("reflection")) {
            return "using Reflection";
        }
        if (methodName.startsWith("unsafe")) {
            return "using Unsafe";
        }
        if (methodName.startsWith("methodHandle")) {
            return "using Method Handles";
        }
        if (methodName.startsWith("compareAndSet")) {
            return camelToText(methodName.substring(13));
        }
        if (methodName.startsWith("get")) {
            return camelToText(methodName.substring(3));
        }
        return camelToText(methodName);
    }


    private static String camelToText(String text) {
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
        char lastChar = ' ';
        for (char c : text.toCharArray()) {
            char nc = c;

            if (isUpperCase(nc) && !isUpperCase(lastChar)) {
                if (lastChar != ' ' && isLetterOrDigit(lastChar)) {
                    builder.append(" ");
                }
                nc = Character.toLowerCase(c);
            } else if (isDigit(lastChar) && !isDigit(c)) {
                if (lastChar != ' ') {
                    builder.append(" ");
                }
                nc = Character.toLowerCase(c);
            }

            if (lastChar != ' ' || c != ' ') {
                builder.append(nc);
            }
            lastChar = c;
        }
        return builder.toString();
    }
}

Once a DisplayNameGenerator is created, the second step is to associate it with a test class. This requires using the @DisplayNameGeneration annotation on the test class.

Applying a DisplayNameGenerator

An annotation on a test class is required to avail of the generator logic. This is done by adding a @DisplayNameGeneration annotation on the test class.

Example: @DisplayNameGeneration (https://github.com/c-guntur/java-katas/blob/baseline/java-handles/src/solutions/java/none/cvg/constructors/SDefaultConstructorInvocationTest.java#L34)

package none.cvg.constructors;

import java.lang.invoke.MethodHandle;
import java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles;
import java.lang.invoke.MethodType;
import java.lang.reflect.Field;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;

import none.cvg.handles.DemoClass;
import none.cvg.handles.HandlesKataDisplayNames;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.DisplayName;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.DisplayNameGeneration;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.MethodOrderer;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Order;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Tag;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.TestMethodOrder;
import sun.misc.Unsafe;

import static none.cvg.handles.ErrorMessages.REFLECTION_FAILURE;
import static none.cvg.handles.ErrorMessages.TEST_FAILURE;
import static none.cvg.handles.ErrorMessages.UNSAFE_FAILURE;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.fail;

/*
 * DONE:
 *  This test aims at using MethodHandles to invoke a default constructor on a class in order to
 *  create a new instance.
 *  Each solved test shows how this can be achieved with the traditional reflection/unsafe calls.
 *  Each unsolved test provides a few hints that will allow the kata-taker to manually solve
 *  the exercise to achieve the same goal with MethodHandles.
 */
@DisplayNameGeneration(HandlesKataDisplayNames.class)
@DisplayName("Invoke DemoClass()")
@TestMethodOrder(MethodOrderer.OrderAnnotation.class)
public class TestSolutionDefaultConstructorInvocation {

Summary

In this blog, we saw how we could customize test class and test method names to produce a more meaningful output. The next blog will cover how we can filter tests based on tags.

Hope this was helpful !

Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Test Basics
Part 3 – Display Names
Part 4 – Filtering tests

Published: 2019-07 (July 2019)
Relevant for: JUnit 5.5.0

JUnit5 Blog Series

Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Test Basics
Part 3 – Display Names
Part 4 – Filtering tests

In Part 1 of the blog series, we looked at several annotations used in JUnit5. We covered test methods as well as lifecycle methods.

This post will share examples of a JUnit test which has a few of these annotations.

We will use a recently created code kata for the examples.

Testing

Marking a method as a Test

Tests in JUnit5 are annotated with the @Test annotation. Unlike prior versions of JUnit, the JUnit5 @Test annotation does not have any attributes. Prior versions supported extensions via attributes, while JUnit5 fosters a custom annotation based extension (more on this in a future blog).

Example: @Test (https://github.com/c-guntur/java-katas/blob/baseline/java-datetime/src/solutions/java/none/cvg/datetime/STest1InstantAndDateInteropTest.java#L43)

    @Test
    @Tag("PASSING")
    @Order(1)
    public void verifyInstantAndDateHaveSameEpochMilliseconds() {

        // DONE: Replace the Instant.now() with an instant from classicDate.
        //  Use a Date API that converts Date instances into Instant instances.
        //  Check: java.util.Date.toInstant()
        Instant instant = classicDate.toInstant();

        // DONE: Replace the "null" below to get milliseconds from epoch from the Instant
        //  Use an Instant API which converts it into milliseconds
        //  Check: java.time.Instant.toEpochMilli()
        assertEquals(Long.valueOf(classicDate.getTime()),
                instant.toEpochMilli(),
                "Date and Instant milliseconds should be equal");
    }

Assertions

Assertions are how testing is conducted. Several types of assertions exist for testing. Some examples include:

• assertTrue / assertFalse
• assertEquals / assertNotEquals / assertSame / assertNotSame
• assertNull / assertNotNull
• assertArrayEquals / assertIterableEquals / assertLinesMatch
• assertThrows / assertNotThrows
• assertAll
• assertTimeout / assertTimeoutPreemptively
• fail

There are several polymorphs for most of the methods listed above. JUnit5 aggregates all such assertions as static methods in a single factory utility aptly named Assertions (https://junit.org/junit5/docs/5.5.0/api/org/junit/jupiter/api/Assertions.html).

Assertions are mostly unary or binary (There are assertions, with other arities, that are less commonly used)

Unary assertions are usually boolean condition evaluators. assertTrue or assertNull are good examples of unary assertions. The expectation in such cases is built into the actual assertion method name. A second optional parameter for unary assertions is a message that is returned in case of an assertion failure and exists to provide more meaningful readable failure details.

Binary assertions typically have an expected value (a known), an actual value (evaluated) and an optional third parameter of message (in case of the expectation not being met). assertEquals and assertSame are good examples of binary assertions.

Typically, unit tests statically import the assertions required for the given tests in a test class. An example of such an assertion is the assertEquals method as shown below.

Example: Assertion (https://github.com/c-guntur/java-katas/blob/baseline/java-datetime/src/solutions/java/none/cvg/datetime/STest1InstantAndDateInteropTest.java#L56)

    @Test
    @Tag("PASSING")
    @Order(1)
    public void verifyInstantAndDateHaveSameEpochMilliseconds() {

        // DONE: Replace the Instant.now() with an instant from classicDate.
        //  Use a Date API that converts Date instances into Instant instances.
        //  Check: java.util.Date.toInstant()
        Instant instant = classicDate.toInstant();

        // DONE: Replace the "null" below to get milliseconds from epoch from the Instant
        //  Use an Instant API which converts it into milliseconds
        //  Check: java.time.Instant.toEpochMilli()
        assertEquals(Long.valueOf(classicDate.getTime()),
                instant.toEpochMilli(),
                "Date and Instant milliseconds should be equal");
    }

See also: Static Import (https://github.com/c-guntur/java-katas/blob/baseline/java-datetime/src/solutions/java/none/cvg/datetime/STest1InstantAndDateInteropTest.java#L18)

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.time.Instant;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.TimeZone;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.DisplayName;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.DisplayNameGeneration;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.MethodOrderer;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Order;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Tag;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.TestMethodOrder;

import static none.cvg.datetime.LenientAssert.assertAlmostEquals;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;

NOTE: Assertion parameter ordering in JUnit 5 is different from the order in prior versions. In my opinion, the current parameter arrangement makes a lot more sense.

Filtering and Categorizing Tests

Tags

Tags are a means to categorize test methods and classes. Tagging also leads to discovery and filtering of tests. Tagging is done by annotating the class or method with an @Tag annotation. More on filtering in another blog of this series.

Example: @Tag (https://github.com/c-guntur/java-katas/blob/baseline/java-datetime/src/solutions/java/none/cvg/datetime/STest1InstantAndDateInteropTest.java#L62)

    @Test
    @Tag("PASSING")
    @Order(1)
    public void verifyInstantAndDateHaveSameEpochMilliseconds() {

        // DONE: Replace the Instant.now() with an instant from classicDate.
        //  Use a Date API that converts Date instances into Instant instances.
        //  Check: java.util.Date.toInstant()
        Instant instant = classicDate.toInstant();

        // DONE: Replace the "null" below to get milliseconds from epoch from the Instant
        //  Use an Instant API which converts it into milliseconds
        //  Check: java.time.Instant.toEpochMilli()
        assertEquals(Long.valueOf(classicDate.getTime()),
                instant.toEpochMilli(),
                "Date and Instant milliseconds should be equal");
    }

Assumptions

Assumptions are conditions that determine if the rest of the test code block should be either evaluated or aborted. Not meeting an assumption will not cause the code block conditioned by it, to fail. It would rather simply abort execution of such a code block. Some assumption methods:

• assumeTrue / assumeFalse
• assumeThat

Similar to assertions, assumptions are grouped as static methods, in a factory utility class, Assumptions (https://junit.org/junit5/docs/5.5.0/user-guide/#writing-tests-assumptions).

class TestWithAssumptions {

    @Test
    void testOnlyOnHost123() {
        assumeTrue("host123".equals(System.getenv("HOSTNAME")));
        // remainder of test
    }

    @Test
    void testOnHost123OrAbortWithMessage() {
        assumeTrue("host123".equals(System.getenv("HOSTNAME")),
            () -> "Aborting test: not on host123");
        // remainder of test
    }

}

Typically, unit tests statically import the assumptions required for the given tests in a test class.

There is no current example of an assumption in the code kata.

Ordering Tests

Test execution order

As stated in the previous part of the blog series, I reserve my opinions of ordering the sequence of test executions. It is useful in certain cases, such as code katas. Test ordering requires either one or two steps depending on the type of ordering.

NOTE: If no order is specified for a test class, JUnit 5 looks for instructions from parent class hierarchy and if still none found, will order tests in a deterministic but non-obvious manner.

Instructing JUnit to order tests

An annotation on the test class is needed to instruct JUnit5 to order tests. This annotation is called the @TestMethodOrder. This annotation accepts an attribute of type MethodOrderer. There are three default implementations that exist:

1. Alphanumeric – uses String::compareTo to order execution of test methods
2. OrderAnnotation – uses the @Order annotation on each test method to determine order. The Order annotation accepts a int attribute that specifies the ranking.
3. Random – uses a random order either simply from System.nanoTime() or in combination with a custom seed.

More custom orders can be created by implementing the MethodOrderer interface.

Example: @TestMethodOrder (https://github.com/c-guntur/java-katas/blob/baseline/java-datetime/src/solutions/java/none/cvg/datetime/STest1InstantAndDateInteropTest.java#L31)

/**
 * The tests in this class aim to show interoperability between
 * `java.util.Date` and the newer `java.time.Instant`.
 *
 * @see Instant
 * @see Date
 * @see LenientAssert
 */
@DisplayNameGeneration(DateTimeKataDisplayNames.class)
@DisplayName("Instant And Date Interoperability")
@TestMethodOrder(MethodOrderer.OrderAnnotation.class)
public class STest1InstantAndDateInteropTest {

Extra Step (For OrderAnnotation only): Adding an Order via annotations

In addition to the above annotation instructing JUnit to order test methods, an additional annotation is needed if the OrderAnnotation orderer is specified. The @Order annotation accepts an integer that specifies the ascending order of execution.

Example: @Order (https://github.com/c-guntur/java-katas/blob/baseline/java-datetime/src/solutions/java/none/cvg/datetime/STest1InstantAndDateInteropTest.java#L45)

    @Test
    @Tag("PASSING")
    @Order(1)
    public void verifyInstantAndDateHaveSameEpochMilliseconds() {

        // DONE: Replace the Instant.now() with an instant from classicDate.
        //  Use a Date API that converts Date instances into Instant instances.
        //  Check: java.util.Date.toInstant()
        Instant instant = classicDate.toInstant();

        // DONE: Replace the "null" below to get milliseconds from epoch from the Instant
        //  Use an Instant API which converts it into milliseconds
        //  Check: java.time.Instant.toEpochMilli()
        assertEquals(Long.valueOf(classicDate.getTime()),
                instant.toEpochMilli(),
                "Date and Instant milliseconds should be equal");
    }

That’s a wrap of part two of this blog series. The next blog will include customizing tests with DisplayNames and writing a custom DisplayNameGeneration. Happy coding !

Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Test Basics
Part 3 – Display Names
Part 4 – Filtering tests

Published: 2019-07 (July 2019)
Relevant for: JUnit 5.5.0

JUnit5 Blog Series

Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Test Basics
Part 3 – Display Names
Part 4 – Filtering tests

Code Katas are a great way of teaching programming practices. The effectiveness of a code kata is to “solve” something repeatedly in order to gain a “muscle memory” of sorts on the subject matter.

Nothing stresses repeatability more than unit tests. Code Katas thus, in many cases can be associated with or run via unit tests.

Many of us have been long used to JUnit4 as a formidable unit testing framework. This blog is not going to be a comparison between JUnit4 and JUnit5, but you will notice some differences as italicized text.

Let us explore JUnit5 as it was used for a recent code kata, this is how I learnt using JUnit 5 !

JUnit5 dependencies

JUnit5 can be added as a single maven dependency:

            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
                <artifactId>junit-jupiter</artifactId>
                <version>${junit5.version}</version>
            </dependency>

The equivalent gradle dependency can be inferred.

What is JUnit5 and What is Jupiter?

JUnit5 is made of three separate parts:

1. JUnit5 Platform: Provides a TestEngine and a testing platform for the JVM.
2. JUnit5 Jupiter: Programming and extension model for JUnit5 tests.
3. JUnit Legacy: Backward compatibility TestEngine for JUnit 3 and 4.

Read more about this at the JUnit5 User Guide (https://junit.org/junit5/docs/current/user-guide/).

JUnit5 Basics

Base package for JUnit 5 is: org.junit.jupiter. Most unit test annotations are located at: org.junit.jupiter.apipackage (in the junit-jupiter-api module). Methods in JUnit5 Test can be typically grouped into :

1. Test methods: Methods that are run as unit tests.
2. Lifecycle methods: Methods that are executed as before or after one or more (or all) test methods.

Basic Annotations

@Test: Identifies a method as a test method. Unlike prior versions, this annotation does not have attributes. #TestMethod

@Disabled: An annotation to ignore running a method marked as @Test. #TestMethod

@BeforeEach: A setup method that is run before execution of each test. #LifecycleMethod

@BeforeAll: A static setup method run once before execution of all tests. #LifecycleMethod

@AfterEach: A teardown method this is run after execution of each test. #LifecycleMethod

@AfterAll: A static teardown method run once after execution of all tests. #LifecycleMethod

Other Annotations

@Tag: A category or grouping annotation. This is very useful specially when filtering which tests should be run via build tools such as maven. Example in another blog in this series.

@DisplayName: A string that can represent the class or method in the JUnit exection results instead of the actual name. Example in another blog in this series.

@DisplayNameGeneration: A class that can generate class and method names based upon conditions. Examples in another blog in this series.

Custom annotations: It is quite simple to create custom annotations and inherit the behavior.

JUnit5 Conditional Control of Test Methods

Operating System Conditions

@EnabledOnOs: Enable a test to run on a specific array of one or more operating systems.

@DisabledOnOs: Disable a test to run on a specific array of one or more operating systems.

Java Runtime Environment Conditions

@EnabledOnJre: Enable a test to run on a specific array of one or more Java Runtime Environments.

@DisabledOnJre: Disable a test to run on a specific array of one or more Java Runtime Environments.

System Property Conditions

@EnabledIfSystemProperty: Enable a test to run if a System Property matches the condition attributes.

@DisabledIfSystemProperty: Disable a test to run if a System Property matches the condition attributes.

Ordering Test method execution

JUnit5 allows for ordering test method execution. This causes mixed feelings for me.

My feelings: Ordering methods may lead to some developers building out dependent tests where the result of one test is needed for the next to run or pass. Tests should be independent. That said, it is an incredibly useful a feature when used in code katas where the run of tests may have to follow a certain sequence. In the past, I used to solve this by naming my test methods with some numeral-inclusive prefix and sort the results alphabetically. With great power, comes great responsibility.

@TestMethodOrder: Test methods can be ordered when the Test class is marked with this annotation.

@Order: Each test method can then include an Order annotation that includes a numeric attribute.

These were some of the basic that we covered. The next blog in this series will show examples of how we use these features.

Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Test Basics
Part 3 – Display Names
Part 4 – Filtering tests