HTTPUnit is NOT!
Posted Sunday, November 23, 2003I hope that I’m not the only one that sees HTTPUnit as a misnomer. Yes it may well easily plug into the JUnit framework but by definition, any tests involving HTTP and Servlets/JSPs are not unit tests. They are more likely functional tests, at best integration tests.
As my good friend James Ross points out, HTTPUnit is really a rich http client library. Infact I did some work for a client of mine some months ago to screen scrape web pages and after much searching, I decided that JWebUnit which is built on HTTPUnit was the best choice. The only draw back is it has some very trivial dependencies on junit classes.
I would have been happier if HTTPUnit had been called HTTPTest. For that matter HTTPClient as it doesn’t have any real dependencies on JUnit save a few convenience classes for in-servlet testing
But I digress. Why does this all bug me so much? Because HTTPUnit is named so, it’s easy for developers to convince their managers that they are writing unit tests when they’re not.
- Later: Servlets are for integration
- Earlier: Don't mock infrastructure
About Simon
Husband, Father, One-time Entrepreneur.
Aka Haruki Zaemon. Aka Sampy.
In my younger years I wanted to save the world; now I'm happy solving bigger problems than I create.
If I didn't need to work I'd be teaching Aikido and spending all my free time with my amazing wife and two children in Tylden, Victoria, Australia.
Books
Beginning Algorithms
with James Ross
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