ApprovalTests.Java

Capturing Human Intelligence - ApprovalTests is an open source assertion/verification library to aid unit testing.

It is compatible with JUnit 3 & 4 and TestNG

What can it be used for?

Approval Tests can be used for verifying objects that require more than a simple assert. They also come prepackaged with utilities for some common .Net scenarios including

HashMaps & Collections
Long Strings
Log Files
JPanels
Xml
Html
Json

How to get it

Unfortunately, I haven't added this to maven repo yet. Simply download the zip from the releases tab and add the jar to your project.

Video Tutorials

You can watch a bunch of short videos on getting started and using ApprovalTests in Java at youtube

Podcasts

If you prefer auditory learning, you might enjoy the following podcast (Note: Some of these talk about the .net side)

Download

You can find the latest ApprovalTests release under https://github.com/approvals/ApprovalTests.Java/releases.

Examples

ApprovalTests eats it own dogfood, so the best examples are in the source code itself.

None the less, Here's a quick look at some Sample Code

public class SampleArrayTest extends TestCase
{
	public void testList() throws Exception
	{
		String[] names = {"Llewellyn", "James", "Dan", "Jason", "Katrina"};
		Arrays.sort(names);
		Approvals.verifyAll("", names);
	}
}

Will Produce a File

SampleTest.TestList.received.txt
[0] = Dan
[1] = James
[2] = Jason
[3] = Katrina
[4] = Llewellyn

Simply rename this to SampleTest.testList.approved.txt and the test will now pass.

Approved File Artifacts

The *.approved.* files must be checked into source your source control. This can be an issue with git as it will change the line endings. The suggested fix is to add *.approved.* binary to your .gitattributes

More Info

LICENSE

Apache 2.0 License

Questions?

twitter: @LlewellynFalco or #ApprovalTests

Developer notes

Building with Ant

If you would like to build this project locally, install Apache ant, then use these commands:

ant "Publish    Spun" -buildfile build/build.xml
cp spun/target/spun.jar java/jars/
ant "Publish    ApprovalTests" -buildfile build/build.xml
cp approvals/target/ApprovalTests.jar java/jars
ant "Publish    HtmlLocker" -buildfile build/build.xml
ant "Publish    CounterDisplay" -buildfile build/build.xml

This will build jar files under the target folder for each respective project. At present you have to copy the built jar files by hand in between ant steps, since the subprojects depend on one another.

Building with Maven

Run mvn clean package to get jar files

mpashkovskiy/ApprovalTests.Java