ApprovalTests.Java

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

It is compatiable with JUnit 3 & JUnit 4.

What can it be used for?

Approval Tests can be used for verifing 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

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)

[Hanselminutes] (http://www.hanselminutes.com/360/approval-tests-with-llewellyn-falco)
Herding Code
The Watir Podcast

Download

You can download the ApprovalTests jar at: [http://sourceforge.net/projects/approvaltests/files/ApprovalTests.Java/]

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.recieved.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

tsundberg/ApprovalTests.Java