features_from_spock.md

Features from Spock

• Tests are gathered in Specification classes, each specification specifies a module, class or flow.
  • Specifications are encapsulated
  • Specifications support fixtures, possibly inheriting from unittest and Django's fixtures
  • Specifications can have helper methods which will not be run as tests.
  • Tests are gathered in "feature" methods
• Fixtures
  • setup - before every feature
  • cleanup - after every feature
  • spec_setup - before first feature
  • spec_cleanup - after the last feature
  • Support unittest 's fixtures class field for loading fixture files
• Feature methods
  • Feature methods are any methods decorated with @feature(name) decorator Python cannot support Groovy's awesome method-name-as-a-string, so we will use the feature decorator instead
  • A feature is broken up to blocks, which are: setup, when, then, expect and cleanup.
  • Feature blocks are indicated by with <block> statements, E.G:

    @feature("Use of blocks")
    def feature_blocks(self):
      with setup():
        # We do some setup here
      with when():
        # Run some code
      with then():
        # Check some expectations, e.g. values where set, exceptions raised, mock methods were called etc.
      with cleanup():
        # Do some cleanup

    The expect block is basically when and then blocks combined.
  • when and then blocks are tightly coupled. A when block can have
  • Features can have a @where decorator. @where injects variables into the feature method scope, and runs it repeatedly with all possible values, E.G:

    @feature("Check border conditions")
    @where(variable='in', is=['', 'legal value', 'illegal value', 'bah' * 2000])
    def feature_border_conditions(self, in):
      # Feature will be executed once for every value of 'in'

    The variable can be a tuple of values, and each value of is will be unpacked into these variable names. Another possible syntax is stating 'is' as a dictionary of lists, with variable names as keys, iterating all combinations. Third possible syntax is a list of dictionaries, keys are variable names.