GSoC: Unit testing with QtScript

[Mark Kretschmann]

On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 8:43 PM, Sven Krohlas <sven at asbest-online.de> wrote:
> Heya,
>
> as i'm also interested in this one: here's my current draft for
>
> http://techbase.kde.org/index.php?title=Projects/Summer_of_Code/2009/Ideas#Project:_Code_regression_test_suite.2C_implemented_with_QtScript
>
>
> ==Main Script==
> One of the main ideas is to implement as much as possible using
> QtScript. So my main concept is to create a control-script, which
> has a nice GUI to
>
> * list all available tests, sorted by some kind of category
>  (like playlist, collection, etc), maybe with tested Classes.
> * let you run all of them/single ones
> * give you infos about past/expected test results
> * give an overview of the current test result and details on
>  failed ones
>
> I also found:
> http://apps.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/cppunit/index.php?title=QtTestRunner
>
> which seems to have this nice gui, but I still have to investigate
> weather QtTestRunner (a part of CppUnit) could be used for this
> project directly. At least it's gui can be an inspiration. :)
>
>
> ==Test data==
> Some test data will be needed to perform tests. There are two choices:
>
> * creating static test data (comparable between different testers)
> * use the tester's collection (more dynamic tests)
>
> Tests should work with both approaches.
>
>
> ==Tests==
> All tests should be small, verifyable, single scripts, called by
> the main one.
> Apart from doing correctness tests they could also measure execution
> time to be able to detect performance regressions.
>
>
> ==Limits and Requirements==
> The script API currently does not allow to test all of Amarok. So
> part of this project would be to enhance the scripting API with
> the needed functions, for example to manipulate the playlist queue.
>
> BUT:
> All functions exported will also be used by other script authors
> sooner or later. And so weould need to be supported. So I propose
> only to export those that might be needed by script developers.
>
> For other parts that have to be tested C++ tests would have to be
> implemented. The test classes themselves could be nicely integrated
> into the gui by making them scriptable or by using the CppUnit framework.
>
>
> ==Timeline==
> April 20: (start) (13 weeks)
> * main script (1 week)
> * first sample tests and test data (1 week)
> * tests based on existing scripting interface (4 weeks)
> * tests based on enhanced scripting interface (4 weeks)
> * collection scanner tests (3 weeks)
>
> July 6: (mid-term evaluations) (5 weeks)
> * more tests in c++
>
> August 10: (final evaluations)
>
>
> ==About me==
> Name: Sven Krohlas, I'm a 26 years old computer science student from
> Karlsruhe, Germany. I'm the author of the Free Music Charts script
> (http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=91484) for Amarok 2.
>
> I have basic knowledge in C++ and the Amarok sources and want to bring
> that knowledge to the next level by working on a bigger project. :)
>
> Oh, and although I'm from Europe I don't have any lectures in the summer,
> as I already heard all the ones I need for my next exams.

I really like this draft. Get's a ++ from me. It's well structured, to
the point, and therefore actually readable. Also, Sven has the big
advantage of being a long time Amarok contributor, so chances are high
that he is going to maintain his code even after SoC. A big plus in my
book.

(The technical difficulties of using QtScript are currently being
discussed internally, this is a different issue. An issue that can and
will be solved, I'm confident.)

-- 
Mark Kretschmann
Amarok Developer
www.kde.org - amarok.kde.org