NAME
   Test::Base - A Data Driven Testing Framework

SYNOPSIS
   A new test module:

       # lib/MyProject/Test.pm
       package MyProject::Test;
       use Test::Base -Base;

       use MyProject;

       package MyProject::Test::Filter;
       use Test::Base::Filter -base;

       sub my_filter {
           return MyProject->do_something(shift);
       }

   A sample test:

       # t/sample.t
       use MyProject::Test;

       plan tests => 1 * blocks;

       run_is input => 'expected';

       sub local_filter {
           s/my/your/;
       }

       __END__

       === Test one (the name of the test)
       --- input my_filter local_filter
       my
       input
       lines
       --- expected
       expected
       output

       === Test two
       This is an optional description
       of this particular test.
       --- input my_filter
       other
       input
       lines
       --- expected
       other expected
       output

DESCRIPTION
   Testing is usually the ugly part of Perl module authoring. Perl gives
   you a standard way to run tests with Test::Harness, and basic testing
   primitives with Test::More. After that you are pretty much on your own
   to develop a testing framework and philosophy. Test::More encourages you
   to make your own framework by subclassing Test::Builder, but that is not
   trivial.

   Test::Base gives you a way to write your own test framework base class
   that *is* trivial. In fact it is as simple as two lines:

       package MyTestFramework;
       use Test::Base -Base;

   A module called "MyTestFramework.pm" containing those two lines, will
   give all the power of Test::More and all the power of Test::Base to
   every test file that uses it. As you build up the capabilities of
   "MyTestFramework", your tests will have all of that power as well.

   "MyTestFramework" becomes a place for you to put all of your reusable
   testing bits. As you write tests, you will see patterns and duplication,
   and you can "upstream" them into "MyTestFramework". Of course, you don't
   have to subclass Test::Base at all. You can use it directly in many
   applications, including everywhere you would use Test::More.

   Test::Base concentrates on offering reusable data driven patterns, so
   that you can write tests with a minimum of code. At the heart of all
   testing you have inputs, processes and expected outputs. Test::Base
   provides some clean ways for you to express your input and expected
   output data, so you can spend your

         time focusing on that rather than your code scaffolding.

EXPORTED FUNCTIONS
   Test::Base extends Test::More and exports all of its functions. So you
   can basically write your tests the same as Test::More. Test::Base also
   exports many functions of its own:

   "is(actual, expected, [test-name])"
       This is the equivalent of Test::More's "is" function with one
       interesting twist. If your actual and expected results differ and
       the output is multi- line, this function will show you a unified
       diff format of output. Consider the benefit when looking for the one
       character that is different in hundreds of lines of output!

       Diff output requires the optional "Text::Diff" CPAN module. If you
       don't have this module, the "is()" function will simply give you
       normal Test::More output. To disable diffing altogether, set the
       "TEST_SHOW_NO_DIFFS" environment variable (or
       $ENV{TEST_SHOW_NO_DIFFS}) to a true value. You can also call the
       "no_diff" function as a shortcut.

   "blocks( [data-section-name] )"
       The most important function is "blocks". In list context it returns
       a list of "Test::Base::Block" objects that are generated from the
       test specification in the "DATA" section of your test file. In
       scalar context it returns the number of objects. This is useful to
       calculate your Test::More plan.

       Each Test::Base::Block object has methods that correspond to the
       names of that object's data sections. There is also a "name" and a
       "description" method for accessing those parts of the block if they
       were specified.

       The "blocks" function can take an optional single argument, that
       indicates to only return the blocks that contain a particular named
       data section. Otherwise "blocks" returns all blocks.

           my @all_of_my_blocks = blocks;

           my @just_the_foo_blocks = blocks('foo');

   "next_block()"
       You can use the next_block function to iterate over all the blocks.

           while (my $block = next_block) {
               ...
           }

       It returns undef after all blocks have been iterated over. It can
       then be called again to reiterate.

   "first_block()"
       Returns the first block or undef if there are none. It resets the
       iterator to the "next_block" function.

   "run(&subroutine)"
       There are many ways to write your tests. You can reference each
       block individually or you can loop over all the blocks and perform a
       common operation. The "run" function does the looping for you, so
       all you need to do is pass it a code block to execute for each
       block.

       The "run" function takes a subroutine as an argument, and calls the
       sub one time for each block in the specification. It passes the
       current block object to the subroutine.

           run {
               my $block = shift;
               is(process($block->foo), $block->bar, $block->name);
           };

   "run_is([data_name1, data_name2])"
       Many times you simply want to see if two data sections are
       equivalent in every block, probably after having been run through
       one or more filters. With the "run_is" function, you can just pass
       the names of any two data sections that exist in every block, and it
       will loop over every block comparing the two sections.

           run_is 'foo', 'bar';

       If no data sections are given "run_is" will try to detect them
       automatically.

       NOTE: Test::Base will silently ignore any blocks that don't contain
       both sections.

   "is_deep($data1, $data2, $test_name)"
       Like Test::More's "is_deeply" but uses the more correct Test::Deep
       module.

   "run_is_deeply([data_name1, data_name2])"
       Like "run_is_deeply" but uses "is_deep" which uses the more correct
       Test::Deep.

   "run_is_deeply([data_name1, data_name2])"
       Like "run_is" but uses "is_deeply" for complex data structure
       comparison.

   "run_is_deeply([data_name1, data_name2])"
       Like "run_is_deeply" but uses "is_deep" which uses the more correct
       Test::Deep.

   "run_like([data_name, regexp | data_name]);"
       The "run_like" function is similar to "run_is" except the second
       argument is a regular expression. The regexp can either be a "qr{}"
       object or a data section that has been filtered into a regular
       expression.

           run_like 'foo', qr{<html.*};
           run_like 'foo', 'match';

   "run_unlike([data_name, regexp | data_name]);"
       The "run_unlike" function is similar to "run_like", except the
       opposite.

           run_unlike 'foo', qr{<html.*};
           run_unlike 'foo', 'no_match';

   "run_compare(data_name1, data_name2)"
       The "run_compare" function is like the "run_is", "run_is_deeply" and
       the "run_like" functions all rolled into one. It loops over each
       relevant block and determines what type of comparison to do.

       NOTE: If you do not specify either a plan, or run any tests, the
       "run_compare" function will automatically be run.

   "delimiters($block_delimiter, $data_delimiter)"
       Override the default delimiters of "===" and "---".

   "spec_file($file_name)"
       By default, Test::Base reads its input from the DATA section. This
       function tells it to get the spec from a file instead.

   "spec_string($test_data)"
       By default, Test::Base reads its input from the DATA section. This
       function tells it to get the spec from a string that has been
       prepared somehow.

   "filters( @filters_list or $filters_hashref )"
       Specify a list of additional filters to be applied to all blocks.
       See "FILTERS" below.

       You can also specify a hash ref that maps data section names to an
       array ref of filters for that data type.

           filters {
               xxx => [qw(chomp lines)],
               yyy => ['yaml'],
               zzz => 'eval',
           };

       If a filters list has only one element, the array ref is optional.

   "filters_delay( [1 | 0] );"
       By default Test::Base::Block objects are have all their filters run
       ahead of time. There are testing situations in which it is
       advantageous to delay the filtering. Calling this function with no
       arguments or a true value, causes the filtering to be delayed.

           use Test::Base;
           filters_delay;
           plan tests => 1 * blocks;
           for my $block (blocks) {
               ...
               $block->run_filters;
               ok($block->is_filtered);
               ...
           }

       In the code above, the filters are called manually, using the
       "run_filters" method of Test::Base::Block. In functions like
       "run_is", where the tests are run automatically, filtering is
       delayed until right before the test.

   "filter_arguments()"
       Return the arguments after the equals sign on a filter.

           sub my_filter {
               my $args = filter_arguments;
               # is($args, 'whazzup');
               ...
           }

           __DATA__
           === A test
           --- data my_filter=whazzup

   "tie_output()"
       You can capture STDOUT and STDERR for operations with this function:

           my $out = '';
           tie_output(*STDOUT, $out);
           print "Hey!\n";
           print "Che!\n";
           untie *STDOUT;
           is($out, "Hey!\nChe!\n");

   "no_diff()"
       Turn off diff support for is() in a test file.

   "default_object()"
       Returns the default Test::Base object. This is useful if you feel
       the need to do an OO operation in otherwise functional test code.
       See OO below.

   "WWW() XXX() YYY() ZZZ()"
       These debugging functions are exported from the Spiffy.pm module.
       See Spiffy for more info.

   "croak() carp() cluck() confess()"
       You can use the functions from the Carp module without needing to
       import them. Test::Base does it for you by default.

TEST SPECIFICATION
   Test::Base allows you to specify your test data in an external file, the
   DATA section of your program or from a scalar variable containing all
   the text input.

   A *test specification* is a series of text lines. Each test (or block)
   is separated by a line containing the block delimiter and an optional
   test "name". Each block is further subdivided into named sections with a
   line containing the data delimiter and the data section name. A
   "description" of the test can go on lines after the block delimiter but
   before the first data section.

   Here is the basic layout of a specification:

       === <block name 1>
       <optional block description lines>
       --- <data section name 1> <filter-1> <filter-2> <filter-n>
       <test data lines>
       --- <data section name 2> <filter-1> <filter-2> <filter-n>
       <test data lines>
       --- <data section name n> <filter-1> <filter-2> <filter-n>
       <test data lines>

       === <block name 2>
       <optional block description lines>
       --- <data section name 1> <filter-1> <filter-2> <filter-n>
       <test data lines>
       --- <data section name 2> <filter-1> <filter-2> <filter-n>
       <test data lines>
       --- <data section name n> <filter-1> <filter-2> <filter-n>
       <test data lines>

   Here is a code example:

       use Test::Base;

       delimiters qw(### :::);

       # test code here

       __END__

       ### Test One
       We want to see if foo and bar
       are really the same...
       ::: foo
       a foo line
       another foo line

       ::: bar
       a bar line
       another bar line

       ### Test Two

       ::: foo
       some foo line
       some other foo line

       ::: bar
       some bar line
       some other bar line

       ::: baz
       some baz line
       some other baz line

   This example specifies two blocks. They both have foo and bar data
   sections. The second block has a baz component. The block delimiter is
   "###" and the data delimiter is ":::".

   The default block delimiter is "===" and the default data delimiter is
   "--- ".

   There are some special data section names used for control purposes:

       --- SKIP
       --- ONLY
       --- LAST

   A block with a SKIP section causes that test to be ignored. This is
   useful to disable a test temporarily.

   A block with an ONLY section causes only that block to be used. This is
   useful when you are concentrating on getting a single test to pass. If
   there is more than one block with ONLY, the first one will be chosen.

   Because ONLY is very useful for debugging and sometimes you forgot to
   remove the ONLY flag before committing to the VCS or uploading to CPAN,
   Test::Base by default gives you a diag message saying *I found ONLY ...
   maybe you're debugging?*. If you don't like it, use "no_diag_on_only".

   A block with a LAST section makes that block the last one in the
   specification. All following blocks will be ignored.

FILTERS
   The real power in writing tests with Test::Base comes from its filtering
   capabilities. Test::Base comes with an ever growing set of useful
   generic filters than you can sequence and apply to various test blocks.
   That means you can specify the block serialization in the most readable
   format you can find, and let the filters translate it into what you
   really need for a test. It is easy to write your own filters as well.

   Test::Base allows you to specify a list of filters to each data section
   of each block. The default filters are "norm" and "trim". These filters
   will be applied (in order) to the data after it has been parsed from the
   specification and before it is set into its Test::Base::Block object.

   You can add to the default filter list with the "filters" function. You
   can specify additional filters to a specific block by listing them after
   the section name on a data section delimiter line.

   Example:

       use Test::Base;

       filters qw(foo bar);
       filters { perl => 'strict' };

       sub upper { uc(shift) }

       __END__

       === Test one
       --- foo trim chomp upper
       ...

       --- bar -norm
       ...

       --- perl eval dumper
       my @foo = map {
           - $_;
       } 1..10;
       \ @foo;

   Putting a "-" before a filter on a delimiter line, disables that filter.

 Scalar vs List
   Each filter can take either a scalar or a list as input, and will return
   either a scalar or a list. Since filters are chained together, it is
   important to learn which filters expect which kind of input and return
   which kind of output.

   For example, consider the following filter list:

       norm trim lines chomp array dumper eval

   The data always starts out as a single scalar string. "norm" takes a
   scalar and returns a scalar. "trim" takes a list and returns a list, but
   a scalar is a valid list. "lines" takes a scalar and returns a list.
   "chomp" takes a list and returns a list. "array" takes a list and
   returns a scalar (an anonymous array reference containing the list
   elements). "dumper" takes a list and returns a scalar. "eval" takes a
   scalar and creates a list.

   A list of exactly one element works fine as input to a filter requiring
   a scalar, but any other list will cause an exception. A scalar in list
   context is considered a list of one element.

   Data accessor methods for blocks will return a list of values when used
   in list context, and the first element of the list in scalar context.
   This is usually "the right thing", but be aware.

 The Stock Filters
   Test::Base comes with large set of stock filters. They are in the
   "Test::Base::Filter" module. See Test::Base::Filter for a listing and
   description of these filters.

 Rolling Your Own Filters
   Creating filter extensions is very simple. You can either write a
   *function* in the "main" namespace, or a *method* in the
   "Test::Base::Filter" namespace or a subclass of it. In either case the
   text and any extra arguments are passed in and you return whatever you
   want the new value to be.

   Here is a self explanatory example:

       use Test::Base;

       filters 'foo', 'bar=xyz';

       sub foo {
           transform(shift);
       }

       sub Test::Base::Filter::bar {
           my $self = shift;       # The Test::Base::Filter object
           my $data = shift;
           my $args = $self->current_arguments;
           my $current_block_object = $self->block;
           # transform $data in a barish manner
           return $data;
       }

   If you use the method interface for a filter, you can access the block
   internals by calling the "block" method on the filter object.

   Normally you'll probably just use the functional interface, although all
   the builtin filters are methods.

   Note that filters defined in the "main" namespace can look like:

       sub filter9 {
           s/foo/bar/;
       }

   since Test::Base automatically munges the input string into $_ variable
   and checks the return value of the function to see if it looks like a
   number. If you must define a filter that returns just a single number,
   do it in a different namespace as a method. These filters don't allow
   the simplistic $_ munging.

OO
   Test::Base has a nice functional interface for simple usage. Under the
   hood everything is object oriented. A default Test::Base object is
   created and all the functions are really just method calls on it.

   This means if you need to get fancy, you can use all the object oriented
   stuff too. Just create new Test::Base objects and use the functions as
   methods.

       use Test::Base;
       my $blocks1 = Test::Base->new;
       my $blocks2 = Test::Base->new;

       $blocks1->delimiters(qw(!!! @@@))->spec_file('test1.txt');
       $blocks2->delimiters(qw(### $$$))->spec_string($test_data);

       plan tests => $blocks1->blocks + $blocks2->blocks;

       # ... etc

THE "TEST::BASE::BLOCK" CLASS
   In Test::Base, blocks are exposed as Test::Base::Block objects. This
   section lists the methods that can be called on a Test::Base::Block
   object. Of course, each data section name is also available as a method.

   "name()"
       This is the optional short description of a block, that is specified
       on the block separator line.

   "description()"
       This is an optional long description of the block. It is the text
       taken from between the block separator and the first data section.

   "seq_num()"
       Returns a sequence number for this block. Sequence numbers begin
       with 1.

   "blocks_object()"
       Returns the Test::Base object that owns this block.

   "run_filters()"
       Run the filters on the data sections of the blocks. You don't need
       to use this method unless you also used the "filters_delay"
       function.

   "is_filtered()"
       Returns true if filters have already been run for this block.

   "original_values()"
       Returns a hash of the original, unfiltered values of each data
       section.

SUBCLASSING
   One of the nicest things about Test::Base is that it is easy to
   subclass. This is very important, because in your personal project, you
   will likely want to extend Test::Base with your own filters and other
   reusable pieces of your test framework.

   Here is an example of a subclass:

       package MyTestStuff;
       use Test::Base -Base;

       our @EXPORT = qw(some_func);

       sub some_func {
           (my ($self), @_) = find_my_self(@_);
           ...
       }

       package MyTestStuff::Block;
       use base 'Test::Base::Block';

       sub desc {
           $self->description(@_);
       }

       package MyTestStuff::Filter;
       use base 'Test::Base::Filter';

       sub upper {
           $self->assert_scalar(@_);
           uc(shift);
       }

   Note that you don't have to re-Export all the functions from Test::Base.
   That happens automatically, due to the powers of Spiffy.

   The first line in "some_func" allows it to be called as either a
   function or a method in the test code.

DISTRIBUTION SUPPORT
   You might be thinking that you do not want to use Test::Base in you
   modules, because it adds an installation dependency. Fear not.
   Module::Install::TestBase takes care of that.

   Just write a Makefile.PL that looks something like this:

       use inc::Module::Install;

       name            'Foo';
       all_from        'lib/Foo.pm';

       use_test_base;

       WriteAll;

   The line with "use_test_base" will automatically bundle all the code the
   user needs to run Test::Base based tests.

OTHER COOL FEATURES
   Test::Base automatically adds:

       use strict;
       use warnings;

   to all of your test scripts and Test::Base subclasses. A Spiffy feature
   indeed.

HISTORY
   This module started its life with the horrible and ridicule inducing
   name "Test::Chunks". It was renamed to "Test::Base" with the hope that
   it would be seen for the very useful module that it has become. If you
   are switching from "Test::Chunks" to "Test::Base", simply substitute the
   concept and usage of "chunks" to "blocks".

AUTHOR
   Ingy döt Net <[email protected]>

COPYRIGHT
   Copyright 2005-2014. Ingy döt Net.

   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
   under the same terms as Perl itself.

   See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>

You are viewing proxied material from ftp.icm.edu.pl. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.