StrutsTestCase: The Tool for Struts Unit Testing - Part 2
by Keld H. Hansen
Introduction
StrutsTestCase (STC) is
a framework for testing Struts Action
classes. It uses JUnit
and in my first article
about StrutsTestCase (STC) we
looked at how STC could use a "mock object approach", where the
servlet and Struts environments are simulated. STC also offers another testing
possibility based on the Cactus
framework, where the test is carried out in a real web server
environment.
The main topic of the current article will be about The Cactus option, but
first I'd like to touch upon a couple of important features pertaining to the
mock object option.
The simulated objects of the Mock Approach
The MockStrutsTestCase class has methods that'll give you access to the
simulated objects. These are:
Table 1: Accessing the simulated objects
| Object |
Method in MockStrutsTestCase |
| HttpServletRequest |
getRequest() |
| HttpServletResponse |
getResponse() |
| HttpSession |
getSession() |
| ActionForm (Struts) |
getActionForm() |
| ActionServlet (Struts) |
getActionServlet() |
Having these objects you may inspect or modify them just as you're used to.
But since they're simulated objects, STC also gives you the option to modify some
of the properties which are read-only in the real Servlet and Struts APIs. So, if
the simulation of an object is not quite right, you should check, if
it's possible for you to set the property. STC makes this possible through a set
of classes all ending with "Simulator" (cfr. the STC JavaDoc).
The following are a few examples.
Header and Security Information in the Request object
A browser sends, along with the file request, a set of HTTP headers which you may
access in the Servlet API through the getHeader and getHeaderNames
methods. The MockStrutsTestCase doesn't initialize any header data, so
if your servlet needs data from the headers (it could for example be the name of
the browser), you code like this:
HttpServletRequestSimulator req =
(HttpServletRequestSimulator)getRequest();
req.setHeader("user-agent", "Mozilla/4.0");
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So the trick is to cast to a Simulator class, and then use its set-methods.
If you have a security set up with defined user-roles, it's nice that you may
set the role like this:
HttpServletRequestSimulator req =
(HttpServletRequestSimulator)getRequest();
req.setUserRole("admin");
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These lines must of course come before the call to actionPerform().
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