[jira] [Commented] (CONFIGURATION-810) Refactor DummyLayout in TestPropertiesConfiguration to improve test design

["Matt Juntunen (Jira)" <ji...@apache.org>]

    [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CONFIGURATION-810?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=17532005#comment-17532005 ] 

Matt Juntunen commented on CONFIGURATION-810:
---------------------------------------------

Thank you for your PR! Your rationale is good and your issue description is very clearly structured. However, I don't believe this change is necessary for the following reasons:
1. It adds a new dependency on mockito when, for better or worse, the project already has a dependency on [easymock|https://easymock.org/]. Having two mocking frameworks in the same project will be confusing.
2. I typically avoid mocking or otherwise modifying the actual object under test because it is not obvious how the mocking framework is modifying or extending the object. With {{DummyLayout}}, the modification is clear: the class under test is being extended, a single method is overridden, and all other behavior is the same. Note that I'm not saying that mockito isn't doing this internally; I'm saying that this fact is not clear from just looking at the test.
3. The use case for {{DummyLayout}} is very simple and not much longer than the mocked version.

> Refactor DummyLayout in TestPropertiesConfiguration to improve test design
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: CONFIGURATION-810
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CONFIGURATION-810
>             Project: Commons Configuration
>          Issue Type: Improvement
>            Reporter: Xiao Wang
>            Priority: Minor
>
> h3. Description
> I noticed that there is a test class [DummyLayout|https://github.com/apache/commons-configuration/blob/66b4f4eb73b276d041debaad80af3074ccb359bd/src/test/java/org/apache/commons/configuration2/TestPropertiesConfiguration.java#L91] implements production class [PropertiesConfigurationLayout|https://github.com/apache/commons-configuration/blob/66b4f4eb73b276d041debaad80af3074ccb359bd/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/configuration2/PropertiesConfigurationLayout.java#L102] to assist testing method [PropertiesConfiguration.propertyLoaded(String, String, Deque<URL>)|https://github.com/apache/commons-configuration/blob/66b4f4eb73b276d041debaad80af3074ccb359bd/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/configuration2/PropertiesConfiguration.java#L1467]. This might not be the best priactice in unit testing and can be improved by leveraging mocking frameworks.
> h3. Current Implementation
>  * {{DummyLayout}} extends {{PropertiesConfigurationLayout}} and creates a new variable to keep tracking of the method invocation status for {{load(PropertiesConfiguration, Reader)}}.
>  * In test cases, after executing {{PropertiesConfiguration.propertyLoaded(String, String, Deque<URL>)}}, the new variable will be used in assertion statement to check the execution status of {{load(PropertiesConfiguration, Reader)}}.
> h3. Proposed Implementation
>  * Replace {{DummyLayout}} with a mocking object created by Mockito.
>  * Remove the {{int}} variable that used to keep tracking the invocation times of {{load(PropertiesConfiguration, Reader)}}.
>  * Use {{Mockito.verify()}} to check execution status of {{load(PropertiesConfiguration, Reader)}}.
> h3. Motivation
>  * Decouple test class {{DummyLayout}} from production class {{PropertiesConfigurationLayout}}.
>  * Make test logic more clear by removing the overridden method in {{DummyLayout}}.
>  * Make test condition more explict by directly using {{Mockito.verify()}} to verify method execution status.



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