G E T T I N G S TA R T E D W I T H 
 U N I T T E S T I N G A L I S O N B A R R E T T ’ S 

W H O A M I ? 

A L I S O N B A R R E T T • Code Wrangler at Automattic • @alisothegeek • http://alisothegeek.com 

M Y J O U R N E Y 

S O M E T I M E I N 2 0 1 1 Unit testing? What’s that? I’ll go find out. 

Unit testing waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw waw… 

S O M E T I M E I N 2 0 1 2 Oh yeah, unit testing. I should learn that sometime. 

L AT E R I N 2 0 1 2 Oh so that’s what unit tests are… 

L AT E R I N 2 0 1 2 OMG I AM SCARED PLZ REMOVE UNIT TESTS FROM BRAIN 

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R AT I O N A L I Z AT I O N Only crazy-smart devs use it. I’m not smart enough. 

R AT I O N A L I Z AT I O N It’s a whole new framework. No time to learn it. 

R AT I O N A L I Z AT I O N I bet it’s hard to set up. 

R AT I O N A L I Z AT I O N It’s too hard. 

WRONG 

J U N E 2 0 1 3 I guess I’m learning unit testing today. 

J U N E 2 0 1 3 OMG THIS IS SO EASY AND FUN AND AMAZING 

L A T E R T H A T J U N E 

J U N E 2 0 1 3 UNIT TEST ALL THE THINGS 

A L S O I N J U N E I need a new topic for WCSF… Unit testing! 

E X P E R T A D V O C AT E E X P E R T AT A D V O C AT I N G 

W H AT I S U N I T T E S T I N G ? 

In computer programming, unit testing is a method by which individual units of source code, sets of one or more computer program modules together with associated control data, usage procedures, and operating procedures are tested to determine if they are fit for use. Intuitively, one can view a unit as the smallest testable part of an application. In procedural programming, a unit could be an entire module, but is more commonly an individual function or procedure. In object-oriented programming, a unit is often an entire interface, such as a class, but could be an individual method. Unit tests are created by programmers or occasionally by white box testers during the development process. T L ; D R ? 

D O E S T H I S F U N C T I O N W O R K ? 

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assertArrayHasKey() assertClassHasAttribute() assertClassHasStaticAttribute() assertContains() assertContainsOnly() assertContainsOnlyInstancesOf() assertCount() assertEmpty() assertEqualXMLStructure() assertEquals() assertFalse() assertFileEquals() assertFileExists() assertGreaterThan() assertGreaterThanOrEqual() assertInstanceOf() assertInternalType() assertJsonFileEqualsJsonFile() assertJsonStringEqualsJsonFile() assertJsonStringEqualsJsonString() assertLessThan() assertLessThanOrEqual() assertNull() assertObjectHasAttribute() assertRegExp() assertStringMatchesFormat() assertStringMatchesFormatFile() assertSame() assertSelectCount() assertSelectEquals() assertSelectRegExp() assertStringEndsWith() assertStringEqualsFile() assertStringStartsWith() assertTag() assertThat() assertTrue() assertXmlFileEqualsXmlFile() assertXmlStringEqualsXmlFile() assertXmlStringEqualsXmlString() H T T P : / / A L I S O . M E / A S S E R T 

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T H E R E G E X S T O RY 

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1 0 ! = 1 

T I M E F O R S O M E E X P E RT A D V O C AT I N G 

C U R R E N T P R O B L E M Testing by debugging 

C U R R E N T P R O B L E M , W O R S E V E R S I O N Testing by debugging without version control or staging environments 

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S O L U T I O N Unit testing! DUH (it’s the topic of this presentation) 

W H Y U N I T T E S T I N G ? Automation saves time Debugging is easier Code is future-proof Architecture is modular Tests double as documentation 

A U T O M AT I O N S AV E S T I M E 

Good, Fast, Cheap. Pick two. 

Writing unit tests: Good 

Running unit tests: Good, Fast, Cheap 

D E B U G G I N G I S E A S I E R 

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C O D E I S F U T U R E - P R O O F 

E V E RY O N E ’ S FAV O R I T E Refactoring 

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A R C H I T E C T U R E I S M O D U L A R 

D O E S T H I S F U N C T I O N W O R K ? 

??? it does a bazillion things D O E S T H I S F U N C T I O N W O R K ? 

YES Ask me a harder question for once D O E S T H I S F U N C T I O N W O R K ? 

T E S T S D O U B L E A S D O C U M E N TAT I O N 

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Y O U R J O U R N E Y 

Y O U UNIT TEST ALL THE THINGS WRONG (sort of) UNIT TEST ALL THE THINGS 

J U LY 2 0 1 3 That unit testing worked great on the last bug! I’ll use it for this bug too! 

2 0 H O U R S L AT E R This would have taken 5 minutes… if it wasn't for you meddling unit tests! 

Y O U M I G H T N O T WA N T T O U N I T T E S T I F… • You’re on a really tight deadline. • The budget is really tight and speed is important. • You’re on a really tight deadline. • You’re on a really tight deadline and you can’t unit test like a boss (yet). 

Y O U But I still want to unit test! 

I D E A Try it on your own site. 

I D E A Try it on a local installation. 

I D E A Try it on a pro-bono project that has time to spare. 

T H A N K Y O U