DUnit and TCustomAttributes

In this article I am playing with Unit tests and TCustomAttributes as I am working on different ideas to build up a lightweight testing framework.  Basically I liked the idea of TestCase attribute from NUnit and I wanted to do something similar using TCustomAttributes and accessing those attributes using the Delphi RTTI library. To understand better my purposes have a look at the following example extracted from NUnit webpage:

[TestCase(12,3,4)]
[TestCase(12,2,6)]
[TestCase(12,4,3)]
public void DivideTest(int n, int d, int q)
{
  Assert.AreEqual( q, n / d );
}

This simple example will execute three times the method or test using the parameters defined on the test case attributes. What if we could perform something similar? Would not be cool?

Here is what I have done so far:

Creation of the Custom Attributes:

type
  TUserPasswordAttribute = class(TCustomAttribute)
  private
    FPassword: string;
    FUserName: string;
    Fresponse: Boolean;
    procedure SetPassword(const Value: string);
    procedure SetUserName(const Value: string);
    procedure Setresponse(const Value: Boolean);
  public
    constructor Create(aUserName: string; aPassword: string; aResponse : Boolean);
    property UserName: string read FUserName write SetUserName;
    property Password: string read FPassword write SetPassword;
    property response : Boolean read Fresponse write Setresponse;
  end;

  TUserAgeAttribute = class(TCustomAttribute)
  private
    FAge: integer;
    FUserName: String;
    Fresponse: Boolean;
    procedure SetAge(const Value: integer);
    procedure SetUserName(const Value: String);
    procedure Setresponse(const Value: Boolean);
  public
    property UserName : String read FUserName write SetUserName;
    property Age : integer read FAge write SetAge;
    property response : Boolean read Fresponse write Setresponse;
    constructor Create(aUserName : string; aAge : Integer; aResponse : Boolean);
  end;

{ TUserPasswordAttribute }

constructor TUserPasswordAttribute.Create(aUserName, aPassword: string; aResponse : Boolean);
begin
  SetUserName(aUserName);
  SetPassword(aPassword);
  Setresponse(aResponse);
end;

procedure TUserPasswordAttribute.SetPassword(const Value: string);
begin
  FPassword := Value;
end;

procedure TUserPasswordAttribute.Setresponse(const Value: Boolean);
begin
  Fresponse := Value;
end;

procedure TUserPasswordAttribute.SetUserName(const Value: string);
begin
  FUserName := Value;
end;

{ TUserAgeAttribute }

constructor TUserAgeAttribute.Create(aUserName: string; aAge: Integer; aResponse : Boolean);
begin
  SetUserName(aUserName);
  SetAge(aAge);
  Setresponse(aResponse);
end;

procedure TUserAgeAttribute.SetAge(const Value: integer);
begin
  FAge := Value;
end;

procedure TUserAgeAttribute.Setresponse(const Value: Boolean);
begin
  Fresponse := Value;
end;

procedure TUserAgeAttribute.SetUserName(const Value: String);
begin
  FUserName := Value;
end;

Those two custom attributes will serve as an example for what I intend to do. I need to test a login and some data from a current user and those bespoke attributes would be used by the test case.

The Framework:

type
  TAttributeProc = reference to procedure(CustomAttr: TCustomAttribute);

  TFrameworkTestCase = class(TTestCase)
  public
    procedure TestAttributesMethod(CustomProc: TAttributeProc);
  end;

implementation

{ TFrameworkTestCase }

procedure TFrameworkTestCase.TestAttributesMethod(CustomProc: TAttributeProc);
var
  ContextRtti: TRttiContext;
  RttiType: TRttiType;
  RttiMethod: TRttiMethod;
  CustomAttr: TCustomAttribute;
begin
  ContextRtti := TRttiContext.Create;
  try
    RttiType := ContextRtti.GetType(Self.ClassType);
    for RttiMethod in RttiType.GetMethods do
      for CustomAttr in RttiMethod.GetAttributes do
        CustomProc(CustomAttr);
  finally
    ContextRtti.Free;
  end;
end;

As you can see TFrameworkTestCase inherits from TTestCase and it adds the magic of reading the custom attributes and invoking the delegate as many times needed.

Using the small framework:

unit TestUnit1;
{

  Delphi DUnit Test Case
  ----------------------
  This unit contains a skeleton test case class generated by the Test Case Wizard.
  Modify the generated code to correctly setup and call the methods from the unit
  being tested.

}

interface

uses
  TestFramework, Windows, Forms, Dialogs, Controls, Classes, RTTI, SysUtils, Variants,
  Graphics, Messages, Unit1, StdCtrls;

type
  TestTLoginCase = class(TFrameworkTestCase)
  strict private
    FLogin: TLogin;
  public
    procedure SetUp; override;
    procedure TearDown; override;
  published
    [TUserPasswordAttribute('User1', 'Password1', True)]
    [TUserPasswordAttribute('User2', 'Password2', True)]
    [TUserPasswordAttribute('User3', 'Password3', True)]
    [TUserPasswordAttribute('User3', '', False)]
    procedure TestUserLogin;
    [TUserAgeAttribute('User1', 26, True)]
    [TUserAgeAttribute('User2', 27, True)]
    [TUserAgeAttribute('User3', 28, False)]
    procedure TestUserAge;
  end;

implementation

procedure TestTLoginCase.SetUp;
begin
  FLogin := TLogin.Create;
end;

procedure TestTLoginCase.TearDown;
begin
  FLogin.Free;
  FLogin := nil;
end;

procedure TestTLoginCase.TestUserAge;
var
  aAge: integer;
  aUserName: string;
  aResponse : boolean;
begin
  TestAttributesMethod(procedure (CustomAttr : TCustomAttribute)
    begin
        if CustomAttr is TUserAgeAttribute then
        begin
          aUserName := TUserAgeAttribute(CustomAttr).UserName;
          aAge := TUserAgeAttribute(CustomAttr).Age;
          aResponse := TUserAgeAttribute(CustomAttr).Response;
          Assert(aResponse=(FLogin.fetchDatauser(aUserName)=aAge), 'Incorrect value ' + aUserName);
        end;
    end);
end;

procedure TestTLoginCase.TestUserLogin;
var
  aPassword: string;
  aUserName: string;
  aResponse : boolean;
begin
  TestAttributesMethod(procedure (CustomAttr : TCustomAttribute)
    begin
        if CustomAttr is TUserPasswordAttribute then
        begin
          aUserName := TUserPasswordAttribute(CustomAttr).UserName;
          aPassword := TUserPasswordAttribute(CustomAttr).Password;
          aResponse := TUserPasswordAttribute(CustomAttr).Response;
          Assert(FLogin.UserLogin(aUserName, aPassword)=aResponse, 'Incorrect user ' + aUserName);
        end;
    end);
end;

initialization
RegisterTest(TestTLoginCase.Suite);

end.

Notice that every test case contains a set of Custom attributes and they will be executed by using a delegate. I have included the Result parameter in the attribute so the test can know the result straight away and inform about it. 

Related links:

• Delphi- mock wizard.
• DUnit.