Question

I have an Integration Test Suite. I have a IntegrationTestBase class for all my tests to extend. This base class has a @Before (public void setUp()) and @After (public void tearDown()) method to establish API and DB connections. What I’ve been doing is just overriding those two methods in each testcase and calling super.setUp() and super.tearDown(). However this can cause problems if someone forgets to call the super or puts them at the wrong place and an exception is thrown and they forget to call super in the finally or something.

What I want to do is make the setUp and tearDown methods on the base class final and then just add our own annotated @Before and @After methods. Doing some initial tests it appears to always call in this order:

Base @Before
Test @Before
Test
Test @After
Base @After

but I’m just a little concerned that the order isn’t guaranteed and that it could cause problems. I looked around and haven’t seen anything on the subject. Does anyone know if I can do that and not have any problems?

Code:

public class IntegrationTestBase {

    @Before
    public final void setUp() { *always called 1st?* }

    @After
    public final void tearDown() { *always called last?* }
}


public class MyTest extends IntegrationTestBase {

    @Before
    public final void before() { *always called 2nd?* }

    @Test
    public void test() { *always called 3rd?* }

    @After
    public final void after() { *always called 4th?* }
}

Answer 1

Yes, this behaviour is guaranteed:

@Before:

The @Before methods of superclasses will be run before those of the current class, unless they are overridden in the current class. No other ordering is defined.

@After:

The @After methods declared in superclasses will be run after those of the current class, unless they are overridden in the current class.