Question

I have some unit tests which exercise code which makes calls out to a test server, in order to make sure that the requests are well-formed (i.e. we get valid data back in response). However, this means that the unit tests, and hence the build, can get blocked if this test server is down. This does not conform to good unit test practices, but as a thought experiment let’s say I’m not allowed to delete these tests or change them so they don’t actually call out to the server. I want to change them so that they will still pass if the server is down (i.e. trying to connect results in ConnectException), but fail if any other exception occurs. Making it more difficult, the code under test doesn’t throw the ConnecException directly, but throws a wrapper exception that contains it. So initially, that means each test will go from looking like this:

@Test
public void testNumberOne() {
    // body of test...
}

To this:

@Test
public void testNumberOne() {
    try {
        // body of test...
    } catch (ThirdPartyWrapperException e) {
        if (!(e.getRootCause() instanceof ConnectException) {
            throw e;
        }
    }
}

Is there any way I can avoid having to paste that try/catch into each unit test?

I know I can refactor out at least some of it, ala:

@Test
public void testNumberOne() {
    try {
        // body of test...
    } catch (ThirdPartyWrapperException e) {
        handleException(e);
    }
}

private void handleException(ThirdPartyWrapperException e) 
             throws ThirdPartyWrapperException {
    if (!(e.getRootCause() instanceof ConnectException) {
        throw e;
    }
}

But is there anything further I can do?

Answer 1

I would add a line to the start to determine if the required resources are available

@Test
public void testNumberOne() {
    if (!requiredServerAvailable()) return;