Question

We are working on a project where database requirement is not clear. So we are building a database agnostic application.

See my previous question here: Database Agnostic Application

Now I want to test my Spring application DAO with multiple database. I’ve written number of test cases using TestNG and DBUnit.

When I run these test in a CI environment, I want them to test the application against all the configured databases. I’ve installed the databases on the ‘test server’.

e.g. I want something like this:

for ( each database configured ) {
 run each dao test
}

Not sure what is the best way of doing this? And help is welcome.

Thanks,
Adi

Answer 1

1. If you want to be database independent, you have to test against every single database system you want to support. There are very fine differences which leak through Hibernate.

2. What I did in the past was to make the test retrieve their database configuration through some System Property. Typically by using hibernate_.property instead of the default hibernate.property. Then setup CI Jobs, which set the property to different values and provide one hibernate_xxx.property for every database to test against. I did this using JUnit Rules, to have the logic in one place. Don’t know the apropriate tool for TestNG

3. I’m not to fond of the loop construct you are hinting at, because it might make it difficult to run a test suit against a single specific database.

4. I’m also not to fond of dbunit, because it seems to make maintaining testdata rather painful. I prefer in most cases a handcrafted DSL. Have a look at some articles I wrote about it:

http://blog.schauderhaft.de/2011/03/13/testing-databases-with-junit-and-hibernate-part-1-one-to-rule-them/

http://blog.schauderhaft.de/2011/03/20/testing-databases-with-junit-and-hibernate-part-2-the-mother-of-all-things/

http://blog.schauderhaft.de/2011/03/27/testing-databases-with-junit-and-hibernate-part-3-cleaning-up-and-further-ideas/