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Tentackle PDO Tests — the tentackle-test-pdo Module

Overview

tentackle-test-pdo is the test-support module for writing PDO-based tests. It does three distinct jobs:

  1. Provides test base classes — abstract TestNG and JUnit 5 base classes (AbstractPdoTest, TestApplication) that open a session, populate an in-memory database, manage the per-class/per-method transaction lifecycle, run the modification tracker and tear everything down again — so a test class only has to write the assertions.
  2. Provides mock delegates — lightweight Mock* domain/persistence delegates that let you instantiate PDOs and operations in a unit test without a database.
  3. Generates the framework's SQL — at build time it runs the SQL Maven plugin over the framework model (number sources, security, preferences, …) and packages the resulting DDL, model dump and MODEL-INDEX.LIST into the jar, so downstream tests can create the TT (Tentackle) tables in an in-memory database from the classpath.

Test scope only. This artifact pulls in TestNG, JUnit, H2 and PostgreSQL and (deliberately, see below) marks the framework layers optional to keep the classpath order right. It must be included with <scope>test</scope> in downstream projects — never as a compile/runtime dependency.

This module is not a JPMS module. It has no module-info.java; the jar carries the Automatic-Module-Name: org.tentackle.pdo.test. It is meant to live on the test classpath, where Tentackle's ServiceFinder SPI discovery still works without an explicit module descriptor.

Package Layout

Package Role
org.tentackle.pdo.testng TestNG base classes: AbstractPdoTest and TestApplication. The default framework (the module's own tests run under TestNG via src/test/testng.xml).
org.tentackle.pdo.junit JUnit 5 equivalents of the same two base classes, for projects that prefer Jupiter.
org.tentackle.pdo.test DbTestUtilities — low-level helpers that build and run the database-population SQL script from the model. Shared by both the TestNG and JUnit base classes.
org.tentackle.pdo.mock MockDomainObject, MockPersistentObject, MockDomainOperation, MockPersistentOperation — no-op delegates for database-less unit tests.

The Test Base Classes

There are two parallel families, one per test framework, with the same shape. Pick the one that matches your project's test runner; the TestNG variant is the default in Tentackle.

AbstractPdoTest

The base class for tests on PDO level — i.e., tests that talk to a live (usually in-memory) database through the PDO API. It implements DomainContextProvider, so the running test is the context source for the PDOs it creates.

Transaction handling is declared per test class through the TransactionType enum, chosen via the constructors:

Constructor Transaction Commit/rollback
AbstractPdoTest() CLASS (one transaction per test class) rollback
AbstractPdoTest(TransactionType) as given rollback
AbstractPdoTest(TransactionType, boolean commit) as given commit if true

TransactionType is CLASS (transaction spans the whole class), METHOD (one per test method) or NONE (no automatic transaction). Tests roll back by default so they leave no trace; pass commit = true only for the rare scenario that must persist.

Lifecycle (TestNG annotations shown; JUnit uses the equivalent @BeforeAll/@AfterAll/…):

  • @BeforeSuite openSessionsAndStartModificationTracker() — opens the session (Pdo.createSession()), builds the DomainContext, and if the backend is in-memory creates the database tables and populates them. It also picks a default scripting language if exactly one is available, and starts the ModificationTracker (with a fast 500 ms poll interval suited to tests).
  • @BeforeClass/@AfterClass — begin/end the transaction when TransactionType.CLASS.
  • @BeforeMethod/@AfterMethod — begin/end the transaction when TransactionType.METHOD; a failed method flips rollbackLogged so the rolled-back statements are logged for diagnosis.
  • @AfterSuite closeSessionsAndTerminateModificationTracker() — terminates the tracker and closes the session.

Extension points a concrete test can override:

Method Purpose
createDatabaseTables(Db) Build the schema. The default loads the model from the classpath via DbTestUtilities and runs the generated script. Override to add extra model sources.
populateDatabase() Insert test fixtures after the tables exist. Default does nothing.
createDomainContext() Supply the (thread-local) DomainContext. Default Pdo.createDomainContext().
openSession() Open the session; default throws TestNG SkipException (JUnit: aborts) when no backend is reachable, so the suite is skipped, not failed, in an incomplete environment.

Helpers for richer scenarios: runPreCommits()/runPostCommits() force the pre/post-commit callbacks even though the test will roll back; setRollbackLogged(true) logs the SQL even on success; runClass(...), runInOtherJVM(...) and waitForProcess(...) spawn a test class in a separate JVM (used by the remote/RPC tests — see testng.xml's remote1/remote2 groups).

TestApplication

The base class for tests that must run as a full AbstractApplication — i.e., with the complete application bootstrap (SessionInfo, property application, registration) rather than just a bare session. Same in-memory table creation/population, but driven through the application lifecycle. The JUnit variant keeps a static reference to the running application because JUnit's @AfterAll must be static, and guards against two TestApplications running at once.

DbTestUtilities — model → DDL → database

DbTestUtilities (in org.tentackle.pdo.test, an @Service defaulting to itself, so it is replaceable) is the low-level bridge from the model to a live database used by the base classes:

  • createPopulateScript(Db) — loads the default model from the classpath (Model.loadFromResources) and renders a complete DDL script for the session's backend: the object-sequence (if the backend supports sequences), every table-providing, non-provided entity's CREATE TABLE and indexes, any schemas, and finally the foreign keys.
  • runScript(Db, String) — executes that script against the low-level session.

Because the script is built from the same tentackle-model object graph the code generators use, the in-memory test schema can never disagree with the generated persistence layer.

The Mock Delegates

The org.tentackle.pdo.mock package lets a unit test work with PDOs and operations without any persistence backend. Recall the PDO pattern: a PDO is a dynamic proxy backed by a domain delegate and a persistence delegate. The mocks supply trivial stand-ins for those delegates:

Mock Stands in for
MockDomainObject<T,D> the domain delegate of a PersistentDomainObject
MockPersistentObject<T,P> the persistence delegate of a PersistentDomainObject (also a PdoMethodCacheProvider)
MockDomainOperation<T,D> the domain delegate of an Operation
MockPersistentOperation<T> the persistence delegate of an Operation (also an OperationMethodCacheProvider)

Most methods throw "not implemented" — the mocks deliberately implement only what a no-database test touches (id, session/context wiring, method caches), so you can exercise domain logic in isolation and get a loud failure the moment a test reaches for real persistence.

Build-Time SQL Generation

Besides shipping Java, this module's POM generates the framework's own schema and packages it as resources so downstream tests (and this module's tests) can stand up the TT tables in memory. The relevant build steps:

  • tentackle-maven-plugin (analyze, test-analyze) — the standard resource-index / analysis step.
  • tentackle-sql-maven-plugin (create, in generate-resources) — runs over the framework model on the classpath and writes into target/generated-resources/META-INF/:
  • sql/createttmodel.sql — the DDL for all framework tables, for all backends (backendNames=all), prepended with src/sql/ttheader.sql;
  • model/… + MODEL-INDEX.LIST — a dump of the model source so Model.loadFromResources(...) can reload it from the jar;
  • an object_sequence_id sequence definition (the PDO id generator).

These land under META-INF, are declared as a <resource> directory, and are therefore baked into the jar. - maven-jar-plugin — sets Automatic-Module-Name: org.tentackle.pdo.test. - maven-surefire-plugin — overridden to use the TestNG provider and the src/test/testng.xml suite.

Why the framework dependencies are optional

tentackle-persistence and tentackle-domain are declared optional with the comment "don't mix up classpath order". The PDO runtime resolves the persistence and domain implementation layers via the ServiceFinder SPI, and the order in which those layers appear on the classpath matters. Marking them optional keeps this test artifact from forcing them transitively into a downstream project's classpath in the wrong position; the downstream project declares the layers it actually wants itself.

The Module's Own Tests

Although primarily a support library, the module also contains PDO tests (under src/test/java) that exercise the framework end-to-end against H2 (in-memory) and PostgreSQL (multi-process). They double as worked examples of the base classes above. Coverage spans, among others:

Area Example test(s)
PDO factory & proxy wiring PdoFactoryTest, PdoInvocationTest, PdoUtilitiesTest, IllegalModelNamesTest
Snapshots SnapshotTest (see snapshot.md)
Model ModelTest
Database / DBMS BatchingTest, ResultSetTest, H2ConnectionTest, SqlScriptTest
Sessions & remoting SessionPoolExecutorTest, RemoteTransactionTest, plus the out-of-JVM server in persist/server
Security & number sources SecurityTest, NumberSourceTest
Preferences RemotePreferencesTest

The pdofactory test package (Invoice/SingleInvoice/CollectiveInvoice with handwritten domain and persistence impls, an Operation and a LogIt interceptor) is a self-contained miniature PDO model used to test the factory and interceptor machinery directly, without running the code generator.

The testng.xml suite runs three groups — local, remote1, remote2 — single-threaded, over the whole org.tentackle.* package tree; the remote* groups drive the out-of-process server.

Test configuration

Connection parameters come from filtered resources (backend.properties, client.properties) substituting the dbUrl/dbUser/dbPasswd/dbService build properties, with h2.properties selecting the in-memory default (jdbc:h2:mem:default). Logging is routed to target/logs/test.log via tentackle-log-log4j2v because the console is contended by parallel processes on Windows.

Using It in a Downstream Project

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.tentackle</groupId>
  <artifactId>tentackle-test-pdo</artifactId>
  <version>${tentackle.version}</version>
  <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

A typical TestNG test then looks like:

public class CustomerTest extends org.tentackle.pdo.testng.AbstractPdoTest {

  // default: one rolled-back transaction per class against the in-memory DB
  public CustomerTest() {
    super();
  }

  @Override
  protected void populateDatabase() {
    // insert fixtures once, after createDatabaseTables() built the schema
  }

  @Test(groups = "local")
  public void createAndReload() {
    Customer c = on(Customer.class);
    c.setName("Acme");
    c.save();
    Assert.assertNotNull(c.getId());
    // rolled back automatically at end of class
  }
}

Override createDatabaseTables(Db) to add your application's model on top of the framework's TT tables, and choose TransactionType.METHOD (or commit = true) where the default per-class rollback doesn't fit.

Generating Fixture Code with the PDO Browser

Writing the fixture code by hand gets tedious once tests need realistic object graphs. The PDO Browser — the browse goal of the wizard maven plugin — automates it: it connects to a live backend (typically a development or staging database), lets you navigate the persisted PDOs along their relations, and turns selected records into ready-to-paste Java code that recreates them. The recipe:

  1. Start the PDO browser from the aggregator directory: mvn tentackle-wizard:browse (the backend url and user are either configured in the POM or passed via -D).
  2. Select the PDO type in the entity combo box and load records via load, find by ID, or use finder.
  3. In the table, select the PDOs to generate Java code for.
  4. Click generate — the browser builds the Java code (on(...), the attribute setters, the component relations, a final save()) for the selected objects and copies it to the clipboard.
  5. Paste the code into the test class (see createDatabaseTables(Db) above): the populateDatabase() override is invoked right after createDatabaseTables(Db) has built the in-memory schema, so the pasted code runs against a fresh database.
  6. Repeat for all PDOs that should be available to all tests — put those into a common base test class of the suite — and then for the PDOs needed by the individual test classes.

Because the generated code recreates the objects through the plain PDO API, the tests need no backend at run time — the fixtures populate the in-memory H2 database like any other test code. This makes creating CI tests with realistic data super easy: browse, select, generate, paste.