DDevelopment & Design

Testing Kotlin with Spock Part 1 – Object

The object keyword in Kotlin creates singleton in a very convenient way. It can be used for example as a state of an operation. Spock Framework is one of the most expressive and readable test frameworks available in the Java ecosystem. Let’s see how Kotlin object can be used in the Spock tests.

What do we want to test?

We have a single method validate in Validator interface which returns validation status: Ok or Error.

sealed class ValidationStatus
object Ok : ValidationStatus()
object Error : ValidationStatus()


interface Validator<T> {
    fun validate(value: T): ValidationStatus
}

We also provide a simple implementation of this interface:

class AdultValidator : Validator<Int> {
    override fun validate(value: Int) = if (value >= 18) Ok else Error
}

 

How to test it with Spock?

First – silly approach

First, let’s write a parameterized test for the validator:

AdultValidator sut = new AdultValidator()

def 'should validate age #age'() {
    expect:
        sut.validate(age) == result
    where:
        age | result
        0   | Error
        17  | Error
        18  | Ok
        19  | Ok
}

 

We expect it to pass, but it fails… Error and Ok are classes in the code above.

Second – naive approach

We need instances instead, so we modify the test a little:

def 'should validate age #age'() {
    expect:
        sut.validate(age) == result
    where:
        age | result
        0   | new Error()
        17  | new Error()
        18  | new Ok()
        19  | new Ok()
}

 

And again, this one fails as well. Why? It is because Error and Ok classes do not have overridden equals method. But why? We expects Kotlin objects (those created with object keyword, not plain object) to have it implemented correctly. What is more, it works correctly in Kotlin:

fun isOk(status:ValidationStatus) = status == Ok

Third – correct approach

Let’s look into the class file:

$ javap com/github/alien11689/testingkotlinwithspock/Ok.class
Compiled from "Validator.kt"
public final class com.github.alien11689.testingkotlinwithspock.Ok extends com.github.alien11689.testingkotlinwithspock.ValidationStatus {
  public static final com.github.alien11689.testingkotlinwithspock.Ok INSTANCE;
  static {};
}

If we want to access the real object that Kotlin uses in such comparisson, then we should access the class static property called INSTANCE:

def 'should validate age #age'() {
    expect:
        sut.validate(age) == result
    where:
        age | result
        0   | Error.INSTANCE
        17  | Error.INSTANCE
        18  | Ok.INSTANCE
        19  | Ok.INSTANCE
}

Now the test passes.

Fourth – alternative approach

We can also check the method result without specific instance of the object class and use instanceof or Class#isAssignableFrom instead.

Show me the code

Code is available here.

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DDevelopment & Design

Inconsistent Dependency Injection to domains with Grails

I've encountered strange behavior with a domain class in my project: services that should be injected were null. I've became suspicious as why is that? Services are injected properly in other domain classes so why this one is different?

Constructors experiment

I've created an experiment. I've created empty LibraryService that should be injected and Book domain class like this:

class Book {
    def libraryService

    String author
    String title
    int pageCount

    Book() {
        println("Finished constructor Book()")
    }

    Book(String author) {
        this()
        this.@author = author
        println("Finished constructor Book(String author)")
    }

    Book(String author, String title) {
        super()
        this.@author = author
        this.@title = title
        println("Finished constructor Book(String author, String title)")
    }

    Book(String author, String title, int pageCount) {
        this.@author = author
        this.@title = title
        this.@pageCount = pageCount
        println("Finished constructor Book(String author, String title, int pageCount)")
    }

    void logInjectedService() {
        println("    Service libraryService is injected? -> $libraryService")
    }
}
class LibraryService {
    def serviceMethod() {
    }
}

Book has 4 explicit constructors. I want to check which constructor is injecting dependecies. This is my method that constructs Book objects and I called it in controller: 

class BookController {
    def index() {
        constructAndExamineBooks()
    }

    static constructAndExamineBooks() {
        println("Started constructAndExamineBooks")
        Book book1 = new Book().logInjectedService()
        Book book2 = new Book("foo").logInjectedService()
        Book book3 = new Book("foo", 'bar').logInjectedService()
        Book book4 = new Book("foo", 'bar', 100).logInjectedService()
        Book book5 = new Book(author: "foo", title: 'bar')
        println("Finished constructor Book(Map params)")
        book5.logInjectedService()
    }
}

Analysis

Output looks like this:

Started constructAndExamineBooks
Finished constructor Book()
    Service libraryService is injected? -> eu.spoonman.refaktor.LibraryService@2affcce2
Finished constructor Book()
Finished constructor Book(String author)
    Service libraryService is injected? -> eu.spoonman.refaktor.LibraryService@2affcce2
Finished constructor Book(String author, String title)
    Service libraryService is injected? -> null
Finished constructor Book(String author, String title, int pageCount)
    Service libraryService is injected? -> null
Finished constructor Book()
Finished constructor Book(Map params)
    Service libraryService is injected? -> eu.spoonman.refaktor.LibraryService@2affcce2

What do we see?

  1. ✔

    Empty constructor injects dependencies.

  2. ✔

    Constructor that invokes empty constructor explicitly injects dependencies.

  3. ✘

    Constructor that invokes parent's constructor explicitly does not inject dependencies.

  4. ✘

    Constructor without any explicit call declared does not call empty constructor thus it does not inject dependencies.

  5. ✔

    Constructor provied by Grails with a map as a parameter invokes empty constructor and injects dependencies.

Conclusion

Always explicitily invoke empty constructor in your Grail domain classes to ensure Dependency Injection! I didn't know until today either!