bookmark_borderIntegration testing your Asp .Net Core App – Dealing with Anti Request Forgery (CSRF), Form Data and Cookies

  1. Integration testing your asp .net core app with an in memory database
  2. Integration testing your asp .net core app dealing with anti request forgery csrf formdata and cookies (this)

This post can be considered a sequel to Setting up integration testing in Asp.Net Core. It builds upon some code provided there.

Running Integration Tests are awesome. (Be mindful though: They Are A Scam as well).

So great, you got it up and running. And you probably will run into a few (practical) things when dealing with a bit more useful scenario’s. In this case I describe visiting a page (GET) and POSTing a form. Also we deal with the case when you have set up Anti Request Forgery.

I will give you a few hints of code. For your convenience I have also put them up as Github Gists.

Disclaimer about the presented code:
I have come to this code after some investigation, but I lost track of what source lead to what piece of code. So if you are (or know) the source of pieces of code, please notify me and I will give credits where credits are due.

Now we have that out of the way, lets get started!

Context – some example code

To explain things easier, lets say you have a GET and POST action defined (for same URL). The GET delivers a view with a form; in your integration test you want to do a POST to the same URL as if the user filled in the form. (Since we’re not UI testing, we don’t care about the HTML – no need to play browser here).

In our example, lets say we have some code like this:

// GET request to awesomesauce
[Route("awesomesauce")]
public async Task AwesomeSauce()
{
	var model = new MyAwesomeModel();
	return View(model);
}


// POST request to awesomesauce
[HttpPost, Route("awesomesauce"), ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public async Task AwesomeSauce(MyAwesomeModel myAwesomeModel)
{
	// if valid, do stuff
	
	// else...
	return View(myAwesomeModel);
}

Your integration test would look like this:


[Collection("Integration tests collection")]
public class AwesomeSauceTest : AbstractControllerIntegrationTest
{
	public AwesomeSauceTest(TestServerFixture testServerFixture) : base(testServerFixture)
	{
	}

	[Fact]
	public async Task Visits_AwesomeSauce_And_Posts_Data()
	{
		var response = await client.GetAsync("/awesomesauce");
		response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();

		// How do we do this? Send data (POST) - with anti request forgery token and all?... lets find out!
		//var response = await client.SendAsync(requestMessage);
	}
}

In the test we marked our questions. How do we post data? And how do send this AntiRequestForgery token?

Lets begin with POSTing data. In a convenient world I would like to present a

Dictionary

with keys and values, then simply pass that as method BODY and let some helper method transform that into a true HttpRequest message. I made such a thing my own, it looks like this:

With the

PostRequestHelper

we can now POST data like so:

public class AwesomeSauceTest : AbstractControllerIntegrationTest
{
	public AwesomeSauceTest(TestServerFixture testServerFixture) : base(testServerFixture)
	{
	}

	[Fact]
	public async Task Visits_AwesomeSauce_And_Posts_Data()
	{
		var response = await client.GetAsync("/awesomesauce");
		response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();

		var formPostBodyData = new Dictionary
			{
				{"Awesomesauce.Foo", "Bar"},
				{"Awesomesauce.AnotherKey", "Baz"},
				{"Any_Other_Form_Key", "Any_Other_Value"}
			};

		var requestMessage = PostRequestHelper.Create("/awesomesauce", formPostBodyData);

		// TODO: AntiRequestForgery token

		var response = await client.SendAsync(requestMessage);

		// Assert
	}
}

Well that is easy isn’t it?

If you paid attention you already saw a hint in the

PostRequestHelper

about a

CookiesHelper

. Although it is not needed to deal with AntiRequestForgery, it is a handy tool. I’ll explain it below.

Dealing with the AntiRequestForgery token

In general it is easy, you do a GET, in its response you receive a token. You need to extract that token and put that token on your next POST request and you’re done.

To extract the token, you can use this:

Now we can use it in our test like so:

public class AwesomeSauceTest : AbstractControllerIntegrationTest
{
	public AwesomeSauceTest(TestServerFixture testServerFixture) : base(testServerFixture)
	{
	}

	[Fact]
	public async Task Visits_AwesomeSauce_And_Posts_Data()
	{
		var response = await client.GetAsync("/awesomesauce");
		response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();

		string antiForgeryToken = await AntiForgeryHelper.ExtractAntiForgeryToken(response);

		var formPostBodyData = new Dictionary
			{
				{"__RequestVerificationToken", antiForgeryToken}, // Add token
				{"Awesomesauce.Foo", "Bar"},
				{"Awesomesauce.AnotherKey", "Baz"},
				{"Any_Other_Form_Key", "Any_Other_Value"}
			};

		var requestMessage = PostRequestHelper.Create("/awesomesauce", formPostBodyData);

		var response = await client.SendAsync(requestMessage);

		// Assert
	}
}

And voila, you can now do a POST request which will pass the token and make the POST happen. By omitting the token you can test if your action is protected by CSRF (or using a different token). Although I would not try to test the framework itself, I would advice to have tests in place that make sure specific controller actions are protected.

Dealing with Cookies

As bonus, lets deal with Cookies. You need to deal with those probably. Sometimes you need to post the data again (as if you are a real browser). In that case to make life easier there is a method on the

PostRequestHelper

called

CreateWithCookiesFromResponse

. This basically creates a POST request, and copies over your cookies from a (previous) GET request.

The CookiesHelper looks like this:

In our example test above, we could have used it like this:

public class AwesomeSauceTest : AbstractControllerIntegrationTest
{
	public AwesomeSauceTest(TestServerFixture testServerFixture) : base(testServerFixture)
	{
	}

	[Fact]
	public async Task Visits_AwesomeSauce_And_Posts_Data()
	{
		var response = await client.GetAsync("/awesomesauce"); // this returns cookies in response
		response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();

		string antiForgeryToken = await AntiForgeryHelper.ExtractAntiForgeryToken(response);

		var formPostBodyData = new Dictionary
			{
				{"__RequestVerificationToken", antiForgeryToken}, // Add token
				{"Awesomesauce.Foo", "Bar"},
				{"Awesomesauce.AnotherKey", "Baz"},
				{"Any_Other_Form_Key", "Any_Other_Value"}
			};

		// Copy cookies from response
		var requestMessage = PostRequestHelper.CreateWithCookiesFromResponse("/awesomesauce", formPostBodyData, response);

		var response = await client.SendAsync(requestMessage);

		// Assert
	}
}

Conclusion

After we have set up integration testing we want to get to do some basic interactions with our application. Using an AntiRequestForgeryHelper we can extract a token. Using the PostRequestHelper we can construct a new Request to easily send over a request. Combined they can make any scenario work with CSRF protection.

In case you need to pass over cookies information you can use the CookiesHelper.

bookmark_borderWorking with legacy code – how to start & reveal intent

Recently I posted my opinion about regression. Regression bugs are likely to occur on projects with a lot of legacy code. I consider legacy code as untested code.

At the legacy coderetreat we used a small codebase (you can find it here). With that codebase we exercised in sessions to improve the code. The nice thing is that this is very similar with your daily job. You open up a project and you have to make changes in code you haven’t seen before and do not understand.

In order to get a better understanding you can use various techniques. I have practiced them with the legacy coderetreat and also applied this at work. In this blog post I’d like to share my experiences. Btw: If you haven’t experienced a coderetreat yet, join one. Just like kata’s, they are really worth your time (and more fun)!

Step 1: Get a sense of what is happening
Before we can do anything, we have to understand what we need to change and how it has impact on the system. One way to find out is to simply execute the code. You could just run the application, or… you could try to write a simple unit test executing the ‘main method’ you think that should be ran. Poke around with the parameters, and see what happens.

I prefer writing Characterization tests. The benefit is that while I am trying to understand what is happening, I am also building a safety net. Writing a Characterization test goes like this:
– create new test
– do some setup
– run specific piece of code (method) you want to try out
– check outcome / read state
– create assertion to make it pass with the outcome

When I don’t know what it actually does, I call my tests ‘monkey‘. Once I know the behavior with the given input, I rename the test to what the behavior is. Example:

package com.adaptionsoft.games.uglytrivia;

import org.junit.Assert;
import org.junit.Test;

import static org.hamcrest.core.Is.*;
import static org.junit.Assert.*;

public class GameTest {

	@Test
	public void isPlayableReturnsFalseWhenInitialized() {
		Game game = new Game();
		assertThat(game.isPlayable(), is(false));
	}

	@Test
	public void isPlayableReturnsTrueWithTwoPlayers() {
		Game game = new Game();
		game.add("Stefan");
		game.add("Niels");
		assertThat(game.isPlayable(), is(true));
	}

	@Test
	public void monkey() {
		Game game = new Game();
		game.add("Stefan");
		game.add("Niels");
		game.roll(5);
		// no idea yet what happens, need to look into roll method to get a clue
	}

}

So this gives me a rough idea what is happening, and it gives me a suite of tests.

It is important that you focus on black box tests. Try not to bother about the internals. If you are deep-stubbing in your test setup then try to think of a different way to approach the problem. Sometimes it is not possible to do black box testing, only then you need to do white box testing. In these cases deep-stubbing is often needed. Deep stubbing indicates a design problem: your class is bothered with internal states of other objects. You can reduce this by applying Tell Don’t Ask.

Step 2: Reveal intent.
This is even less invasive (actually it is not invasive at all if done well) than the small refactorings I have blogged about in the past.

To reveal intent:
– go through the code, find magic numbers and strings. Introduce constants for them with descriptive names
– find method names that do not describe well their behavior, and rename them. Try to keep the name about behavior, and if it does more then one thing, concate these behaviors with “And”.
– do the same for variables

This may sound trivial, but it really enhances the understandability of the code. As a bonus your understanding of the code is increased a lot, and all you did was renaming things and perhaps introduced a few constants. Let me show you how much it matters:

Can you find things to improve in this code?

if (roll % 2 != 0) {
	isGettingOutOfPenaltyBox = true;

	System.out.println(players.get(currentPlayer) + " is getting out of the penalty box");
	places[currentPlayer] = places[currentPlayer] + roll;
	if (places[currentPlayer] > 11) places[currentPlayer] = places[currentPlayer] - 12;

	System.out.println(players.get(currentPlayer)
			  + "'s new location is "
			  + places[currentPlayer]);
	System.out.println("The category is " + currentCategory());
	askQuestion();
} else {

What about this?

if (roll % 2 != 0) {
	isGettingOutOfPenaltyBox = true;

	System.out.println(players.get(currentPlayer) + " is getting out of the penalty box");
	places[currentPlayer] = places[currentPlayer] + roll;
	if (places[currentPlayer] > PLACE_BEFORE_STARTING_PLACE) places[currentPlayer] = places[currentPlayer] - MAX_PLACES;

	System.out.println(players.get(currentPlayer)
			  + "'s new location is "
			  + places[currentPlayer]);
	System.out.println("The category is " + getCurrentCategoryForCurrentPlayerOnPlace());
	askQuestionAndRemoveFromQuestionFromDeck();
} else {

This method name is called “roll” initially. If you would sum up all its behavior it would be more like:

	public void movePlayerAmountRolledAndAskQuestionOrWhenInPenaltyBoxIfUnevenRolledGetOutOfPenaltyBox(int roll) {

Who would ever accept such a long method name? I would, but it should trigger something. This method name tells you there is way too much going on in one place. And, since the method is public, we communicate to other classes what this thing is doing.

It is ok to rename multiple times. The longer you work with the code, the better you understand it. When the method names do not reflect their real intent, make it clearer and improve their names. Communicating what the code actually *does* is important, make it explicit. especially if the method name violates conventions (ie, a getSomething() method that is not getting a property, but does more than that.)

It is very tempting to extract expressions and methods
Before you do this. Make sure you have the Characterization tests and integration tests in place. The tests will tell you if you have broken something while refactoring using extract method or extract conditions into variables. Yes, even such small refactoring’s could cause bugs.

Here an example, take this expression:

	if (rolled % 2 != 0) {

Which you could turn into (extract into variable):

	boolean isUnevenRoll = roll % 2 != 0;
	if (isUnevenRoll) {

Or extract method:

	if (isUneven(roll)) {

I prefer (automated!) extract method over extracting into variables. The main reason is that extracting into methods introduce very small pieces of code that you can re-use. You could eventually even find that the methods are not particularly bound to the current class’ behavior and move them out of this class into a new class. With variables this is much harder to see and refactor.

With these two steps, we could have brought the code we had earlier into a state like this:

if (isUneven(roll)) {
	isGettingOutOfPenaltyBox = true;

	System.out.println(getCurrentPlayer() + " is getting out of the penalty box");
	moveCurrentPlayer(roll);

	System.out.println(getCurrentPlayer()
			  + "'s new location is "
			  + places[currentPlayer]);
	System.out.println("The category is " + getCurrentCategoryForCurrentPlayerOnPlace());
	askQuestionAndRemoveFromQuestionFromDeck();
} else {

Conclusion
When working with legacy code, it is of importance to understand the code before making changes. In order to understand the code we can use introduce constants or rename methods to make the code reveal its intent. Using Characterization tests we can fixate the current behavior and label it in our tests names. Then, once we have this test suite, we can start using small refactoring’s like extract method or extract variable to make conditionals reveal their intent.

When creating a test suite, creating mostly black box tests will help us in the future when refactoring opposed to white box tests. Sometimes white box tests cannot be avoided.

Without any tests we can already have more insight in what is happening. With a test suite we can more safely start refactoring.

More about coderetreats
I have been greatly inspired by the legacy code retreat day, where we could experiment more in our spare time. Just like the previous time I have learned a lot, and I am convinced that others will benefit from this as well. Therefor I have decided to lend a hand and offer to organize and facilitate a coderetreat myself at the end of this year. Stay tuned!

bookmark_borderRegression – Lets stop it!

I hate it.

You change something and you can’t tell if your change broke something in the system.

If you’re lucky, you did not break anything. Or nobody noticed it.
Next to that, on the same scale of luck, the potential bugs are found in the manual testing phase.

But often there is no time to do all the regression testing by hand. It will take days and days, and the change you made looked so insignificant. It should go live. What could possibly go wrong?.

Then it happens. You’re live, your changes work, but the inevitable happens. Regression!

Of course, this has to be fixed. We can’t let our customers have a product with new features while the features of the previous version(s) are broken.

And so the patching process begins.

I call it patching, because often you are not done with one patch. While you were working hard to get the first patch live, other regression bugs are found and need to be patched asap as well! And so you end up with a few patches. You could be done with with a few patch releases. But it could easily extend ten-fold.

This process is very stressful for the customer and the development team. As the team is working to get these patches out soon, the customer is unhappy with his ‘broken system’. Even worse, once a few bugs are found, more testing is done on the live system to make sure everything still works, and more regression bugs poor in, adding up to the stress. To the development team it begins to look like…

From the customer’s point of view, it looks like the team working on the product is not in control. It is as if the team does not seem to know what they are doing. To them their product, which seemed rock solid at start, is degrading to a house of cards.

You can debate about high and low impact issues, and the matter of urgency to fix these issues. The perception of the customer is likely to be the same, regardless.

This is how I see it:

It is us developers who are responsible for letting regression happen.

Not testers.
Not project managers.
Not stakeholders.
Not the customer.

It is us and us alone.

We write the code, we change the code, we are in control of the code (at least we should be!).

Even if you happened to be depending on a third-party system, it is your job to keep an eye out on that system. Verify that it behaves as you would expect it to. Why? Your system depends on the behaviour of another system, trusting that this behaviour does not change is not enough. You have to be *sure*.

Its all about attitude
Do you always deal with regression bugs after each release?

Stop accepting it, it is not normal.

Rather, start thinking about how you can prevent this. Don’t look how other people could prevent this. Think of what you could do right now. There are many ways to reduce the amount of regression bugs. For instance: add tests before changing any code. Fixate the behavior with black box tests. When you refactor, keep running your tests so you know you did not break existing behaviour. Add new tests for new features you introduce. Create a test suite that you can trust. Make integration tests. Is it hard to write tests? Make it easier. Don’t back away from the code, it is your code and you should be in control.

Besides the code, improve your own skills. Start reading about how to deal with legacy code. Attend a legacy code retreat to hone your skills. Practice, practice, practice! Get better.

Reap what you sow in your daily work.

But isn’t the whole team responsible?
Ah, of course! But does that mean that you, as a developer can now do less? Would it be okay in a team to not test, because you have testers? (“its their job right?”).

In a team we all have our strengths and weaknesses.

We understand code, and we can change code. No other role in your team is responsible for understanding the code then you. Being in a team does not make you less responsible.

Again, it is all about attitude. Stand for your craft, deliver high quality work and make sure the system is in check. It should be you who controls the system.

Attitude, again
There are developers out there who really think they know everything of the system. And to be honest, I once had a time where I always knew what changes had impact and what I could do. And even though I was right about the impact on changes…

…I was at least wrong as many times as I was right.

But sometimes it is not just being over-confident. Sometimes it is being ignorant, or even arrogant.

Please, don’t be like this guy…

Just because it is hard, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it
Regression is a pain. It can be dealt with.

It is not easy.

You will not completely eliminate regression bugs. But with the correct mindset, tools and safety-net(s), you will greatly reduce the amount of regression bugs.

It is necessary. Just do it. For the love of our (your!) craft, do it, for everyone who depends on us:

The customer.
The stakeholders.
The project managers.
Yes, even the testers.

bookmark_borderThe difference between TDD and Test First Development

Recently I promoted to do TDD, instead of “Tests First” development. Some people asked me what the difference is between them. In both cases we write tests first right?

So what is the difference?

I believe the difference is this:

Test First decribes your solution. TDD describes the problem

The difference could probably be explained best when using the coderetreat I had organized at the beginning of this year. Within this session I had experienced a great example to tell the difference between Tests first and TDD. To clarify the difference in this blog, we will be writing an implementation of Conway’s Game Of Life. It has the following rules:

  1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population.
  2. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
  3. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
  4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.

And it looks like this:

Image
Game Of Life in Action – Image from Wikipedia

Your assignment:

Write code that implements to the four rules above. It should be possible to apply these on an infinite grid

Test First describes your solution:
So the rules talk about “cells” and in your mind you’re already trying to solve this puzzle. In fact, I bet you’re already thinking about some array to put this matrix of cells into. Using a matrix we can easily determine neigbours and solve this puzzle…

We start with the first rule: “Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, …“.

We know it needs neighbours, so we need some boilerplate for that right?

The first test looks like this:

public class CellTest {

  @Test
  public void mustReturnTrueWhenAlive() {
    Cell cell = new Cell(1,0);
    Assert.assertTrue(cell.isAlive());
  }

}

Since we’re doing TDD (atleast we think it is, we’re actually doing Tests First…), we need to create this Cell class to make it compile.

public class Cell {

  private long x, y;

  public Cell(int x, int y) {
    this.x = x;
    this.y = y;
  }

  public boolean isAlive() {
    return true;
  }
}

Before we can do anything with counting the number of neighbours, we need to determine what a neighbour is. Since adjecent cells are counted as neighbours, we start writing tests for this:

@Test
public void mustReturnTrueWhenNextToAnotherCell() {
  Cell cell = new Cell(1,0);
  Cell adjecent = new Cell(1,1);
  Assert.assertTrue(cell.isAdjecent(adjecent));
}

@Test
public void mustReturnFalseWhenNotNextToAnotherCell() {
  Cell cell = new Cell(1,0);
  Cell adjecent = new Cell(3,3);
  Assert.assertFalse(cell.isAdjecent(adjecent));
}

And along with it the code:

public class Cell {

  private long x, y;

  public Cell(int x, int y) {
    this.x = x;
    this.y = y;
  }

  public boolean isAlive() {
    return true;
  }

  public boolean isAdjecent(Cell adjecent) {
    long diffX = Math.abs(adjecent.getX() - x);
    long diffY = Math.abs(adjecent.getY() - y);
    return diffX == 1 || diffY == 1;
  }

  public long getX() {
    return x;
  }

  public long getY() {
    return y;
  }
}

Wait, stop, halt!

If the above sounds familiar, then I’ve got news: This is not TDD

Lets get back to the original question, what did we try to implement? Ah, it was the question:

“Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population”,

So where is the corresponding test for that?…

In fact, we have already three tests and a bunch of code, and we still are not able to answer that question.

What we’ve done so far is write tests first in order to prove a solution we already had in our minds. We did not let the tests guide us to a design. In fact, we already had a design in our heads and made the tests conform to those.

Lets do it in TDD, for real

So how is it done ? – Test Driven Development

With a clean slate, we start over. And we start with the first rule:

“Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population”

So we create a test (we call it Test, because we do not think about Cells yet, in fact, we are only thinking about this very question).

@org.junit.Test
public void anyLiveCellWithFewerThanTwoLiveNeighboursDies() {
   int neighbours = 1;
   Assert.assertTrue(neighbours < 2);
}

So what does this do, it basically returns true when neighbours is lower than two. We do not call methods yet, we simply have our implementation within the test itself. In this phase, we already had Red (non compiling), Green (compiling and green test). On to refactor. How to get it more descriptive? We could do something like this:

@org.junit.Test
public void anyLiveCellWithFewerThanTwoLiveNeighboursDies() {
  int neighbours = 1;
  boolean shouldDie = neighbours < 2;
  Assert.assertTrue(shouldDie);
}

Do we need to do anything else? Certainly! But the essential rule is there already. It is one simple statement, no neighbour checking yet. And in fact, we will not need it to implement the four rules! Lets continue. I am serious, we will not modify the above code yet. We have yet to implement the other rules. Lets pick the second:

“Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.”

We have actually two cases here, for two and three live neighbours. Lets start with two:

@org.junit.Test
public void anyLiveCellWithTwoNeighboursLivesOn() {
  int neighbours = 2;
  boolean shouldLiveOn = neighbours == 2;
  Assert.assertTrue(shouldLiveOn);
}

Not that much different is it? How about we add the third test for the second rule:

@org.junit.Test
public void anyLiveCellWithThreeNeighboursLivesOn() {
  int neighbours = 3;
  boolean shouldLiveOn = neighbours == 3;
  Assert.assertTrue(shouldLiveOn);
}

The total test class looks like this now:

public class Test {

  @org.junit.Test
  public void anyLiveCellWithOneThanTwoLiveNeighboursDies() {
    int neighbours = 1;
    boolean shouldDie = neighbours < 2;
    Assert.assertTrue(shouldDie);
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void anyLiveCellWithTwoNeighboursLivesOn() {
    int neighbours = 2;
    boolean shouldLiveOn = neighbours == 2;
    Assert.assertTrue(shouldLiveOn);
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void anyLiveCellWithThreeNeighboursLivesOn() {
    int neighbours = 3;
    boolean shouldLiveOn = neighbours == 3;
    Assert.assertTrue(shouldLiveOn);
  }
}

We have done some little TDD cycles already. We started describing the problem domain, and we added the minimum amount of code to make this work. We did not yet start write any production code yet. Now one of the most important steps in TDD should be taken: Refactor. (Remember it is Red – Green – Refactor!)

With the third test, we clearly see duplication. The shouldLiveOn can be extracted to a method. Lets do that:

import org.junit.Assert;

public class Test {

  @org.junit.Test
  public void anyLiveCellWithOneThanTwoLiveNeighboursDies() {
    int neighbours = 1;
    boolean shouldDie = neighbours < 2;
    Assert.assertTrue(shouldDie);
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void anyLiveCellWithTwoNeighboursLivesOn() {
    int neighbours = 2;
    Assert.assertTrue(shouldLiveOn(neighbours));
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void anyLiveCellWithThreeNeighboursLivesOn() {
    int neighbours = 3;
    Assert.assertTrue(shouldLiveOn(neighbours));
  }

  private boolean shouldLiveOn(int neighbours) {
    return neighbours == 3 || neighbours == 2;
  }
}

We could refactor out the neighbours var to a constant, which should give us even smaller tests.

At this point we have now our first method which could eventually be moved out of the test class into some other class (we have yet to think of a name for). As you can see, the design of our code is being driven by the tests. So this may like trivial and like ‘cheating’. In fact, as I see it we are actually answering the real questions. We tend to write code for stuff we cannot possibly be sure of that it is correct. Did you see any line say that the Game of Life in this situation should be on a 2D grid? What if it would be 3D? What if we did not know yet if it would be 2D or 3D?

This sounds a lot like real-life isn’t it? Where your customer does not always know exactly what he wants.

Another good thing is, we can implement all rules like this. Eventually we end up with a test class that contains several methods. From there on we can think of a logical way to group them. Methods grouped together will form classes. We tend to group methods logically. When we define the problem domain we know better what classes should exist. Again, our tests drive the design. Instead of the other way around.

Here is an impression how the four rules implemented might look like:

package com.fundynamic.coderetreat;

import org.junit.*;

public class Test {

  public static final int StarvationThreshold = 1;
  public static final int OverpopulationThreshold = 4;
  public static final int MinimumRevivalThreshold = 3;
  public static final int MaximumRevivalThreshold = 3;

  @org.junit.Test
  public void liveCellShouldDieIfLessNeighboursThanStarvationThreshold() {
    int amountNeighbours = StarvationThreshold;
    Assert.assertEquals(false, livesOnToNextGeneration(amountNeighbours));
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void liveCellShouldDieIfNeighboursEqualToStarvationThreshold() {
    int amountNeighbours = StarvationThreshold;
    Assert.assertEquals(false, livesOnToNextGeneration(amountNeighbours));
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void liveCellShouldLiveIfTwoNeighbours() {
    int amountNeighbours = StarvationThreshold +1;
    Assert.assertEquals(true, livesOnToNextGeneration(amountNeighbours));
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void liveCellShouldLiveIfThreeNeighbours() {
    int amountNeighbours = 3;
    Assert.assertEquals(true, livesOnToNextGeneration(amountNeighbours));
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void liveCellShouldDieIfFourNeighbours() {
    int amountNeighbours = 4;
    Assert.assertEquals(false, livesOnToNextGeneration(amountNeighbours));
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void liveCellShouldDieIfEightNeighbours() {
    int amountNeighbours = 8;
    Assert.assertEquals(false, livesOnToNextGeneration(amountNeighbours));
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void deadCellShouldReviveIfMinimumRevivalThreshold() {
    int amountNeighbours = MinimumRevivalThreshold;
    Assert.assertEquals(true, revivesInNextGeneration(amountNeighbours));
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void deadCellShouldReviveIfMaximumRevivalThreshold() {
    int amountNeighbours = MaximumRevivalThreshold;
    Assert.assertEquals(true, revivesInNextGeneration(amountNeighbours));
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void deadCellShouldNotReviveIfLessNeighboursThanMinimumRevivalThreshold() {
    int amountNeighbours = MinimumRevivalThreshold -1;
    Assert.assertEquals(false, revivesInNextGeneration(amountNeighbours));
  }

  @org.junit.Test
  public void deadCellShouldNotReviveIfMoreNeighboursThanMaximumRevivalThreshold() {
    int amountNeighbours = MaximumRevivalThreshold +1;
    Assert.assertEquals(false, revivesInNextGeneration(amountNeighbours));
  }

  private boolean livesOnToNextGeneration(int amountNeighbours) {
    return amountNeighbours > StarvationThreshold && amountNeighbours < OverpopulationThreshold;
  }

  private boolean revivesInNextGeneration(int amountNeighbours) {
    return amountNeighbours == MinimumRevivalThreshold;
  }
}

But you did not even get to any cell? How is this any good?

It is true that cells play a role in the Game of Life eventually. But they do not play a role in answering the four questions. In fact, what are cells? We might be talking about squared cells or triangled or circled cells. Perhaps the requirement is to write a 3d version of a cell. Or you might want to use hexagons. If you put the rules logic into a cell, it gets very hard to modify your code because you have put too much responsibility in one class.

TDD prevents you from doing this. It prevents you from doing ‘design upfront’.

Also, if you started with using Cells and the matrix and all that. I would wonder how you would implement the last rule (reviving cells). How would you solve this problem?

Bottom line

Writing tests before your production code (test first) is not the same as TDD. TDD is about how your tests drive your design. Only then you can say if you are doing TDD or actually are just writing tests proving your own solution you have thought about before-hand.

It is hard to not think ahead of your design, and instead trust on our tests to let the design emerge itself. This requires practice. Practicing this can be done in coderetreats for instance.

 

Disclaimer about design…

TDD works great on a lot of levels in your architecture. This does not mean you can just do everything with TDD. Good architectural design requires thinking. You can’t just ‘do TDD’ and magically have a perfect design emerging. However, TDD will give you surprisingly elegant results. Especially, the more specific your problem (with a clear scope) the better TDD yields results.

bookmark_borderFirst coderetreat of 2012 in Amsterdam – Retrospective

At the end of 2011 I started organizing a coderetreat. It started on twitter around October. I’ve also posted about it in my last mini blog. The original event can be found here.

If anyone was interested, they could sign up (max 25 people) for free. All you needed to do was bring your best humor and if possible a laptop with your preferred dev environment set up. (Its not hard to organize one, check here if you’re interested)

If you want to know more about what a coderetreat is, click here. Even better: join a coderetreat somewhere near you and experience it. It is way better than just reading about it 🙂

Honing the craft together
Coderetreat

Lets start with a management summary:

It was awesome!

It reminded me of my experience with the bowling game kata last year. Since you’re repeating the exercise over and over again, you will find different approaches. Even better, because you’re switching pairs, you will have a different mindset literally to approach the problem presented by the coderetreat. Instead of writing a bowling game, you will be working on Conway’s Game Of Life.

The most notable things of that day where:

  • In the very first session we where let ‘free’. We could approach this problem how we wanted. Me and my pair where able to implement the first three rules. However we where not able to implement the fourth rule. Our design was not easy enough to revive dead cells. (gosh, this reminds me of the bowling game code kata first attempt…)
  • The second session we got to choose from different constraints. I picked the “no conditionals” one, because I can get my methods under 4 lines without pain. Programming without no conditions is a whole different story though.
  • The third session with ‘only check in within 2 minutes, else revert everything’ was an eye opener! It really forced you into thinking how to make all (baby) steps. Hence, I am using this at work now and it really works. I commit 10 times more often. Although I don’t make the 2 minute mark yet at work (5 minutes is easy though now).
  • The fourth session was fun, as we where able to implement *all rules* (opposed to the first session), but without the code we had implemented in the first session! We totally isolated the behaviour (this session was called “tdd as if you meant it”) and it blew our minds.

Will I attend more coderetreats? You bet! Just need to take a look at the list of events and pick an appropiate one. If I attend one, I will let you know (on twitter surely, perhaps on this blog).

If you want to know how it looked like, click here to see som pictures of the coderetreat.

I loved the coderetreat, and I’ll surely organize one again in the future. I would recommend anyone who loves his profession to join a coderetreat and practice. You’ll learn new things for sure!

How hard can it be, right? 😉