Enter Test::Mini::Unit

At first glance, Test::Mini::Unit provides moderate improvements over the traditional style, transforming this:

  package t::Test
  use base 'Test::Mini::TestCase';
  use strict;
  use warnings;
  use Test::Mini::Assertions;
  sub setup {
      # do something
  }
  sub test_some_code {
      assert($something_true);
  }
  sub teardown {
      # undo something
  }
  1;

Into this:

  use Test::Mini::Unit;
  case t::Test {
      setup {
          # do something
      }
      test some_code {
          assert($something_true);
      }
      teardown {
          # undo something
      }
  }

Advice

But Test::Mini::Unit really begins to shine as your test cases take on more complexity. Multiple calls to the test advice methods ("setup" and "teardown") will stack like "BEGIN" and "END" blocks, allowing you to co-locate tests and relevant advice.

  # Traditional
  sub setup {
      # do a bunch of setup for test_one
      # ...
      # do a bunch of setup for test_two
      # ...
  }
  sub test_one { ... }
  sub test_two { ... }
  # Test::Mini::Unit
  setup { "do setup for test_one" }
  sub test_one { ... }
  setup { "do setup for test_two" }
  sub test_two { ... }

Test-Local Storage

Per-test local storage is automatically available as $self from all advice and test blocks.

   setup { $self->{data} = Package->new() }
   test data { assert_isa($self->{data}, 'Package') }
   teardown { unlink $self->{tmpfile} }

Nesting

And perhaps most usefully, test cases can be nested. Nested test cases inherit all their outer scope's test advice, allowing you to build richer tests with far less code.

  case t::IO::Scalar {
      setup { $self->{buffer} = IO::Scalar->new() }
      test can_read  { assert_can($self->{buffer}, 'read')  }
      test can_write { assert_can($self->{buffer}, 'write') }
      test is_empty  { assert_empty("@{[$self->{buffer}]}") }
      case AfterWritingString {
          setup { $self->{buffer}->print('String!') }
          test contents {
              assert_equal("@{[$self->{buffer}]}", 'String!');
          }
      }
      case AfterWritingObject {
          setup { $self->{buffer}->print($self) }
          test contents {
              assert_equal("@{[$self->{buffer}]}", "$self");
          }
      }
  }

Sharing Tests...

In some cases, you may find it useful to reuse the same tests in different cases. For this purpose, the "shared" and "reuse" keywords exist:

  shared BasicBookTests {
      test has_pages { ... }
      test pages_have_text { ... }
  }
  case Book {
      reuse BasicBookTests;
  }
  case LargePrintBook {
      reuse BasicBookTests;
      test words_should_be_big { ... }
  }

... And Reusing Them

Groups of shared tests may also be nested inside "case" blocks, where they will inherit the namespace of their parent. Since shared tests will most commonly see reuse inside either the "case" they're declared in or a nested case, it's not usually necessary to specify the full package name. The "reuse" keyword will try, therefore, to infer the fully qualified package name from the name it's given. (You can always specify the full name yourself by prepending '::'.)

  shared CommonTests {
      # __PACKAGE__ is 'Nested::CommonTests'
  }
  case Nested {
      shared CommonTests {
          # __PACKAGE__ is 'Nested::CommonTests'
      }
      case Deeply {
          shared CommonTests {
              # __PACKAGE__ is 'Nested::Deeply::CommonTests'
          }
          # includes Nested::Deeply::CommonTests
          reuse CommonTests;
          # includes Nested::CommonTests
          reuse Nested::CommonTests;
          # includes CommonTests
          reuse ::CommonTests;
      }
      # includes Nested::CommonTests
      reuse CommonTests;
  }

Automatic 'use'

To automatically use packages inside all your test cases (for example, your own custom assertions), simply pass the 'with' option to Test::Mini::Unit; it can accept either a single package name or an array.

  use Test::Mini::Unit (with => [ My::Assertions, My::HelperFuncs ]);
  case t::TestCase {
      # My::Assertions and My::HelperFuncs are already imported here.
      case Nested {
          # In here, too.
      }
      shared CommonTests {
          # Yup, here too.
      }
  }

See Also:

•

Test::Mini