[development] Test automation

[Derek Wright]

On Jun 15, 2006, at 7:56 PM, Kieran Lal wrote:

> Ok, let's completely abandon the idea of automatically unit testing  
> patches.  Instead let's have a block on http://drupal.org/project/ 
> issues that has a file upload.
...
> Instead of spending all this effort automating some thing simple we  
> focus on making it a valuable service to the developer community.   
> The person who posts the patch can just provide a link to the unit  
> test result.
>
> Keep It Simple S******

fair enough. ;)

to avoid storing duplicate copies of the patches (and to ensure we're  
testing the same patch we're commenting on and reviewing in the issue  
queue), we might want to just input a file URL in this testing block,  
that points to the copy of the patch already uploaded and attached to  
a given issue.  so, you post your comment, attach your patch, and  
when you want it tested, you just drag the attachment URL from your  
comment into the test block (which should be visible on all issue  
pages, not just the issue query pages).

however, many of the ambiguities and issues i raised in my previous  
message are true whether or not you're considering automated patch  
testing.  i agree, it's probably not worth Rok's effort to solve all  
of them before getting *something* working for automated patch  
testing, and the upload block (or equivalent) seems like a fine place  
to start.  certainly, he could get the block working first, and some  
day down the road when the other issues are solved in a more  
appealing way, we can worry about more direct automation between  
uploading a patch to an issue and having it tested.

-derek (dww)