[development] Drupal and acceptance testing

[Caleb Gilbert]

(Reposted because mailserve stripped blockquotes making things
unreadable - apologies)

> The Drupal SimpleTest module has progressed far beyond the original
> SimpleTest we started with - we now have a more powerful, although
> Drupal-specific testing framework which still retains the somewhat
> misleading name "SimpleTest" (there's an issue somewhere to rename
> SimpleTest to testing). We currently do have both functional and unit
> tests working under the current framework - although javascript tests
> currently remain impossible, although there are several issues
> addressing that point (feel free to help!).

I think what you're saying confirms that while 'far-beyond the original
simpletest'  - the current testing framework in Drupal still has this in
common with the standard version of Simpletest -- it's primarily focused on
unit/functional testing - not acceptance testing, which is a whole different
focus. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_testing )

To help make what I'm talking about more understandable, here's a list of
what selenium (for instance) offers that simpletest (and the Drupal
implementation) does not:
       a) a top-rated browser plugin which offers an interface for
scripting, exporting, and running tests
           specifically aimed at the browser-based aspect of a web
application (again *not* unit/functional
           testing) (screenshots and explanation
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/node/980 )
       b) an additional tool, Selenium RC, which includes functionlity to
automatically launch a variety
           of browsers and step through the tests in each browser - as an
end-user would do
      c) testing of ajax/js ui elements


> The Drupal SimpleTest module has progressed far beyond the original
> SimpleTest we started with - we now have a more powerful, although
> Drupal-specific testing framework which still retains the somewhat
> misleading name "SimpleTest" (there's an issue somewhere to rename
> SimpleTest to testing). We currently do have both functional and unit
> tests working under the current framework - although javascript tests
> currently remain impossible, although there are several issues
> addressing that point (feel free to help!).

Again, acceptance testing/selenium does not just = adding-javascript support
to unit tests - it equals a whole other kind of testing - one I believe that
a very sizable percentage of the Drupal community is interested in I'm sure
- testing from the end-user/client perspective. So this would not be a
matter of rethinking the existing framework - it's would be adding on to it
and/or getting a way to more easily get selenium working with Drupal so that
Drupal developers can include accetance test within their workflow.

For anyone who doesn't have the bandwidth or the interest to work on finding
solutions to better acceptance testing within Drupal I can understand - but
I just wanted to point out the difference between what is in Drupal now and
what I'm talking about. They are different and it's not just about what's in
Drupal 'missing javascript support'.

- Caleb
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