Unit Testing

This tutorial covers the implementation of a unit test that validates the behavior of the Byline component’s Sling Model, created in the Custom Component tutorial.

Prerequisites

Review the required tooling and instructions for setting up a local development environment.

If both Java 8 and Java 11 are installed on the system, the VS Code test runner may pick the lower Java runtime when executing the tests, resulting in test failures. If this occurs, uninstall Java 8.

Starter Project

Check out the base-line code the tutorial builds on:

1. Check out the tutorial/unit-testing-start branch from GitHub

   $ cd aem-guides-wknd
   $ git checkout tutorial/unit-testing-start
   

2. Deploy code base to a local AEM instance using your Maven skills:

   $ mvn clean install -PautoInstallSinglePackage
   

   NOTE

   If using AEM 6.5 or 6.4, append the classic profile to any Maven commands.

   $ mvn clean install -PautoInstallSinglePackage -Pclassic
   

You can always view the finished code on GitHub or check the code out locally by switching to the branch tutorial/unit-testing-start.

Objective

1. Understand the basics of unit testing.
2. Learn about frameworks and tools commonly used to test AEM code.
3. Understand options for mocking or simulating AEM resources when writing unit tests.

Background

In this tutorial, we’ll explore how to write Unit Tests for our Byline component’s Sling Model (created in the Creating a custom AEM Component). Unit tests are build-time tests written in Java that verify expected behavior of Java code. Each unit tests is typically small, and validates the output of a method (or units of work) against expected results.

We use AEM best practices, and employ:

• JUnit 5
• Mockito Testing Framework
• wcm.io Test Framework (which builds on Apache Sling Mocks)

Unit Testing and Adobe Cloud Manager

Adobe Cloud Manager integrates unit test execution and code coverage reporting into its CI/CD pipeline to help encourage and promote the best practice of unit testing AEM code.

While unit testing code is a good practice for any code base, when using Cloud Manager it is important to take advantage of its code quality testing and reporting facilities by providing unit tests for Cloud Manager to run.

Update the test Maven dependencies

The first step is to inspect Maven dependencies to support writing and running the tests. There are four dependencies required:

1. JUnit5
2. Mockito Test Framework
3. Apache Sling Mocks
4. AEM Mocks Test Framework (by io.wcm)

The JUnit5, Mockito and AEM Mocks test dependencies are automatically added to the project during setup using the AEM Maven archetype.

1. To view these dependencies, open the Parent Reactor POM at aem-guides-wknd/pom.xml, navigate to the <dependencies>..</dependencies> and view the dependencies for JUnit, Mockito, Apache Sling Mocks, and AEM Mock Tests by io.wcm under <!-- Testing -->.

2. Ensure that io.wcm.testing.aem-mock.junit5 is set to 4.1.0:

   <dependency>
       <groupId>io.wcm</groupId>
       <artifactId>io.wcm.testing.aem-mock.junit5</artifactId>
       <version>4.1.0</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
   </dependency>
   

   CAUTION

   Archetype 35 generates the project with io.wcm.testing.aem-mock.junit5 version 4.1.8. Please downgrade to 4.1.0 to follow the rest of this chapter.

3. Open aem-guides-wknd/core/pom.xml and view that the corresponding testing dependencies are available.

   A parallel source folder in the core project will contain the unit tests and any supporting test files. This test folder provides separation of test classes from the source code but allows the tests to act as if they live in the same packages as the source code.

Creating the JUnit test

Unit tests typically map 1-to-1 with Java classes. In this chapter, we’ll write a JUnit test for the BylineImpl.java, which is the Sling Model backing the Byline component.

Location where Unit tests are stored.

1. Create a unit test for the BylineImpl.java by making a new Java class under src/test/java in a Java package folder structure that mirrors the location of the the Java class to be tested.

   

   Since we are testing

   • src/main/java/com/adobe/aem/guides/wknd/core/models/impl/BylineImpl.java

   create a corresponding unit test Java class at

   • src/test/java/com/adobe/aem/guides/wknd/core/models/impl/BylineImplTest.java

   The Test suffix on the unit test file, BylineImplTest.java is a convention, that allows us to

   1. Easily identify it as the test file for BylineImpl.java
   2. But also, differentiate the test file from the class being tested, BylineImpl.java

Reviewing BylineImplTest.java

At this point, the JUnit test file is an empty Java class.

1. Update the file with the following code:

   package com.adobe.aem.guides.wknd.core.models.impl;
   
   import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.*;
   
   import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
   import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
   
   public class BylineImplTest {
   
       @BeforeEach
       void setUp() throws Exception {
   
       }
   
       @Test
       void testGetName() {
           fail("Not yet implemented");
       }
   
       @Test
       void testGetOccupations() {
           fail("Not yet implemented");
       }
   
       @Test
       void testIsEmpty() {
           fail("Not yet implemented");
       }
   }
   

2. The first method public void setUp() { .. } is annotated with JUnit’s @BeforeEach, which instructs the JUnit test runner to execute this method before running each test method in this class. This provides a handy place to initialize common testing state required by all tests.

3. The subsequent methods are the test methods, whose names are prefixed with test by convention, and marked with the @Test annotation. Notice that by default, all our tests are set to fail, as we have not implemented them yet.

   To begin, we start with a single test method for each public method on the class we’re testing, so:

   BylineImpl.java		BylineImplTest.java
   getName()	is tested by	testGetName()
   getOccupations()	is tested by	testGetOccupations()
   isEmpty()	is tested by	testIsEmpty()

   These methods can be expanded on as needed, as we’ll see later on in this chapter.

   When this JUnit test class (also known as a JUnit Test Case) is run, each method marked with the @Test will execute as a test which can either pass or fail.

core/src/test/java/com/adobe/aem/guides/wknd/core/models/impl/BylineImplTest.java

1. Run the JUnit Test Case by right-clicking on the BylineImplTest.java file, and tapping Run.
   As expected, all tests fail, as they have not been implemented yet.

   

   Right-click on BylineImplTests.java > Run

Reviewing BylineImpl.java

When writing unit tests, there are two primary approaches:

• TDD or Test Driven Development, which involves writing the unit tests incrementally, immediately before the implementation is developed; write a test, write the implementation to make the test pass.
• Implementation-first Development, which involves developing working code first and then writing tests that validate said code.

In this tutorial, the latter approach is used (as we’ve already created a working BylineImpl.java in a previous chapter). Because of this, we must review and understand its public methods’ behaviors, but also some of its implementation details. This may sound contrary, as a good test should only care about the inputs and outputs, however when working in AEM, there are a variety of implementation considerations that are required to be understood in order to construct working tests.

TDD in the context of AEM requires a level of expertise and is best adopted by AEM developers proficient in AEM development and unit testing of AEM code.

Setting up AEM test context

Most code written for AEM relies on JCR, Sling or AEM APIs, which in turn, require the context of a running AEM to execute properly.

Since unit tests are executed at build, outside the context of a running AEM instance, there is no such context. To facilitate this, wcm.io’s AEM Mocks creates mock context that allows these APIs to mostly act as if they are running in AEM.

1. Create an AEM context using wcm.io’s AemContext in BylineImplTest.java by adding it as a JUnit extension decorated with @ExtendWith to the BylineImplTest.java file. The extension takes care of all initialization and cleanup tasks required. Create a class variable for AemContext that can be used for all of the test methods.

   import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith;
   import io.wcm.testing.mock.aem.junit5.AemContext;
   import io.wcm.testing.mock.aem.junit5.AemContextExtension;
   ...
   
   @ExtendWith(AemContextExtension.class)
   class BylineImplTest {
   
       private final AemContext ctx = new AemContext();
   
   

   This variable, ctx, exposes a mock AEM context that provides a number of AEM and Sling abstractions:

   • The BylineImpl Sling Model is registered into this context
   • Mock JCR content structures are created in this context
   • Custom OSGi services can be registered in this context
   • Provides a variety of common required mock objects and helpers such as SlingHttpServletRequest objects, a variety of mock Sling and AEM OSGi services such as ModelFactory, PageManager, Page, Template, ComponentManager, Component, TagManager, Tag, etc.
     • Note that not all methods for these objects are implemented!
   • And much more!

   The ctx object will act as the entry point for most of our mock context.

2. In the setUp(..) method, which is executed prior to each @Test method, define a common mock testing state:

   @BeforeEach
   public void setUp() throws Exception {
       ctx.addModelsForClasses(BylineImpl.class);
       ctx.load().json("/com/adobe/aem/guides/wknd/core/models/impl/BylineImplTest.json", "/content");
   }
   

   • addModelsForClasses registers the Sling Model to be tested, into the mock AEM Context, so it can be instantiated in the @Test methods.
   • load().json loads resource structures into the mock context, allowing the code to interact with these resources as if they were provided by a real repository. The resource definitions in the file BylineImplTest.json are loaded into the mock JCR context under /content.
   • BylineImplTest.json does not yet, exist, so let’s create it and define the JCR resource structures that are needed for the test.

3. The JSON files that represent the mock resource structures are stored under core/src/test/resources following the same package pathing as the JUnit Java test file.

   Create a new JSON file at core/test/resources/com/adobe/aem/guides/wknd/core/models/impl named BylineImplTest.json with the following content:

   {
       "byline": {
       "jcr:primaryType": "nt:unstructured",
       "sling:resourceType": "wknd/components/content/byline"
       }
   }
   

   

   This JSON defines a mock resource (JCR node) for the Byline component unit test. At this point, the JSON has the minimum set of properties required to represent a Byline component content resource, the jcr:primaryType and sling:resourceType.

   A general rule when working with unit tests is to create the minimal set of mock content, context, and code required to satisfy each test. Avoid the temptation of building out complete mock context before writing the tests, as it often results in unneeded artifacts.

   Now with the existence of BylineImplTest.json, when ctx.json("/com/adobe/aem/guides/wknd/core/models/impl/BylineImplTest.json", "/content") is executed, the mock resource definitions are loaded into the context at the path /content.

Testing getName()

Now that we have a basic mock context setup, let’s write our first test for BylineImpl’s getName(). This test must ensure the method getName() returns the correct authored name stored at the resource’s "name" property.

1. Update the testGetName() method in BylineImplTest.java as follows:

   import com.adobe.aem.guides.wknd.core.models.Byline;
   ...
   @Test
   public void testGetName() {
       final String expected = "Jane Doe";
   
       ctx.currentResource("/content/byline");
       Byline byline = ctx.request().adaptTo(Byline.class);
   
       String actual = byline.getName();
   
       assertEquals(expected, actual);
   }
   
   

   • String expected sets the expected value. We will set this to “Jane Done”.
   • ctx.currentResource sets the context of the mock resource to evaluate the code against, so this is set to /content/byline as that is where the mock byline content resource is loaded.
   • Byline byline instantiates the Byline Sling Model by adapting it from the mock Request object.
   • String actual invokes the method we’re testing, getName(), on the Byline Sling Model object.
   • assertEquals asserts the expected value matches the value returned by the byline Sling Model object. If these values are not equal, the test will fail.

2. Run the test… and it fails with a NullPointerException.

   Note that this test does NOT fail because we never defined a name property in the mock JSON, that will cause the test to fail however the test execution hasn’t gotten to that point! This test fails due to a NullPointerException on the byline object itself.

3. In the BylineImpl.java, if @PostConstruct init() throws an exception it prevents the Sling Model from instantiating, and causing that Sling Model object to be null.

   @PostConstruct
   private void init() {
       image = modelFactory.getModelFromWrappedRequest(request, request.getResource(), Image.class);
   }
   

   It turns out that while the ModelFactory OSGi service is provided via the AemContext (by way of the Apache Sling Context), not all methods are implemented, including getModelFromWrappedRequest(...) which is called in the BylineImpl’s init() method. This results in an AbstractMethodError, which in term causes init() to fail, and the resulting adaption of the ctx.request().adaptTo(Byline.class) is a null object.

   Since the provided mocks cannot accommodate our code, we must implement the mock context ourselves For this, we can use Mockito to create a mock ModelFactory object, that returns a mock Image object when getModelFromWrappedRequest(...) is invoked upon it.

   Since in order to even instantiate the Byline Sling Model, this mock context must be in place, we can add it to the @Before setUp() method. We also need to add the MockitoExtension.class to the @ExtendWith annotation above the BylineImplTest class.

   package com.adobe.aem.guides.wknd.core.models.impl;
   
   import org.mockito.junit.jupiter.MockitoExtension;
   import org.mockito.Mock;
   
   import com.adobe.aem.guides.wknd.core.models.Byline;
   import com.adobe.cq.wcm.core.components.models.Image;
   
   import io.wcm.testing.mock.aem.junit5.AemContext;
   import io.wcm.testing.mock.aem.junit5.AemContextExtension;
   
   import org.apache.sling.models.factory.ModelFactory;
   import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
   import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
   import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith;
   
   import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.*;
   import static org.mockito.Mockito.*;
   import org.apache.sling.api.resource.Resource;
   
   @ExtendWith({ AemContextExtension.class, MockitoExtension.class })
   public class BylineImplTest {
   
       private final AemContext ctx = new AemContext();
   
       @Mock
       private Image image;
   
       @Mock
       private ModelFactory modelFactory;
   
       @BeforeEach
       public void setUp() throws Exception {
           ctx.addModelsForClasses(BylineImpl.class);
   
           ctx.load().json("/com/adobe/aem/guides/wknd/core/models/impl/BylineImplTest.json", "/content");
   
           lenient().when(modelFactory.getModelFromWrappedRequest(eq(ctx.request()), any(Resource.class), eq(Image.class)))
                   .thenReturn(image);
   
           ctx.registerService(ModelFactory.class, modelFactory, org.osgi.framework.Constants.SERVICE_RANKING,
                   Integer.MAX_VALUE);
       }
   
       @Test
       void testGetName() { ...
   }
   

   • @ExtendWith({AemContextExtension.class, MockitoExtension.class}) marks the Test Case class to be run with the Mockito JUnit Jupiter Extension which allows for the use of the @Mock annotations to define mock objects at the Class level.
   • @Mock private Image creates a mock object of type com.adobe.cq.wcm.core.components.models.Image. Note that this is defined at the class level so that, as needed, @Test methods can alter its behavior as needed.
   • @Mock private ModelFactory creates a mock object of type ModelFactory. Note that this is a pure Mockito mock and has no methods implemented on it. Note that this is defined at the class level so that, as needed, @Testmethods can alter its behavior as needed.
   • when(modelFactory.getModelFromWrappedRequest(..) registers mock behavior for when getModelFromWrappedRequest(..) is called on the mock ModelFactory object. The result defined in thenReturn (..) is to return the mock Image object. Note that this behavior is only invoked when: the 1st parameter is equal to the ctx’s request object, the 2nd param is any Resource object, and the 3rd param must be the Core Components Image class. We accept any Resource because throughout our tests we are setting the ctx.currentResource(...) to various mock resources defined in the BylineImplTest.json. Note that we add the lenient() strictness because we will later want to override this behavior of the ModelFactory.
   • ctx.registerService(..). registers the mock ModelFactory object into the AemContext, with the highest service ranking. This is required since the ModelFactory used in the BylineImpl’s init() is injected via the @OSGiService ModelFactory model field. In order for the AemContext to inject our mock object, which handles calls to getModelFromWrappedRequest(..), we must register it as the highest ranking Service of that type (ModelFactory).

4. Re-run the test, and again it fails, but this time the message is clear why its failed.

   

   testGetName() failure due to assertion

   We receive an AssertionError which means the assert condition in the test failed, and it tells us the expected value is “Jane Doe” but the actual value is null. This makes sense because the "name" property has not been added to mock /content/byline resource definition in BylineImplTest.json, so let’s add it:

5. Update BylineImplTest.json to define "name": "Jane Doe".

   {
       "byline": {
       "jcr:primaryType": "nt:unstructured",
       "sling:resourceType": "wknd/components/content/byline",
       "name": "Jane Doe"
       }
   }
   

6. Re-run the test, and testGetName() now passes!

   

Testing getOccupations()

Ok great! Our first test has passed! Let’s move on and test getOccupations(). Since the initialization of the mock context was does in the @Before setUp()method, this is available to all @Test methods in this Test Case, including getOccupations().

Remember that this method must return an alphabetically sorted list of occupations (descending) stored in the occupations property.

1. Update testGetOccupations() as follows:

   import java.util.List;
   import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
   ...
   @Test
   public void testGetOccupations() {
       List<String> expected = new ImmutableList.Builder<String>()
                               .add("Blogger")
                               .add("Photographer")
                               .add("YouTuber")
                               .build();
   
       ctx.currentResource("/content/byline");
       Byline byline = ctx.request().adaptTo(Byline.class);
   
       List<String> actual = byline.getOccupations();
   
       assertEquals(expected, actual);
   }
   

   • List<String> expected define the expected result.
   • ctx.currentResource sets the current resource to evaluate the context against to the mock resource definition at /content/byline. This ensures the BylineImpl.java executes in the context of our mock resource.
   • ctx.request().adaptTo(Byline.class) instantiates the Byline Sling Model by adapting it from the mock Request object.
   • byline.getOccupations() invokes the method we’re testing, getOccupations(), on the Byline Sling Model object.
   • assertEquals(expected, actual) asserts expected list is the same as the actual list.

2. Remember, just like getName() above, the BylineImplTest.json does not define occupations, so this test will fail if we run it, since byline.getOccupations() will return an empty list.

   Update BylineImplTest.json to include a list of occupations, and they are set in non-alphabetical order to ensure that our tests validate that the occupations are sorted alphabetically by getOccupations().

   {
       "byline": {
       "jcr:primaryType": "nt:unstructured",
       "sling:resourceType": "wknd/components/content/byline",
       "name": "Jane Doe",
       "occupations": ["Photographer", "Blogger", "YouTuber"]
       }
   }
   

3. Run the test, and again we pass! Looks like getting the sorted occupations works!

   

   testGetOccupations() passes

Testing isEmpty()

The last method to test isEmpty().

Testing isEmpty() is interesting as it requires testing for a variety of conditions. Reviewing BylineImpl.java’s isEmpty() method the following conditions must be tested:

• Return true when the name is empty
• Return true when occupations are null or empty
• Return true when the image is null or has no src URL
• Return false when the name, occupations, and Image (with a src URL) are present

For this, we need to create new test methods, each testing a specific condition as well as new mock resource structures in BylineImplTest.json to drive these tests.

Note that this check allowed us to skip testing for when getName(), getOccupations() and getImage() are empty since the expected behavior of that state is tested via isEmpty().

1. The first test will test the condition of a brand new component, that has no properties set.

   Add a new resource definition to BylineImplTest.json, giving it the semantic name “empty”

   {
       "byline": {
           "jcr:primaryType": "nt:unstructured",
           "sling:resourceType": "wknd/components/content/byline",
           "name": "Jane Doe",
           "occupations": ["Photographer", "Blogger", "YouTuber"]
       },
       "empty": {
           "jcr:primaryType": "nt:unstructured",
           "sling:resourceType": "wknd/components/content/byline"
       }
   }
   

   "empty": {...} define a new resource definition named “empty” that only has a jcr:primaryType and sling:resourceType.

   Remember we load BylineImplTest.json into ctx before the execution of each test method in @setUp, so this new resource definition is immediately available to us in tests at /content/empty.

2. Update testIsEmpty() as follows, setting the current resource to the new “empty” mock resource definition.

   @Test
   public void testIsEmpty() {
       ctx.currentResource("/content/empty");
       Byline byline = ctx.request().adaptTo(Byline.class);
   
       assertTrue(byline.isEmpty());
   }
   

   Run the test and ensure it passes.

3. Next, create a set of methods to ensure that if any of the required data points (name, occupations, or image) are empty, isEmpty() returns true.

   For each test, a discrete mock resource definition is used, update BylineImplTest.json with the additional resource definitions for without-name and without-occupations.

   {
       "byline": {
           "jcr:primaryType": "nt:unstructured",
           "sling:resourceType": "wknd/components/content/byline",
           "name": "Jane Doe",
           "occupations": ["Photographer", "Blogger", "YouTuber"]
       },
       "empty": {
           "jcr:primaryType": "nt:unstructured",
           "sling:resourceType": "wknd/components/content/byline"
       },
       "without-name": {
           "jcr:primaryType": "nt:unstructured",
           "sling:resourceType": "wknd/components/content/byline",
           "occupations": "[Photographer, Blogger, YouTuber]"
       },
       "without-occupations": {
           "jcr:primaryType": "nt:unstructured",
           "sling:resourceType": "wknd/components/content/byline",
           "name": "Jane Doe"
       }
   }
   

   Create the following test methods to test the each of these states.

   @Test
   public void testIsEmpty() {
       ctx.currentResource("/content/empty");
   
       Byline byline = ctx.request().adaptTo(Byline.class);
   
       assertTrue(byline.isEmpty());
   }
   
   @Test
   public void testIsEmpty_WithoutName() {
       ctx.currentResource("/content/without-name");
   
       Byline byline = ctx.request().adaptTo(Byline.class);
   
       assertTrue(byline.isEmpty());
   }
   
   @Test
   public void testIsEmpty_WithoutOccupations() {
       ctx.currentResource("/content/without-occupations");
   
       Byline byline = ctx.request().adaptTo(Byline.class);
   
       assertTrue(byline.isEmpty());
   }
   
   @Test
   public void testIsEmpty_WithoutImage() {
       ctx.currentResource("/content/byline");
   
       lenient().when(modelFactory.getModelFromWrappedRequest(eq(ctx.request()),
           any(Resource.class),
           eq(Image.class))).thenReturn(null);
   
       Byline byline = ctx.request().adaptTo(Byline.class);
   
       assertTrue(byline.isEmpty());
   }
   
   @Test
   public void testIsEmpty_WithoutImageSrc() {
       ctx.currentResource("/content/byline");
   
       when(image.getSrc()).thenReturn("");
   
       Byline byline = ctx.request().adaptTo(Byline.class);
   
       assertTrue(byline.isEmpty());
   }
   

   testIsEmpty() tests against the empty mock resource definition, and asserts that isEmpty() is true.

   testIsEmpty_WithoutName() tests against a mock resource definition that has occupations but no name.

   testIsEmpty_WithoutOccupations() tests against a mock resource definition that has a name but no occupations.

   testIsEmpty_WithoutImage() tests against a mock resource definition with a name and occupations but sets the mock Image to return to null. Note that we want to override the modelFactory.getModelFromWrappedRequest(..)behavior defined in setUp() to ensure the Image object returned by this call is null. The Mockito stubs feature is strict and does not want duplicitous code. Therefore we set the mock with lenient settings to explicitly note we are overriding the behavior in the setUp() method.

   testIsEmpty_WithoutImageSrc() tests against a mock resource definition with a name and occupations, but sets the mock Image to return a blank string when getSrc() is invoked.

4. Lastly, write a test to ensure that isEmpty() returns false when the component is properly configured. For this condition, we can re-use /content/byline which represents a fully configured Byline component.

   @Test
   public void testIsNotEmpty() {
       ctx.currentResource("/content/byline");
       when(image.getSrc()).thenReturn("/content/bio.png");
   
       Byline byline = ctx.request().adaptTo(Byline.class);
   
       assertFalse(byline.isEmpty());
   }
   

5. Now run all the unit tests in in the BylineImplTest.java file, and review the Java Test Report output.

Running unit tests as part of the build

Unit tests are executed are required to pass as part of the maven build. This ensures that all tests successfully pass before an application be be deployed. Executing Maven goals such as package or install automatically invoke and require the passing of all unit tests in the project.

$ mvn package

$ mvn package

Likewise, if we change a test method to fail, the build fails and reports which test failed and why.

Review the code

View the finished code on GitHub or review and deploy the code locally at on the Git brach tutorial/unit-testing-solution.

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