Objective Action - BDD

Stubs and Mocks in cfSpec 0.3

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:15:00+0100

I noticed last week that there is a new version of cfSpec available and took the oportunity to download it. I was very keen to try out the new Mocking feature as a new project I started needs to be able to do that because the web services it will be using won't be available until after the project has been underway for several weeks. 'Great,' I thought, I can start straight away and use Mocks for the missing web services. Unfortunately there is no documentation yet, but Ron Hopper very kindly sent me a document that helped me get started with writing some simple Mocks and this week I should be able to nail down some more realistic ones for my project. The new version of cfSpec builds upon the great work done in earlier versions with Stubs, so using a Mock is very similar but gives you extra abilities to set what the object returns and test how many times it is called. So let's start with some examples of stubs which worked in version 0.2. [More]

Behaviour Driven Development at TVCFUG

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:38:00+0100

One of the tools promoted by Agile Development Gurus is Test Driven Development (TDD) but TDD didn't work for me. Eventually I discovered Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) and cfSpec which I found much more user friendly. If you are interested in this new way of thinking about development it would be great to see you at this meeting. The meeting will convene at 6:00pm for 6:30 Start at Phones International. We will also be doing the usual raffle and I have a very nice Adobe Rucksack to give away to a lucky winner. Please email me at tvcfug (at) objectiveinternet (dot) com or log in on Adobe Groups and say you will be attending to ensure your name is on the list on the door. For details of the location please go to our Adobe Groups Site.

Behaviour Driven Development with cfSpec at Devon CFUG

Fri, 08 May 2009 09:51:00+0100

I will be speaking about Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) and cfSpec at the Devon CFUG on Wednesday 13th May. Over the last few weeks I have been preparing a presentation on BDD, mostly to get the ideas straight in my own head. If you are interested in this new way of thinking about development it would be great to see you in Exeter next week. The meeting will convene at 6:00pm for 6:30 Start at Crisp eBusiness. Map. I have been enjoying using BDD for the last few weeks and hope to have time to write a blog entry or two about it soon.

Behaviour Driven Development

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:09:00+0100

Following the recent inaugural meeting of the Adobe Web Business group, I was keen to find out more about Agile development and found some really interesting stuff about Behaviour Driven Development. For me one of the interesting points was simply that it focuses on Powerful questions and getting the words right at the start. Shortly after the meeting I downloaded cfSpec and began playing with it. Now I am hooked. At that time cfSpec was at version 0.1.1 and yesterday I noticed that it has moved on to version 0.2.1 which is good to see. The first was very usable and the second adds several new features. I might be a bit late to this party as several other bloggers have already commented on cfSpec. There seems to be a growing interest in BDD and in particular I see that Sean Corfield is speaking on BDD at cf.objective().2009. One thing that I have found frustrating is creating tests for old code. To help me do that, I have created an additional custom tag. You can add the generate tag to cfSpec and then simply point it at an existing cfc to create a framework for the cfSpec. Its a bit of a hack but saves me lots of typing because I was fairly good about adding hints to my CFCs.

Before I get loads of negative comments, I do realise that this is completly backwards and the wrong way to do the job of creating the tests but its only designed to help when you already have some code and you plan to refactor it. I feel a good first step its to create some tests which can be run after refactoring to prove that the code wasn't broken in the process. Let me know if you find the tag useful.