On 12.04.2011 14:46, John Peterson wrote:
I was wondering if anyone out there is aware of any Test Harnesses that could be used for regression testing Drools applications out there? 
 
We found this spreadsheet tester from Michael Neale:
https://github.com/michaelneale/rule-spreadsheet-tester/#readme
 
Are there any others?

Hi John, hi all,

we used a similar approach (Excel) for some time, but dropped it well over a year ago because it's very hard to maintain. We're now using plain Java tests to load *.drl files and run a plethora of tiny unit tests against individual rules. A few larger tests load most of our rules and execute integration test scenarios.

Regarding maintainability: we're using a pojo based fact model to represent our knowledge which needs to be changed from time to time, driven by new features. This is easier if tests are in Java than if they were Excel. Excel cannot be diffed or merged easily, as it is a binary format. Besides, you normally cannot use the search function(s) provided by modern IDEs to search inside Excel files. Plus you have code completion to code your test setup and the assertions if using Java-based tests.

We do have our own (internal) test harness, which is basically a set of reusable test superclasses and helpers. I heard rumors from our legal dept. that it would be okay to open-source it one day, but due to lack of time nobody ever really did.

If you want to follow this road, let me know. Maybe I can provide some more insights and/or code examples.

That said, I think Excel-based tests might be okay in scenarios where the underlying fact model does not change frequently. For us, they have proven too heavy to maintain.

Best regards

Ansgar

 
Thanks!
 
 

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