<?xml version='1.0' ?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
               "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % myvars SYSTEM "../variables.ent">
%myvars;
]>
<sect1 id="automated-testing-best-practices">
  <title>Automated Testing</title>

<authorblurb>
<para>By <ulink url="mailto:davis@xarg.net">Jeff Davis</ulink></para>
</authorblurb>
  
  <para>Best practices in writing OpenACS automated tests</para>
  <itemizedlist>
    <listitem>
      <formalpara>
        <title>Special characters in Tcl</title>
        <para>
Try strings starting with a <computeroutput>-Bad</computeroutput> and strings containing <computeroutput>[BAD]</computeroutput>, <computeroutput>{</computeroutput>, <computeroutput>\077</computeroutput>, and <computeroutput>$Bad</computeroutput>.  For user input, <computeroutput>[BAD]</computeroutput> should never be evaluated, <computeroutput>\077</computeroutput> should not be turned into a <computeroutput>?</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>$Bad</computeroutput> should not be interpolated.  The string <computeroutput>-Bad [BAD] \077 { $Bad</computeroutput> should be valid user input, should pass through the system unaltered, and if it isn't that's a bug.
</para>
      </formalpara>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
      <formalpara>
        <title>Quoting issues</title>
        <para>Put some html in plain text fields and make sure the result is
properly quoted anywhere it shows up (I use "&lt;b&gt;bold&lt;/b&gt;"
usually).  Look out especially for quoting errors in the context bar
and in round trips via an edit form. For fields that disallow html
tags you can use <computeroutput>&amp;amp;</computeroutput> to check that the field is quoted
properly.  If it is not displayed as <computeroutput>&amp;amp;</computeroutput> then the quoting for the field is incorrect. (It's not clear whether this
should be considered an error but given that data for text fields can
come from various sources if it's text it should be properly quoted
and we should not rely on input validation to prevent XSS security
holes.)</para>
      </formalpara>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
      <formalpara>
        <title>Whitespace input</title>
        <para>Check that whitespace is not considered valid input for a field
if it does not make sense.  For example, the subject of a forum post is
used to construct a link and if it is " " it will have a link of
<computeroutput>&lt;a href="..."&gt; &lt;/a&gt;</computeroutput> which would not be clickable if whitespace was allowed as a valid input.
</para>
      </formalpara>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
      <formalpara>
        <title>Doubleclick</title>
        <para>
Make sure that if you submit a form, use the back button, and submit
again that the behavior is reasonable (correct behavior depends on
what the form is for, but a server error is not reasonable).
</para>
      </formalpara>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
      <formalpara>
        <title>Duplicate names</title>
        <para>
Make sure that if a duplicate name is entered that there is a
reasonable error rather than a server error.  Check for
insert, move, copy, and rename.
</para>
      </formalpara>
    </listitem>
  </itemizedlist>


<para><phrase role="cvstag">($Id: auto-testing.xml,v 1.3 2006/07/17 05:38:37 torbenb Exp $)</phrase></para>

</sect1>
