ColdBox HMVC Documentation
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4.x
4.x
  • Introduction
  • Intro
    • Introduction
      • What's New With 4.3.0
      • What's New With 4.2.0
      • What's New With 4.1.0
      • What's New With 4.0.0
        • WireBox 2.0.0
        • CacheBox 2.0.0
        • LogBox 2.0.0
      • Upgrading to ColdBox 4
      • About This Book
      • Author
  • For Newbies
    • 60 Minute Quick Start
      • Installing ColdBox
      • My First ColdBox Application
      • My First Handler & View
      • Linking Events Together
      • Working With Event Handlers
      • Adding A Layout
      • Adding A Model
      • RESTFul Data
      • Next Steps
  • Getting Started
    • Getting Started Guide
    • Installation
    • Conventions
    • Configuration
      • ColdBox.cfc
        • Configuration Directives
          • CacheBox
          • ColdBox
          • Conventions
          • Environments
          • Flash
          • InterceptorSettings
          • Interceptors
          • Layouts
          • LayoutSettings
          • LogBox
          • Modules
          • ModuleSettings
          • Settings
          • WireBox
        • System Settings (Java Properties and Environment Variables)
      • Using Settings
      • Bootstrapper - Application.cfc
  • The Basics
    • Request Context
    • Routing
      • Requirements
        • Rewrite Rules
      • Application Router
      • Routing DSL
        • Routing By Convention
        • Pattern Placeholders
        • Routing Methods
        • Resourceful Routes
        • Named Routes
        • Routing Groups
        • Routing Namespaces
      • Building Routable Links
      • RESTFul Extension Detection
      • HTTP Method Spoofing
      • HTML Base Tag
      • Pathinfo Providers
    • Event Handlers
      • How are events called?
      • Getting & Setting Values
      • Setting Views
      • Relocating
      • Rendering Data
      • Sending Files
      • Interception Methods
        • Pre Advices
        • Post Advices
        • Around Advices
      • Model Integration
        • Model Data Binding
      • HTTP Method Security
      • Implicit Methods
      • Executing Events
      • Viewlets - Reusable Events
      • Event Caching
      • Validation
    • Layouts & Views
      • Views
        • Rendering Views
        • Rendering External Views
        • Rendering With Local Variables
        • Rendering Collections
        • View Caching
        • View Helpers
        • View Events
      • Layouts
        • Basic Layouts
        • Default Layout
        • Nested Layouts
        • Overriding Layouts
        • Layouts From A Module
        • Layout Helpers
        • Layout Events
      • Implicit Layout-View Declarations
      • Helpers UDF's
      • ColdBox Elixir
    • Models
      • Domain Modeling
        • Service Layer
        • Data Layers
        • Book
      • Conventions Location
      • WireBox Binder
      • Super Type Usage Methods
      • Injection DSL
        • Model Object Namespace
        • ColdBox Namespace
        • CacheBox Namespace
        • LogBox Namespace
        • WireBox Namespace
        • EntityService Namespace
      • Object Scopes
      • Coding: Solo Style
        • Datasource
        • Contact.cfc
        • ContactDAO.cfc
        • ContactService.cfc
        • Contacts Handler
      • Coding: ActiveEntity Style
        • ORM
        • Contact.cfc
        • Contacts Handler
        • Views
      • Coding: Virtual Service Layer
        • ORM
        • Contacts.cfc
        • Contacts Handler
        • Views
      • Coding: ORM Scaffolding
        • ORM
        • Contacts.cfc
        • Scaffold
  • HMVC
    • Modules
      • Core Modules
      • Locations
      • Parent Configuration
      • Module Layout
        • Changing The Module Layout
      • Module Service
        • Module Lifecycle
        • Module Registration
        • Module Activation
        • Module Unloading
        • Common Methods
        • Loading New Modules
        • Loading A-la-carte Modules
        • Module Events
      • ModuleConfig
        • Public Module Properties\/Directives
        • The Decorated Variables
        • The configure() Method
        • Module Settings
        • Environment Control
        • Interceptor Events
      • Module Event Executions
      • URL Routing
        • Default Route Execution
        • Module Routes Files
      • Request Context Module Methods
      • Layout and View Renderings
        • Layout\/View Discovery
        • Overriding Views
        • Overriding Layouts
        • Default Module Layout
        • Explicit Module Renderings
      • Models
      • Module CF Mappings
      • Module Dependencies
      • Module Bundles
      • Module Inception
  • Testing
    • Testing Quick Start
    • Testing ColdBox Applications
      • Test Harness
      • ColdBox Testing Classes
      • Integration Testing
        • Test Annotations
        • Common Methods
        • Life-Cycle Events
        • Test Setup
        • The execute() Method
        • The Handler To Test
        • The Integration Test
        • Handler Returning Results
        • Testing Without Virtual Application
        • Rendering Results
        • HTTP Method Mocking
      • Interceptor Testing
      • Model Object Testing
      • Tips & Tricks
  • Digging Deeper
    • Interceptors
      • How do they work?
        • Conventions
      • Interceptor Declaration
      • Interceptor Registration
      • Core Interception Points
        • Application Life Cycle Events
        • Object Creating Events
        • Layout-View Events
        • Module Events
        • CacheBox Events
      • Restricting Execution
      • Interceptor Output Buffer
      • Custom Events
        • Configuration Registration
        • Programmatic Registration
        • Listening
        • Announcing Interceptions
      • Unregistering Interceptors
      • Reporting Methods
      • Interceptor Asynchronicity
        • Async Announcements
        • Async Listeners With Join
        • Async Listeners No Join
        • Asynchronous Annotations
    • Flash RAM
      • Flash Storage
      • Using Flash RAM
      • Creating Your Own Flash Scope
    • HTML Helper
    • ColdBox Proxy
      • Getting Started
      • The Base Proxy Object
      • The Event Handlers
        • Distinguishing Request Types
        • RenderData()
      • Proxy Events
      • Standard Return Types
      • Caveats & Gotchas
    • Request Context Decorator
    • Recipes
      • Building REST APIs
      • Application Templates
      • ColdBox Exception Handling
      • Debugging ColdBox Apps
      • Controller Decorator
      • Clearing the View Cache
      • Building a simple Basic HTTP Authentication Interceptor
  • Architecture Concepts
    • What is MVC
    • What is ColdBox
    • How ColdBox Works
    • Testing Concepts
      • Functional Testing
      • Non-Functional Testing
      • Bugs Cost Money
      • Static Testing
      • Dynamic Testing
      • Developer Focus
      • Testing Vocabulary
      • Testing Tools
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  • Installing TestBox
  • Benefits
  • Resources

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  1. Testing

Testing ColdBox Applications

Last updated 7 years ago

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One of the best things you can do when you develop software applications is TEST! I know nobody likes it, but hey, you need to do it right? With the advocation of frameworks today, you get all these great tools to build your software applications, but how do you test your framework code. ColdBox has revolutionized testing MVC and framework code, since you can unit test your event handlers, interceptors, model objects and even do integration testing and test your entire application with no browser at all.

ColdBox has already all the hooks in place to provide Behavior and Test Driven Development via and mocking/stubbing capabilities via MockBox.

TestBox is a testing framework for ColdFusion (CFML) that is based on BDD (Behavior Driven Development) for providing a clean obvious syntax for writing tests. It also includes MockBox for mocking and stubbing.

Installing TestBox

So let's get started by opening a CommandBox prompt (box) in your application root and installing TestBox.

// stable
install testbox --saveDev

// bleeding edge
install testbox@be --saveDev

Info The --saveDev flag tells CommandBox to save TestBox locally only for testing purposes as it will not be used to send TestBox for production ()

Please also note that CommandBox ships with tons of commands for interacting with TestBox and ColdBox testing classes. You can explore them by issuing the following commands or viewing the latest CommandBox API Docs ()

# testbox namespace help
testbox help

# generations
testbox create help

# run tests
testbox run help

# coldbox creation help
coldbox create help

Benefits

It might be that testing is tedious and takes time to get into the flow of Behavior/Test Driven Development. However, there are incredible benefits to testing:

  • Can improve code quality

  • Quick error discovery

  • Code confidence via immediate verification

  • Can expose high coupling

  • Encourages refactoring to produce testable code

  • Testing is all about behavior and expectations

Resources

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TestBox
http://commandbox.ortusbooks.com/content/packages/dependencies.html
http://apidocs.ortussolutions.com/commandbox/current
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_test
TestBox
http://ortussolutions.com/products/testbox
TestBox BDD Book
http://testbox.ortusbooks.com
ColdFusion Builder TestBox Extensions
http://forgebox.io/view/coldbox-platform-utilities
Sublime TestBox Extension
https://github.com/lmajano/cbox-coldbox-sublime
VSCode TestBox Extension
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ortus-solutions.vscode-testbox