Testing Python: Applying Unit Testing, TDD, BDD and Acceptance Testing

Chapter 7

Utilizing Acceptance Test Tools

IN THIS CHAPTER you will strengthen your acceptance testing practices by learning about some of the tools available and the features they offer. Leveraging these tools, you can make your development cycle easier and more efficient, enabling you to automate some of the things you need to do every day, such as running your entire test suite as part of a build process. In this chapter, you look at the Cucumber package, which is a Ruby package that sets the standard for acceptance testing in this way. You take a more in-depth look at the Lettuce library introduced in Chapter 6 alongside some options and features it offers apart from the standard test execution.

The Robot test framework offers an alternative approach to this style of testing, and you compare its design and feature set with the testing shown so far. Having some knowledge about a few test tools can help you decide which is best for your development situation Whatever acceptance testing framework you chose, the ideology behind testing in this way can bring great benefits in terms of assurance and quality around your deliverables.

Cucumber: The Acceptance Test Standard

Chapter 6 introduced you to acceptance testing and behavior driven development (BDD). It’s fair to say that the Ruby community and, in particular, the Cucumber tool that arose from that community have had a huge say in defining how this testing should be done. To a great extent, the Ruby community has placed a focus ...