"Testing is not the same thing as having tests."
—Kent Beck, Test Driven Development: By Example

Test Driven Development (TDD) is the disciplined practice of writing unit tests prior to writing the actual production code. This practice can lead to clean, well-designed software that is agile and easily adapted to rapidly changing requirements. Additionally, having tests for your code gives you a platform for immediate feedback on the state of your software and communicates your intentions to team members. The process is simple; yet, like anything done well, it takes time to learn and practice. You write tests for your code first, quickly write just enough code to make the tests pass, then refactor the code until it satisfies the system's requirements, ensuring your test is passing as you are refactoring. Changes to code are done in small increments, referred to as baby steps. While developing, you will frequently run your unit tests. This gives you that immediate feedback.

This two-part series will demonstrate how to apply TDD and unit testing techniques to ColdFusion application development. It will show you how you can leverage the MXUnit toolset to build unit tests and automated test suites that give you, the developer, an almost instantaneous assessment of your code while facilitating collaboration in a team environment.

Requirements

In order to make the most of this article, you need the following software and files:

ColdFusion 8

• Try
• Buy

MXUnit Framework and Eclipse Plugin

• Download
• Installation instructions

Sample files:

• testdriven_coldfusion_pt1.zip (ZIP, 239K)

Prerequisite knowledge

Working knowledge of ColdFusion components. Minimal understanding of MXUnit, unit testing, and CFEclipse will also be helpful.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

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