From: Michael Garriss <mgarriss@...>
Date: 2003-01-28T03:43:44+09:00
Subject: Re: Test::Unit -> order of tests?

Concider the following simple example code:

require 'dbi'

class DB_User
    def initialize( dns, user, pass )
        @dbh = DBI::connect( dns, user, pass )
    end
    def create_user_table
        @dbh.execute "CREATE TABLE my_user (
                id          BIGINT       NOT NULL  PRIMARY KEY,
                username    VARCHAR(24)  NOT NULL,
                password    VARCHAR(24)  NOT NULL,
                email       VARCHAR(64) )"
    end
      def drop_user_table
        @dbh.execute( "DROP TABLE my_user" )
    end                 
end


Lets say I want to test create_user_table and drop_user_table seperatly. 
 A possible solution:

require 'test/unit'
require 'db_user'

class TC_DB_User < Test::Unit::TestCase

    DNS  = 'dbi:Pg:tiamat'
    USER = 'postgres'
    PASS = nil

    def test_connection
        begin
            @tdb = Tiamat::DB_User.new( DNS, USER, PASS )
        rescue DBI::Error
            assert( false, 'Error getting connection' )
        end
    end

    def test_create_table
        test_connection  # !!!!!!
        begin
            @tdb.create_user_table
        rescue DBI::ProgrammingError
            assert( false, 'Error creating user table' )
        end
    end

    def test_drop_table
        test_connection  # !!!!!!
        test_create_table # !!!!!!
        begin
            @tdb.drop_user_table
        rescue DBI::ProgrammingError
            assert( false, 'Error creating user table' )
        end
    end
end


The tests that depend on other tests are just run from the tests that 
need them.  Is this bad practice??

-Mike