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I have a class that connects three other services, specifically designed to make implementing the other services more modular, but the bulk of my unit test logic is in mock verification. Is there a way to redesign to avoid this?
Python example:
class Input(object): pass
class Output(object): pass
class Finder(object): pass
class Correlator(object): pass
def __init__(self, input, output, finder):
pass
def run():
finder.find(input.GetRows())
output.print(finder)
I then have to mock input, output and finder. Even if I do make another abstraction and return something from Correlator.run(), it will still have to be tested as a mock.
209
Mock Objects are a Code Smell But mock objects are more often smelly because they are telling you something about the system under test. A Code Smell is defined as “a hint that something has gone wrong somewhere in your code”.
Automated testing during software development involves many different techniques, one that shouldn't be used is mocking. Mocks are a distraction at best and provide false confidence at worst.
Test smells are defined as bad programming practices in unit test code (such as how test cases are organized, implemented and interact with each other) that indicate potential design problems in the test source code [3], [4], [5], [6].
Mocking is a process used in unit testing when the unit being tested has external dependencies. The purpose of mocking is to isolate and focus on the code being tested and not on the behavior or state of external dependencies.
Just ask yourself: what exactly do you need to check in this particular test case? If this check does not rely on other classes not being dummy, then you are OK.
However, a lot of mocks is usually a smell in sense that you are probably trying to test integration without actually doing integration. So if you assume that if the class passes test with mocks, it will be fine working with real classes, than yes, you have to write some more tests.
Personally, I don't write many Unit tests at all. I'm web developer and I prefer functional tests, that test the whole application via HTTP requests, as users would. Your case may be different
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