spring-framework/spring-framework-reference/src/testing.xml

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<chapter id="testing">
  <title>Testing</title>

  <section id="testing-introduction">
    <title>Introduction to testing</title>

    <para>Testing is an integral part of enterprise software development. This
    chapter focuses on the value-add of the IoC principle to <link
    linkend="unit-testing">unit testing</link> and on the benefits of Spring
    Framework <link linkend="integration-testing">integration testing</link>.
    <emphasis>(A thorough treatment of testing in the enterprise is beyond the
    scope of this chapter.)</emphasis></para>
  </section>

  <section id="unit-testing">
    <title>Unit testing</title>

    <para>Dependency Injection should make your code less dependent on the
    container than it would be with traditional Java EE development. The POJOs
    that make up your application should be testable in JUnit or TestNG tests,
    with objects simply instantiated using the <literal>new</literal>
    operator, <emphasis>without Spring or any other container</emphasis>. You
    can use <link linkend="mock-objects">mock objects</link> (in conjunction
    with other valuable testing techniques) to test your code in isolation. If
    you follow the architecture recommendations for Spring, the resulting
    clean layering and componentization of your codebase will facilitate
    easier unit testing. For example, you can test service layer objects by
    stubbing or mocking DAO or Repository interfaces, without needing to
    access persistent data while running unit tests.</para>

    <para>True unit tests typically run extremely quickly, as there is no
    runtime infrastructure to set up. Emphasizing true unit tests as part of
    your development methodology will boost your productivity. You may not
    need this section of the testing chapter to help you write effective unit
    tests for your IoC-based applications. For certain unit testing scenarios,
    however, the Spring Framework provides the following mock objects and
    testing support classes.</para>

    <section id="mock-objects">
      <title>Mock objects</title>

      <section id="mock-objects-jndi">
        <title>JNDI</title>

        <para>The <literal>org.springframework.mock.jndi</literal> package
        contains an implementation of the JNDI SPI, which you can use to set
        up a simple JNDI environment for test suites or stand-alone
        applications. If, for example, JDBC <classname>DataSource</classname>s
        get bound to the same JNDI names in test code as within a Java EE
        container, you can reuse both application code and configuration in
        testing scenarios without modification.</para>
      </section>

      <section id="mock-objects-servlet">
        <title>Servlet API</title>

        <para>The <literal>org.springframework.mock.web</literal> package
        contains a comprehensive set of Servlet API mock objects, targeted at
        usage with Spring's Web MVC framework, which are useful for testing
        web contexts and controllers. These mock objects are generally more
        convenient to use than dynamic mock objects such as <ulink
        url="http://www.easymock.org">EasyMock</ulink> or existing Servlet API
        mock objects such as <ulink
        url="http://www.mockobjects.com">MockObjects</ulink>.</para>
      </section>

      <section id="mock-objects-portlet">
        <title>Portlet API</title>

        <para>The <literal>org.springframework.mock.web.portlet</literal>
        package contains a set of Portlet API mock objects, targeted at usage
        with Spring's Portlet MVC framework.</para>
      </section>
    </section>

    <section id="unit-testing-support-classes">
      <title>Unit testing support classes</title>

      <section id="unit-testing-utilities">
        <title>General utilities</title>

        <para>The <literal>org.springframework.test.util</literal> package
        contains <classname>ReflectionTestUtils</classname>, which is a
        collection of reflection-based utility methods. Developers use these
        methods in unit and integration testing scenarios in which they need
        to set a non-<literal>public</literal> field or invoke a
        non-<literal>public</literal> setter method when testing application
        code involving, for example:</para>

        <itemizedlist>
          <listitem>
            <para>ORM frameworks such as JPA and Hibernate that condone
            <literal>private</literal> or <literal>protected</literal> field
            access as opposed to <literal>public</literal> setter methods for
            properties in a domain entity.</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Spring's support for annotations such as
            <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename>,
            <interfacename>@Inject</interfacename>, and
            <interfacename>@Resource,</interfacename> which provides
            dependency injection for <literal>private</literal> or
            <literal>protected</literal> fields, setter methods, and
            configuration methods.</para>
          </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>
      </section>

      <section id="unit-testing-spring-mvc">
        <title>Spring MVC</title>

        <para>The <literal>org.springframework.test.web</literal> package
        contains <classname>ModelAndViewAssert</classname>, which you can use
        in combination with JUnit, TestNG, or any other testing framework
        for unit tests dealing
        with Spring MVC <classname>ModelAndView</classname> objects.</para>

        <tip>
          <title>Unit testing Spring MVC Controllers</title>

          <para>To test your Spring MVC <literal>Controller</literal>s, use
          <classname>ModelAndViewAssert</classname> combined with
          <literal>MockHttpServletRequest</literal>,
          <literal>MockHttpSession</literal>, and so on from the <link
          linkend="mock-objects-servlet"><literal>org.springframework.mock.web</literal></link>
          package.</para>
        </tip>
      </section>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section id="integration-testing">
    <title>Integration testing</title>

    <section id="integration-testing-overview">
      <title>Overview</title>

      <para>It is important to be able to perform some integration testing
      without requiring deployment to your application server or connecting to
      other enterprise infrastructure. This will enable you to test things
      such as:</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>The correct wiring of your Spring IoC container
          contexts.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>Data access using JDBC or an ORM tool. This would include such
          things as the correctness of SQL statements, Hibernate queries, JPA
          entity mappings, etc.</para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

      <para>The Spring Framework provides first-class support for
      integration testing in
      the <filename class="libraryfile">spring-test</filename> module.
      The name of the actual JAR file might include the release
      version and might also be in the
      long <filename>org.springframework.test</filename> form,
      depending on where you got it from (see
      the <link linkend="dependency-management"> section on Dependency
      Management</link> for an explanation). This library includes
      the <literal>org.springframework.test</literal> package, which
      contains valuable classes for integration testing with a Spring
      container. This testing does not rely on an application server
      or other deployment environment. Such tests are slower to run
      than unit tests but much faster than the equivalent Cactus
      tests or remote tests that rely on deployment to an application
      server.</para>

      <para>In Spring 2.5 and later, unit and integration testing support is
      provided in the form of the annotation-driven <link
      linkend="testcontext-framework">Spring TestContext Framework</link>. The
      TestContext framework is agnostic of the actual testing framework in
      use, thus allowing instrumentation of tests in various environments
      including JUnit, TestNG, and so on.</para>

      <warning>
        <title>JUnit 3.8 support is deprecated</title>

        <para>As of Spring 3.0, the legacy JUnit 3.8 base class hierarchy (i.e.,
        <classname>AbstractDependencyInjectionSpringContextTests</classname>,
        <classname>AbstractTransactionalDataSourceSpringContextTests</classname>,
        etc.) is officially deprecated and will be removed in a later release.
        Any test classes based on this code should be migrated to the
        <link linkend="testcontext-framework">Spring
        TestContext Framework</link>.</para>

        <para>As of Spring 3.1, the JUnit 3.8 base classes in the Spring
        TestContext Framework (i.e.,
        <classname>AbstractJUnit38SpringContextTests</classname> and
        <classname>AbstractTransactionalJUnit38SpringContextTests</classname>)
        have been officially deprecated and will be removed in a later release.
        Any test classes based on this code should be migrated to the JUnit 4
        or TestNG support provided by the <link linkend="testcontext-framework">Spring
        TestContext Framework</link>.</para>
      </warning>
    </section>

    <section id="integration-testing-goals">
      <title>Goals of integration testing</title>

      <para>Spring's integration testing support has the following
      primary goals:</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>To manage <link linkend="testing-ctx-management">Spring IoC container
          caching</link> between test execution.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>To provide <link linkend="testing-fixture-di">Dependency Injection of
          test fixture instances</link>.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>To provide <link linkend="testing-tx">transaction management</link>
          appropriate to integration testing.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>To supply <link linkend="testing-support-classes">Spring-specific
          base classes</link> that assist developers in writing integration
          tests.</para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

      <para>The next few sections describe each goal and provide links to
      implementation and configuration details.</para>

      <section id="testing-ctx-management">
        <title>Context management and caching</title>

        <para>The Spring TestContext Framework provides consistent loading of
        Spring <classname>ApplicationContext</classname>s and caching of those
        contexts. Support for the caching of loaded contexts is important,
        because startup time can become an issue &mdash; not because of the overhead
        of Spring itself, but because the objects instantiated by the Spring
        container take time to instantiate. For example, a project with 50 to
        100 Hibernate mapping files might take 10 to 20 seconds to load the
        mapping files, and incurring that cost before running every test in
        every test fixture leads to slower overall test runs that could reduce
        productivity.</para>

        <para>Test classes provide an array containing the resource locations
        of XML configuration metadata &mdash; typically in the classpath &mdash; that is
        used to configure the application. These locations are the same as or
        similar to the list of configuration locations specified in
        <literal>web.xml</literal> or other deployment configuration
        files.</para>

        <para>By default, once loaded, the configured
        <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> is reused for each
        test. Thus the setup cost is incurred only once (per test suite),
        and subsequent test execution is much faster. In the unlikely case
        that a test corrupts the application context and requires reloading &mdash;
        for example, by modifying a bean definition or the state of an
        application object &mdash; the TestContext framework can be configured
        to reload the configuration and rebuild the application
        context before executing the next test.</para>

        <para>See context management and caching with the <link
        linkend="testcontext-ctx-management">TestContext
        framework</link>.</para>
      </section>

      <section id="testing-fixture-di">
        <title>Dependency Injection of test fixtures</title>

        <para>When the TestContext framework loads your application context,
        it can optionally configure instances of your test classes via
        Dependency Injection. This provides a convenient mechanism for setting
        up test fixtures using preconfigured beans from your application
        context. A strong benefit here is that you can reuse application
        contexts across various testing scenarios (e.g., for configuring
        Spring-managed object graphs, transactional proxies,
        <classname>DataSource</classname>s, etc.), thus avoiding the need to
        duplicate complex test fixture set up for individual test cases.</para>

        <para>As an example, consider the scenario where we have a class,
        <classname>HibernateTitleRepository</classname>, that performs data access
        logic for say, the <classname>Title</classname> domain object. We want
        to write integration tests that test all of the following
        areas:</para>

        <itemizedlist>
          <listitem>
            <para>The Spring configuration: basically, is everything related
            to the configuration of the
            <classname>HibernateTitleRepository</classname> bean correct and
            present?</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>The Hibernate mapping file configuration: is everything
            mapped correctly, and are the correct lazy-loading settings in
            place?</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>The logic of the <classname>HibernateTitleRepository</classname>:
            does the configured instance of this class perform as
            anticipated?</para>
          </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>

        <para>See dependency injection of test fixtures with the <link
        linkend="testcontext-fixture-di">TestContext framework</link>.</para>
      </section>

      <section id="testing-tx">
        <title>Transaction management</title>

        <para>One common issue in tests that access a real database is their
        affect on the state of the persistence store. Even when you're using a
        development database, changes to the state may affect future tests.
        Also, many operations &mdash; such as inserting or modifying persistent data
        &mdash; cannot be performed (or verified) outside a transaction.</para>

        <para>The TestContext framework addresses this issue. By default, the
        framework will create and roll back a transaction for each test. You
        simply write code that can assume the existence of a transaction. If
        you call transactionally proxied objects in your tests, they will
        behave correctly, according to their transactional semantics. In
        addition, if test methods delete the contents of selected tables while
        running within a transaction, the transaction will roll back by
        default, and the database will return to its state prior to execution
        of the test. Transactional support is provided to your test class via
        a <classname>PlatformTransactionManager</classname> bean defined in
        the test's application context.</para>

        <para>If you want a transaction to commit &mdash; unusual, but occasionally
        useful when you want a particular test to populate or modify the
        database &mdash; the TestContext framework can be instructed to cause the
        transaction to commit instead of roll back via the <link
        linkend="integration-testing-annotations"><interfacename>@TransactionConfiguration</interfacename></link>
        and <link
        linkend="integration-testing-annotations"><interfacename>@Rollback</interfacename></link>
        annotations.</para>

        <para>See transaction management with the <link
        linkend="testcontext-tx">TestContext framework</link>.</para>
      </section>

      <section id="testing-support-classes">
        <title>Support classes for integration testing</title>

        <para>The Spring TestContext Framework provides several
        <literal>abstract</literal> support classes that simplify the writing
        of integration tests. These base test classes provide well-defined
        hooks into the testing framework as well as convenient instance
        variables and methods, which enable you to access:</para>

        <itemizedlist>
          <listitem>
            <para>The <literal>ApplicationContext</literal>, for performing
            explicit bean lookups or testing the state of the context as a
            whole.</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>A <classname>SimpleJdbcTemplate</classname>, for executing
            SQL statements to query the database.
            Such queries can be used to confirm database state both
            <emphasis>prior to</emphasis> and <emphasis>after</emphasis>
            execution of database-related application code, and Spring
            ensures that such queries run in the scope of the same
            transaction as the application code. When used in conjunction
            with an ORM tool, be sure to avoid
            <link linkend="testcontext-tx-false-positives">false positives</link>.</para>
          </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>

        <para>In addition, you may want to create your own custom,
        application-wide superclass with instance variables and methods
        specific to your project.</para>

        <para>See support classes for the <link
        linkend="testcontext-support-classes">TestContext
        framework</link>.</para>
      </section>
    </section>

    <section id="integration-testing-support-jdbc">
      <title>JDBC testing support</title>

      <para>The <literal>org.springframework.test.jdbc</literal> package
      contains <classname>SimpleJdbcTestUtils</classname>, which is a
      Java-5-based collection of JDBC related utility functions intended to
      simplify standard database testing scenarios. <emphasis>Note that <link
      linkend="testcontext-support-classes-junit4"><classname>AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests</classname></link>
      and <link
      linkend="testcontext-support-classes-testng"><classname>AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests</classname></link>
      provide convenience methods which delegate to
      <classname>SimpleJdbcTestUtils</classname> internally.</emphasis></para>
    </section>

    <section id="integration-testing-annotations">
      <title>Annotations</title>

      <para>The Spring Framework provides the following set of
      <emphasis>Spring-specific</emphasis> annotations that you can use in
      your unit and integration tests in conjunction with the TestContext
      framework. Refer to the respective JavaDoc for further information,
      including default attribute values, attribute aliases, and so on.</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>Defines class-level metadata that is used to determine how to
          load and configure an
          <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename>. Specifically,
          <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename> defines the
          application context resource <literal>locations</literal> to load as
          well as the <interfacename>ContextLoader</interfacename> strategy to
          use for loading the context.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@ContextConfiguration(locations="example/test-context.xml", loader=CustomContextLoader.class)
public class CustomConfiguredApplicationContextTests {
    <lineannotation>// class body...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

          <note>
            <para><interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename>
            supports <emphasis>inherited</emphasis> resource locations by
            default. See <link linkend="testcontext-ctx-management">Context
            management and caching</link> and JavaDoc for an example and
            further details.</para>
          </note>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@DirtiesContext</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>Indicates that the underlying Spring
          <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> has been
          <emphasis>dirtied</emphasis> (i.e., modified or corrupted in some manner)
          during the execution of a test and should be closed,
          regardless of whether the test passed.
          <interfacename>@DirtiesContext</interfacename> is supported in
          the following scenarios:</para>

          <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
              <para>After the current test class, when declared on a class
              with class mode set to <literal>AFTER_CLASS</literal>, which is
              the default class mode.</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
              <para>After each test method in the current test class, when
              declared on a class with class mode set to
              <literal>AFTER_EACH_TEST_METHOD.</literal></para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
              <para>After the current test, when declared on a method.</para>
            </listitem>
          </itemizedlist>

          <para>Use this annotation if a test has modified the context (for
          example, by replacing a bean definition). Subsequent tests are
          supplied a new context.</para>

          <para>With JUnit 4.5+ or TestNG you can use
          <interfacename>@DirtiesContext</interfacename> as both a class-level
          and method-level annotation within the same test class. In such scenarios,
          the <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> is marked as
          <emphasis>dirty</emphasis> after any such annotated method as well
          as after the entire class. If the <classname>ClassMode</classname>
          is set to <literal>AFTER_EACH_TEST_METHOD</literal>, the context is
          marked dirty after each test method in the class.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@DirtiesContext
public class ContextDirtyingTests {
    <lineannotation>// some tests that result in the Spring container being dirtied</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

          <programlisting language="java">@DirtiesContext(classMode = ClassMode.AFTER_EACH_TEST_METHOD)
public class ContextDirtyingTests {
    <lineannotation>// some tests that result in the Spring container being dirtied</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

          <programlisting language="java">@DirtiesContext
@Test
public void testProcessWhichDirtiesAppCtx() {
    <lineannotation>// some logic that results in the Spring container being dirtied</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

          <para>When an application context is marked
          <emphasis>dirty</emphasis>, it is removed from the testing
          framework's cache and closed; thus the underlying Spring container
          is rebuilt for any subsequent test that requires a context with the
          same set of resource locations.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@TestExecutionListeners</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>Defines class-level metadata for configuring which
          <interfacename>TestExecutionListener</interfacename>s should be
          registered with the <classname>TestContextManager</classname>.
          Typically, <interfacename>@TestExecutionListeners</interfacename>
          is used in conjunction with
          <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename>.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@ContextConfiguration
@TestExecutionListeners({CustomTestExecutionListener.class, AnotherTestExecutionListener.class})
public class CustomTestExecutionListenerTests {
    <lineannotation>// class body...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

          <para><interfacename>@TestExecutionListeners</interfacename>
          supports <emphasis>inherited</emphasis> listeners by default. See
          the JavaDoc for an example and further details.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@TransactionConfiguration</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>Defines class-level metadata for configuring transactional
          tests. Specifically, the bean name of the
          <interfacename>PlatformTransactionManager</interfacename> that is to
          be used to drive transactions can be explicitly configured if the
          bean name of the desired <interfacename>PlatformTransactionManager</interfacename>
          is not "transactionManager". In addition, you can change the
          <literal>defaultRollback</literal> flag to <literal>false</literal>.
          Typically, <interfacename>@TransactionConfiguration</interfacename>
          is used in conjunction with
          <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename>.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@ContextConfiguration
@TransactionConfiguration(transactionManager="txMgr", defaultRollback=false)
public class CustomConfiguredTransactionalTests {
    <lineannotation>// class body...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

          <note>
              <para>If the default conventions are sufficient for your
              test configuration, you can avoid using 
              <interfacename>@TransactionConfiguration</interfacename>
              altogether. In other words, if your transaction
              manager bean is named "transactionManager" and if you want
              transactions to roll back automatically, there is no need
              to annotate your test class with
              <interfacename>@TransactionConfiguration</interfacename>.</para>
          </note>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@Rollback</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>Indicates whether the transaction for the annotated test
          method should be <emphasis>rolled back</emphasis> after the test
          method has completed. If <literal>true</literal>, the transaction is
          rolled back; otherwise, the transaction is committed. Use
          <interfacename>@Rollback</interfacename> to override the default
          rollback flag configured at the class level.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@Rollback(false)
@Test
public void testProcessWithoutRollback() {
    <lineannotation>// ...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@BeforeTransaction</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>Indicates that the annotated <literal>public void</literal>
          method should be executed <emphasis>before</emphasis> a transaction
          is started for test methods configured to run within a transaction
          via the <interfacename>@Transactional</interfacename>
          annotation.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@BeforeTransaction
public void beforeTransaction() {
    <lineannotation>// logic to be executed before a transaction is started</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@AfterTransaction</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>Indicates that the annotated <literal>public void</literal>
          method should be executed <emphasis>after</emphasis> a transaction
          has ended for test methods configured to run within a transaction
          via the <interfacename>@Transactional</interfacename>
          annotation.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@AfterTransaction
public void afterTransaction() {
    <lineannotation>// logic to be executed after a transaction has ended</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@NotTransactional</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>The presence of this annotation indicates that the annotated
          test method must <emphasis>not</emphasis> execute in a transactional
          context.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@NotTransactional 
@Test
public void testProcessWithoutTransaction() {
    <lineannotation>// ...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

          <warning>
            <title>@NotTransactional is deprecated</title>

            <para>As of Spring 3.0,
            <interfacename>@NotTransactional</interfacename> is deprecated in
            favor of moving the <emphasis>non-transactional</emphasis> test
            method to a separate (non-transactional) test class or to a
            <interfacename>@BeforeTransaction</interfacename> or
            <interfacename>@AfterTransaction</interfacename> method. As an
            alternative to annotating an entire class with
            <interfacename>@Transactional</interfacename>, consider annotating
            individual methods with
            <interfacename>@Transactional</interfacename>; doing so allows a
            mix of transactional and non-transactional methods in the same
            test class without the need for using
            <interfacename>@NotTransactional</interfacename>.</para>
          </warning>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

      <para>The following annotations are <emphasis>only</emphasis> supported
      when used in conjunction with the <link
      linkend="testcontext-junit4-runner">SpringJUnit4ClassRunner</link> or
      the <link
      linkend="testcontext-support-classes-junit4">JUnit</link> support
      classes.</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@IfProfileValue</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>Indicates that the annotated test is enabled for a specific
          testing environment. If the configured
          <classname>ProfileValueSource</classname> returns a matching
          <literal>value</literal> for the provided <literal>name</literal>,
          the test is enabled. This annotation can be applied to an entire
          class or to individual methods. Class-level usage overrides
          method-level usage.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@IfProfileValue(name="java.vendor", value="Sun Microsystems Inc.")
@Test
public void testProcessWhichRunsOnlyOnSunJvm() {
    <lineannotation>// some logic that should run only on Java VMs from Sun Microsystems</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

          <para>Alternatively, you can configure
          <interfacename>@IfProfileValue</interfacename> with a list of
          <literal>values</literal> (with <emphasis>OR</emphasis> semantics)
          to achieve TestNG-like support for <emphasis>test groups</emphasis>
          in a JUnit environment. Consider the following example:</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@IfProfileValue(name="test-groups", values={"unit-tests", "integration-tests"})
@Test
public void testProcessWhichRunsForUnitOrIntegrationTestGroups() {
    <lineannotation>// some logic that should run only for unit and integration test groups</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@ProfileValueSourceConfiguration</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>Class-level annotation that specifies what type of
          <literal>ProfileValueSource</literal> to use when retrieving
          <emphasis>profile values</emphasis> configured through the
          <interfacename>@IfProfileValue</interfacename> annotation. If
          <interfacename>@ProfileValueSourceConfiguration</interfacename> is
          not declared for a test,
          <classname>SystemProfileValueSource</classname> is used by
          default.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@ProfileValueSourceConfiguration(CustomProfileValueSource.class)
public class CustomProfileValueSourceTests {
    <lineannotation>// class body...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@ExpectedException</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>Indicates that the annotated test method is expected to throw
          an exception during execution. The type of the expected exception is
          provided in the annotation, and if an instance of the exception is
          thrown during the test method execution then the test passes.
          Likewise if an instance of the exception is <emphasis>not</emphasis>
          thrown during the test method execution then the test fails.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@ExpectedException(SomeBusinessException.class)
public void testProcessRainyDayScenario() {
    <lineannotation>// some logic that should result in an <classname>Exception</classname> being thrown</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

          <para>Using Spring's
          <interfacename>@ExpectedException</interfacename> annotation in
          conjunction with JUnit's
          <interfacename>@Test(expected=...)</interfacename> configuration
          would lead to an unresolvable conflict. Developers must therefore
          choose one or the other when integrating with JUnit, in which case
          it is generally preferable to use the explicit JUnit configuration.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@Timed</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>Indicates that the annotated test method must finish execution
          in a specified time period (in milliseconds). If the text execution
          time exceeds the specified time period, the test fails.</para>

          <para>The time period includes execution of the test method itself,
          any repetitions of the test (see
          <interfacename>@Repeat</interfacename>), as well as any
          <emphasis>set up</emphasis> or <emphasis>tear down</emphasis> of the
          test fixture.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@Timed(millis=1000)
public void testProcessWithOneSecondTimeout() {
    <lineannotation>// some logic that should not take longer than 1 second to execute</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

          <para>Spring's <interfacename>@Timed</interfacename> annotation has
          different semantics than JUnit's
          <interfacename>@Test(timeout=...)</interfacename> support.
          Specifically, due to the manner in which JUnit handles test
          execution timeouts (that is, by executing the test method in a
          separate <classname>Thread</classname>),
          <interfacename>@Test(timeout=...)</interfacename> applies to
          <emphasis>each iteration</emphasis> in the case of repetitions and
          preemptively fails the test if the test takes too long. Spring's
          <interfacename>@Timed</interfacename>, on the other hand, times the
          <emphasis>total</emphasis> test execution time (including all
          repetitions) and does not preemptively fail the test but rather
          waits for the test to complete before failing.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@Repeat</interfacename></emphasis></para>

          <para>Indicates that the annotated test method must be executed
          repeatedly. The number of times that the test method is to be
          executed is specified in the annotation.</para>

          <para>The scope of execution to be repeated includes execution of
          the test method itself as well as any <emphasis>set up</emphasis> or
          <emphasis>tear down</emphasis> of the test fixture.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@Repeat(10)
@Test
public void testProcessRepeatedly() {
    <lineannotation>// ...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

      <para>The following non-test-specific annotations are supported with
      standard semantics for all configurations of the Spring TestContext
      Framework.</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename></emphasis></para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@Qualifier</interfacename></emphasis></para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@Resource</interfacename></emphasis>
          (javax.annotation) <emphasis>if JSR-250 is present</emphasis></para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@Inject</interfacename></emphasis>
          (javax.inject) <emphasis>if JSR-330 is present</emphasis></para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@Named</interfacename></emphasis>
          (javax.inject) <emphasis>if JSR-330 is present</emphasis></para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@PersistenceContext</interfacename></emphasis>
          (javax.persistence) <emphasis>if JPA is present</emphasis></para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@PersistenceUnit</interfacename></emphasis>
          (javax.persistence) <emphasis>if JPA is present</emphasis></para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@Required</interfacename></emphasis></para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><emphasis
          role="bold"><interfacename>@Transactional</interfacename></emphasis></para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    </section>

    <section id="testcontext-framework">
      <title>Spring TestContext Framework</title>

      <para>The <emphasis>Spring <classname>TestContext</classname>
      Framework</emphasis> (located in the
      <literal>org.springframework.test.context</literal> package) provides
      generic, annotation-driven unit and integration testing support that is
      agnostic of the testing framework in use, whether JUnit or TestNG.
      The TestContext framework also places a
      great deal of importance on <emphasis>convention over
      configuration</emphasis> with reasonable defaults that can be overridden
      through annotation-based configuration.</para>

      <para>In addition to generic testing infrastructure, the TestContext
      framework provides explicit support for JUnit and TestNG in the
      form of <literal>abstract</literal> support classes.
      For JUnit, Spring also provides a custom JUnit
      <interfacename>Runner</interfacename> that allows one to write 
      so called <emphasis>POJO test classes</emphasis>. POJO test classes
      are not required to extend a particular class hierarchy.</para>

      <para>The following section provides an overview of the internals of the
      TestContext framework. If you are only interested in using the framework
      and not necessarily interested in extending it with your own custom
      listeners, feel free to go directly to the configuration (<link
      linkend="testcontext-ctx-management">context management</link>, <link
      linkend="testcontext-fixture-di">dependency injection</link>, <link
      linkend="testcontext-tx">transaction management</link>), <link
      linkend="testcontext-support-classes">support classes</link>, and <link
      linkend="integration-testing-annotations">annotation support</link>
      sections.</para>

      <section id="testcontext-key-abstractions">
        <title>Key abstractions</title>

        <para>The core of the framework consists of the
        <classname>TestContext</classname> and
        <classname>TestContextManager</classname> classes and the
        <interfacename>TestExecutionListener</interfacename> interface. A
        <classname>TestContextManager</classname> is created on a per-test
        basis. The <classname>TestContextManager</classname> in turn manages a
        <classname>TestContext</classname> that holds the context of the
        current test. The <classname>TestContextManager</classname> also
        updates the state of the <classname>TestContext</classname> as the
        test progresses and delegates to
        <interfacename>TestExecutionListener</interfacename>s, which
        instrument the actual test execution, by providing dependency
        injection, managing transactions, and so on. Consult the JavaDoc and
        the Spring test suite for further information and examples of various
        configurations.</para>

        <itemizedlist>
          <listitem>
            <para><classname>TestContext</classname>: Encapsulates the context
            in which a test is executed, agnostic of the actual testing
            framework in use.</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para><classname>TestContextManager</classname>: The main entry
            point into the <emphasis>Spring TestContext Framework</emphasis>,
            which manages a single <classname>TestContext</classname> and
            signals events to all registered
            <interfacename>TestExecutionListener</interfacename>s at
            well-defined test execution points:</para>
            
            <itemizedlist>
              <listitem>
                <para>prior to any <emphasis>before class methods</emphasis>
                of a particular testing framework</para>
              </listitem>
              <listitem>
                <para>test instance preparation</para>
              </listitem>
              <listitem>
                <para>prior to any <emphasis>before methods</emphasis>
                of a particular testing framework</para>
              </listitem>
              <listitem>
                <para>after any <emphasis>after methods</emphasis>
                of a particular testing framework</para>
              </listitem>
              <listitem>
                <para>after any <emphasis>after class methods</emphasis>
                of a particular testing framework</para>
              </listitem>
            </itemizedlist>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para><interfacename>TestExecutionListener</interfacename>:
            Defines a <emphasis>listener</emphasis> API for reacting to test
            execution events published by the
            <classname>TestContextManager</classname> with which the listener
            is registered.</para>

            <para>Spring provides three
            <interfacename>TestExecutionListener</interfacename>
            implementations that are configured by default:
            <classname>DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener</classname>,
            <classname>DirtiesContextTestExecutionListener</classname>, and
            <classname>TransactionalTestExecutionListener</classname>.
            Respectively, they support dependency injection of the test
            instance, handling of the
            <interfacename>@DirtiesContext</interfacename> annotation, and
            transactional test execution with default rollback semantics.</para>
          </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>

        <para>The following three sections explain how to configure the
        <classname>TestContext</classname> framework through annotations and
        provide working examples of how to write unit and integration tests
        with the framework.</para>
      </section>

      <section id="testcontext-ctx-management">
        <title>Context management and caching</title>

        <para>Each <classname>TestContext</classname> provides context
        management and caching support for the test instance for which it is
        responsible. Test instances do not automatically receive access to the
        configured <classname>ApplicationContext</classname>. However, if a
        test class implements the
        <interfacename>ApplicationContextAware</interfacename> interface, a
        reference to the <classname>ApplicationContext</classname> is supplied
        to the test instance, if the
        <classname>DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener</classname> is
        configured, which is the default.
        <classname>AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests</classname> and
        <classname>AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests</classname> already
        implement <interfacename>ApplicationContextAware</interfacename> and
        therefore provide this functionality out-of-the-box.</para>

        <tip>
          <title>@Autowired ApplicationContext</title>

          <para>As an alternative to implementing the
          <interfacename>ApplicationContextAware</interfacename> interface,
          you can inject the application context for your test class through
          the <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename> annotation on either a
          field or setter method. For example:</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration
public class MyTest {

    <emphasis role="bold">@Autowired</emphasis>
    private ApplicationContext applicationContext;

    <lineannotation>// class body...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>
        </tip>

        <para>In contrast to the deprecated JUnit 3.8 legacy class
        hierarchy, test classes that use the TestContext framework do not need
        to override any <literal>protected</literal> instance methods to
        configure their application context. Rather, configuration is achieved
        merely by declaring the
        <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename> annotation at the
        class level. If your test class does not explicitly declare
        application context resource <literal>locations</literal>, the
        configured <interfacename>ContextLoader</interfacename> determines how
        and whether to load a context from a default location. For
        example, <classname>GenericXmlContextLoader</classname>, which is the
        default <interfacename>ContextLoader</interfacename>, generates a
        default location based on the name of the test class. If your class is
        named <literal>com.example.MyTest</literal>,
        <classname>GenericXmlContextLoader</classname> loads your application
        context from
        <literal>"classpath:/com/example/MyTest-context.xml"</literal>.</para>

        <programlisting language="java">package com.example;

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
<lineannotation>// ApplicationContext will be loaded from <literal>"classpath:/com/example/MyTest-context.xml"</literal></lineannotation>
<emphasis role="bold">@ContextConfiguration</emphasis>
public class MyTest {
    <lineannotation>// class body...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

        <para>If the default location does not suit your needs, you can
        explicitly configure the <literal>locations</literal> attribute of
        <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename> with an array
        that contains the resource locations of XML configuration metadata
        (assuming an XML-capable <interfacename>ContextLoader</interfacename>
        has been configured, which is the default). A plain path, for
        example <literal>"context.xml"</literal>, will be treated as a
        classpath resource from the same package in which the test class
        is defined. A path starting with a slash is treated as a fully qualified
        classpath location, for example <literal>"/org/example/config.xml"</literal>.
        A path which represents a URL (i.e., a path prefixed with
        <literal>classpath:</literal>, <literal>file:</literal>,
        <literal>http:</literal>, etc.) will be used <emphasis>as is</emphasis>.
        Alternatively, you can implement and configure your own custom
        <interfacename>ContextLoader</interfacename>.</para>

        <programlisting language="java">@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
<lineannotation>// ApplicationContext will be loaded from <literal>"/applicationContext.xml"</literal> and <literal>"/applicationContext-test.xml"</literal></lineannotation>
<lineannotation>// in the root of the classpath</lineannotation>
<emphasis role="bold">@ContextConfiguration(locations={"/applicationContext.xml", "/applicationContext-test.xml"})</emphasis>
public class MyTest {
    <lineannotation>// class body...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

        <para><interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename> supports an
        alias for the <literal>locations</literal> attribute through the
        standard <literal>value</literal> attribute. Thus, if you do not need
        to configure a custom <interfacename>ContextLoader</interfacename>,
        you can omit the declaration of the <literal>locations</literal>
        attribute name and declare the resource locations by using the
        shorthand format demonstrated in the following example.</para>

        <para>
        <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename> also supports a
        boolean <literal>inheritLocations</literal> attribute that denotes
        whether resource locations from superclasses should be
        <emphasis>inherited</emphasis>. The default value is
        <literal>true</literal>, which means that an annotated class inherits
        the resource locations defined by an annotated superclass.
        Specifically, the resource locations for an annotated class are
        appended to the list of resource locations defined by an annotated
        superclass. Thus, subclasses have the option of
        <emphasis>extending</emphasis> the list of resource locations. In the
        following example, the <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> for
        <classname>ExtendedTest</classname> is loaded from "/base-context.xml"
        <emphasis role="bold">and</emphasis> "/extended-context.xml", in that
        order. Beans defined in "/extended-context.xml" may therefore override
        those defined in "/base-context.xml".</para>

        <programlisting language="java">@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
<lineannotation>// ApplicationContext will be loaded from <literal>"/base-context.xml"</literal> in the root of the classpath</lineannotation>
<emphasis role="bold">@ContextConfiguration("/base-context.xml")</emphasis>
public class BaseTest {
    <lineannotation>// class body...</lineannotation>
}

<lineannotation>// ApplicationContext will be loaded from <literal>"/base-context.xml"</literal> and <literal>"/extended-context.xml"</literal></lineannotation>
<lineannotation>// in the root of the classpath</lineannotation>
<emphasis role="bold">@ContextConfiguration("/extended-context.xml")</emphasis>
public class ExtendedTest extends BaseTest {
    <lineannotation>// class body...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

        <para>If <literal>inheritLocations</literal> is set to
        <literal>false</literal>, the resource locations for the annotated
        class shadow and effectively replace any resource locations defined
        by a superclass.</para>

        <para>By default, once loaded, the configured
        <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> is reused for each
        test. Thus the setup cost is incurred only once (per test suite),
        and subsequent test execution is much faster. In the unlikely case
        that a test corrupts the application context and requires reloading &mdash;
        for example, by modifying a bean definition or the state of an
        application object &mdash; you can annotate your test class or test
        method with <interfacename>@DirtiesContext</interfacename> (assuming
        <classname>DirtiesContextTestExecutionListener</classname> has been
        configured, which is the default). This instructs Spring to reload
        the configuration and rebuild the application context before
        executing the next test.</para>
      </section>

      <section id="testcontext-fixture-di">
        <title>Dependency Injection of test fixtures</title>

        <para>When you use the
        <classname>DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener</classname> &mdash;
        which is configured by default &mdash; the dependencies of your
        test instances are <emphasis>injected</emphasis> from beans in the
        application context that you configured with
        <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename>. You may use setter
        injection, field injection, or both, depending on which annotations
        you choose and whether you place them on setter methods or fields. For
        consistency with the annotation support introduced in Spring 2.5, you
        can use Spring's <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename> annotation
        or the <interfacename>@Resource</interfacename> annotation from JSR
        250. As of Spring 3.0 you may alternatively use the 
        <interfacename>@Inject</interfacename> annotation from JSR 330. For
        example, if you prefer <link
        linkend="beans-factory-autowire"><emphasis>autowiring by
        type</emphasis></link>, annotate your setter methods or fields with
        <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename> or
        <interfacename>@Inject</interfacename>. If you prefer to have your
        dependencies injected <emphasis>by name</emphasis>, annotate your
        setter methods or fields with
        <interfacename>@Resource</interfacename>.</para>

        <tip>
          <para>The TestContext framework does not instrument the manner in
          which a test instance is instantiated. Thus the use of
          <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename> or
          <interfacename>@Inject</interfacename> for constructors has no
          effect for test classes.</para>
        </tip>

        <para>Because <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename> performs <link
        linkend="beans-factory-autowire"><emphasis>autowiring by
        type</emphasis></link>, if you have multiple bean definitions of the
        same type, you cannot rely on this approach for those particular
        beans. In that case, you can use
        <interfacename>@Resource</interfacename> for injection <emphasis>by
        name</emphasis>. Alternatively, if your test class has access to its
        <classname>ApplicationContext</classname>, you can perform an explicit
        lookup by using (for example) a call to
        <methodname>applicationContext.getBean("titleRepository")</methodname>. A
        third option is to use <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename> in
        conjunction with <interfacename>@Qualifier</interfacename>. As of 
        Spring 3.0 you may also choose to use 
        <interfacename>@Inject</interfacename> in conjunction with 
        <interfacename>@Named</interfacename>.</para>

        <para>If you do not want dependency injection applied to your test
        instances, simply do not annotate fields or setter methods with
        <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename>,
        <interfacename>@Inject</interfacename> or
        <interfacename>@Resource</interfacename>. Alternatively, you can
        disable dependency injection altogether by explicitly configuring your
        class with <interfacename>@TestExecutionListeners</interfacename> and
        omitting
        <literal>DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.class</literal> from
        the list of listeners.</para>

        <para>Consider the scenario of testing a
        <classname>HibernateTitleRepository</classname> class, as outlined in the <link
        linkend="integration-testing-goals">Goals</link> section. The next four
        code listings demonstrate the use of <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename>
        and <interfacename>@Resource</interfacename> on fields and
        setter methods. The application context configuration is presented
        after all sample code listings.</para>

        <note>
          <para>The dependency injection behavior in the following code
          listings is not specific to JUnit. The same DI
          techniques can be used in conjunction with any testing
          framework.</para>

          <para>The following examples make calls to static assertion methods
          such as <literal>assertNotNull()</literal> but without prepending
          the call with <literal>Assert</literal>. In such cases, assume that
          the method was properly imported through an <literal>import
          static</literal> declaration that is not shown in the
          example.</para>
        </note>

        <para>The first code listing shows a JUnit-based implementation
        of the test class that uses <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename>
        for field injection.</para>

        <programlisting language="java">@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
<lineannotation>// specifies the Spring configuration to load for this test fixture</lineannotation>
<emphasis role="bold">@ContextConfiguration("repository-config.xml")</emphasis>
public class HibernateTitleRepositoryTests {

    <lineannotation>// this instance will be dependency injected <emphasis
              role="bold">by type</emphasis></lineannotation>
    <emphasis role="bold">@Autowired</emphasis>    
    private HibernateTitleRepository titleRepository;

    @Test
    public void loadTitle() {
        Title title = titleRepository.loadTitle(new Long(10));
        assertNotNull(title);
    }
}</programlisting>

        <para>Alternatively, you can configure the class to use
        <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename> for setter injection as
        seen below.</para>

        <programlisting language="java">@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
<lineannotation>// specifies the Spring configuration to load for this test fixture</lineannotation>
<emphasis role="bold">@ContextConfiguration("repository-config.xml")</emphasis>
public class HibernateTitleRepositoryTests {

    <lineannotation>// this instance will be dependency injected <emphasis
              role="bold">by type</emphasis></lineannotation>
    private HibernateTitleRepository titleRepository;

    <emphasis role="bold">@Autowired</emphasis>
    public void setTitleRepository(HibernateTitleRepository titleRepository) {
        this.titleRepository = titleRepository;
    }

    @Test
    public void loadTitle() {
        Title title = titleRepository.loadTitle(new Long(10));
        assertNotNull(title);
    }
}</programlisting>

        <para>The following is an example of using <interfacename>@Resource</interfacename>
        for field injection.</para>

        <programlisting language="java">@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
<lineannotation>// specifies the Spring configuration to load for this test fixture</lineannotation>
<emphasis role="bold">@ContextConfiguration("repository-config.xml")</emphasis>
public class HibernateTitleRepositoryTests {

    <lineannotation>// this instance will be dependency injected <emphasis
              role="bold">by name</emphasis></lineannotation>
    <emphasis role="bold">@Resource</emphasis>
    private HibernateTitleRepository titleRepository;

    @Test
    public void loadTitle() {
        Title title = titleRepository.loadTitle(new Long(10));
        assertNotNull(title);
    }
}</programlisting>

        <para>Here is an example of using <interfacename>@Resource</interfacename>
        for setter injection.</para>

        <programlisting language="java">@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
<lineannotation>// specifies the Spring configuration to load for this test fixture</lineannotation>
<emphasis role="bold">@ContextConfiguration("repository-config.xml")</emphasis>
public class HibernateTitleRepositoryTests {

    <lineannotation>// this instance will be dependency injected <emphasis
              role="bold">by name</emphasis></lineannotation>
    private HibernateTitleRepository titleRepository;
    
    <emphasis role="bold">@Resource</emphasis>
    public void setTitleRepository(HibernateTitleRepository titleRepository) {
        this.titleRepository = titleRepository;
    }

    @Test
    public void loadTitle() {
        Title title = titleRepository.loadTitle(new Long(10));
        assertNotNull(title);
    }
}</programlisting>

        <para>The preceding code listings use the same XML context file
        referenced by the <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename>
        annotation (that is, <literal>repository-config.xml</literal>), which looks like
        this:</para>

        <programlisting language="xml">&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
&lt;beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" 
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans 
           http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd"&gt;

    <lineannotation>&lt;!-- this bean will be injected into the <classname>HibernateTitleRepositoryTests</classname> class --&gt;</lineannotation>
    &lt;bean id="<emphasis role="bold">titleRepository</emphasis>" class="<emphasis
            role="bold">com.foo.repository.hibernate.HibernateTitleRepository</emphasis>"&gt;
        &lt;property name="sessionFactory" ref="sessionFactory"/&gt;
    &lt;/bean&gt;
    
    &lt;bean id="sessionFactory"
            class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean"&gt;
        <lineannotation>&lt;!-- configuration elided for brevity --&gt;</lineannotation>
    &lt;/bean&gt;

&lt;/beans&gt;</programlisting>

        <note>
          <para>If you are extending from a Spring-provided test base class
          that happens to use <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename> on one
          of its setter methods, you might have multiple beans of the affected
          type defined in your application context: for example, multiple
          <interfacename>DataSource</interfacename> beans. In such a case, you
          can override the setter method and use the
          <interfacename>@Qualifier</interfacename> annotation to indicate a
          specific target bean as follows, but make sure to delegate to the 
          overridden method in the superclass as well.</para>

          <programlisting language="java"><lineannotation>// ...</lineannotation>

    @Autowired
    @Override
    public void setDataSource(<emphasis role="bold">@Qualifier("myDataSource")</emphasis> DataSource dataSource) {
        super.setDataSource(dataSource);
    }

<lineannotation>// ...</lineannotation></programlisting>

          <para>The specified qualifier value indicates the specific
          <interfacename>DataSource</interfacename> bean to inject, narrowing
          the set of type matches to a specific bean. Its value is matched
          against <literal>&lt;qualifier&gt;</literal> declarations within the
          corresponding <literal>&lt;bean&gt;</literal> definitions. The bean
          name is used as a fallback qualifier value, so you may effectively
          also point to a specific bean by name there (as shown above,
          assuming that "myDataSource" is the bean id).</para>

          <para>Alternatively, consider using the
          <interfacename>@Resource</interfacename> annotation on such
          overridden setter methods. This allows you to specify the name of
          the target bean explicitly, but without type matching semantics.
          In contrast to the solution above that combined 
          <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename> and
          <interfacename>@Qualifier</interfacename>, using 
          <interfacename>@Resource</interfacename> results in the 
          selection of a bean with that specific name, regardless of
          how many beans of the given type exist in the context.</para>

          <programlisting language="java"><lineannotation>// ...</lineannotation>

    <emphasis role="bold">@Resource("myDataSource")</emphasis>
    @Override
    public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {
        super.setDataSource(dataSource);
    }

<lineannotation>// ...</lineannotation></programlisting>
        </note>
      </section>

      <section id="testcontext-tx">
        <title>Transaction management</title>

        <para>In the TestContext framework, transactions are managed by the
        <classname>TransactionalTestExecutionListener</classname>. Note that
        <classname>TransactionalTestExecutionListener</classname> is
        configured by default, even if you do not explicitly declare
        <interfacename>@TestExecutionListeners</interfacename> on your test
        class. To enable support for transactions, however, you must provide a
        <classname>PlatformTransactionManager</classname> bean in the
        application context loaded by
        <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename> semantics. In
        addition, you must declare
        <interfacename>@Transactional</interfacename> either at the class or
        method level for your tests.</para>

        <para>For class-level transaction configuration (i.e., setting the
        bean name for the transaction manager and the default rollback flag),
        see the <interfacename>@TransactionConfiguration</interfacename> entry
        in the <link linkend="integration-testing-annotations">annotation
        support</link> section.</para>

        <para>If transactions are not enabled for the entire test class, you
        can annotate methods explicitly with
        <interfacename>@Transactional</interfacename>. To control whether a
        transaction should commit for a particular test method, you can use
        the <interfacename>@Rollback</interfacename> annotation to override
        the class-level default rollback setting.</para>

        <para><emphasis><link
        linkend="testcontext-support-classes-junit4"><classname>AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests</classname></link>
        and <link
        linkend="testcontext-support-classes-testng"><classname>AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests</classname></link>
        are preconfigured for transactional support at the class level.
        </emphasis></para>

        <para>Occasionally you need to execute certain code before or after a
        transactional test method but outside the transactional context, for
        example, to verify the initial database state prior to execution of
        your test or to verify expected transactional commit behavior after
        test execution (if the test was configured not to roll
        back the transaction).
        <classname>TransactionalTestExecutionListener</classname> supports the
        <interfacename>@BeforeTransaction</interfacename> and
        <interfacename>@AfterTransaction</interfacename> annotations exactly
        for such scenarios. Simply annotate any <literal>public void</literal>
        method in your test class with one of these annotations, and the
        <classname>TransactionalTestExecutionListener</classname> ensures that
        your <emphasis>before transaction method</emphasis> or <emphasis>after
        transaction method</emphasis> is executed at the appropriate
        time.</para>

        <tip>
          <para>Any <emphasis>before methods</emphasis> (such as methods
          annotated with JUnit's <interfacename>@Before</interfacename>)
          and any <emphasis>after methods</emphasis> (such as methods annotated
          with JUnit's <interfacename>@After</interfacename>)
          are executed <emphasis role="bold">within</emphasis> a transaction.
          In addition, methods annotated with
          <interfacename>@BeforeTransaction</interfacename> or
          <interfacename>@AfterTransaction</interfacename> are naturally not
          executed for tests annotated with
          <interfacename>@NotTransactional</interfacename>. However,
          <interfacename>@NotTransactional</interfacename> is deprecated as of
          Spring 3.0.</para>
        </tip>

        <para>The following JUnit-based example displays a fictitious
        integration testing scenario highlighting several transaction-related
        annotations. Consult the <link
        linkend="integration-testing-annotations">annotation support</link>
        section for further information and configuration examples.</para>

        <programlisting language="java">@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration
<emphasis role="bold">@TransactionConfiguration(transactionManager="txMgr", defaultRollback=false)</emphasis>
<emphasis role="bold">@Transactional</emphasis>
public class FictitiousTransactionalTest {

    <emphasis role="bold">@BeforeTransaction</emphasis>
    public void verifyInitialDatabaseState() {
        <lineannotation>// logic to verify the initial state before a transaction is started</lineannotation>
    }

    @Before
    public void setUpTestDataWithinTransaction() {
        <lineannotation>// set up test data within the transaction</lineannotation>
    }

    @Test
    <lineannotation>// overrides the class-level defaultRollback setting</lineannotation>
    <emphasis role="bold">@Rollback(true)</emphasis>
    public void modifyDatabaseWithinTransaction() {
        <lineannotation>// logic which uses the test data and modifies database state</lineannotation>
    }

    @After
    public void tearDownWithinTransaction() {
        <lineannotation>// execute "tear down" logic within the transaction</lineannotation>
    }

    <emphasis role="bold">@AfterTransaction</emphasis>
    public void verifyFinalDatabaseState() {
        <lineannotation>// logic to verify the final state after transaction has rolled back</lineannotation>
    }

}</programlisting>

        <anchor id="testcontext-tx-false-positives"/>
        <note>
          <title>Avoid false positives when testing ORM code</title>

          <para>When you test application code that manipulates the state of
          the Hibernate session, make sure to <emphasis>flush</emphasis> the
          underlying session within test methods that execute that code.
          Failing to flush the underlying session can
          produce <emphasis>false positives</emphasis>: your test may pass,
          but the same code throws an exception in a live, production
          environment. In the following Hibernate-based example test case, one
          method demonstrates a false positive, and the other method correctly
          exposes the results of flushing the session. Note that this
          applies to JPA and any other ORM frameworks that maintain an
          in-memory <emphasis>unit of work</emphasis>.</para>

          <programlisting language="java"><lineannotation>// ...</lineannotation>

@Autowired
private SessionFactory sessionFactory;

@Test // no expected exception!
public void falsePositive() {
    updateEntityInHibernateSession();
    // False positive: an exception will be thrown once the session is
    // finally flushed (i.e., in production code)
}

@Test(expected = GenericJDBCException.class)
public void updateWithSessionFlush() {
    updateEntityInHibernateSession();
    // Manual flush is required to avoid false positive in test
    sessionFactory.getCurrentSession().flush();
}

<lineannotation>// ...</lineannotation></programlisting>
        </note>
      </section>

      <section id="testcontext-support-classes">
        <title>TestContext support classes</title>

        <section id="testcontext-support-classes-junit4">
          <title>JUnit support classes</title>

          <para>The <literal>org.springframework.test.context.junit4</literal>
          package provides support classes for JUnit 4.5+ based test
          cases.</para>

          <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
              <para><classname>AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests</classname>:
              Abstract base test class that integrates the <emphasis>Spring
              TestContext Framework</emphasis> with explicit
              <classname>ApplicationContext</classname> testing support in a
              JUnit 4.5+ environment.</para>

              <para>When you extend
              <classname>AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests</classname>, you can
              access the following <literal>protected</literal> instance
              variable:</para>

              <itemizedlist>
                <listitem>
                  <para><literal>applicationContext</literal>:
                  Use this variable to perform explicit bean
                  lookups or to test the state of the context as a
                  whole.</para>
                </listitem>
              </itemizedlist>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
              <para><classname>AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests</classname>:
              Abstract <emphasis>transactional</emphasis> extension of
              <classname>AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests</classname> that
              also adds some convenience functionality for JDBC access.
              Expects a <classname>javax.sql.DataSource</classname> bean and a
              <interfacename>PlatformTransactionManager</interfacename> bean
              to be defined in the <classname>ApplicationContext</classname>.
              When you extend
              <classname>AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests</classname>
              you can access the following <literal>protected</literal>
              instance variables:</para>

              <itemizedlist>
                <listitem>
                  <para><literal>applicationContext</literal>: Inherited from
                  the <classname>AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests</classname>
                  superclass. Use this variable to perform explicit bean
                  lookups or to test the state of the context as a
                  whole.</para>
                </listitem>

                <listitem>
                  <para><literal>simpleJdbcTemplate</literal>: Use this variable
                  to execute SQL statements to query the database.
                  Such queries can be used to confirm database state both
                  <emphasis>prior to</emphasis> and <emphasis>after</emphasis>
                  execution of database-related application code, and Spring
                  ensures that such queries run in the scope of the same
                  transaction as the application code. When used in conjunction
                  with an ORM tool, be sure to avoid
                  <link linkend="testcontext-tx-false-positives">false positives</link>.</para>
                </listitem>
              </itemizedlist>
            </listitem>
          </itemizedlist>

          <tip>
            <para>These classes are a convenience for extension. If you do not
            want your test classes to be tied to a Spring-specific class
            hierarchy &mdash; for example, if you want to directly extend the class
            you are testing &mdash; you can configure your own custom test classes
            by using
            <interfacename>@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)</interfacename>,
            <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename>,
            <interfacename>@TestExecutionListeners</interfacename>, and so
            on.</para>
          </tip>
        </section>

        <section id="testcontext-junit4-runner">
          <title>Spring JUnit Runner</title>

          <para>The <emphasis>Spring TestContext Framework</emphasis> offers
          full integration with JUnit 4.5+ through a custom runner (tested on
          JUnit 4.5 &ndash; 4.8.1). By annotating test classes with
          <literal>@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)</literal>,
          developers can implement standard JUnit-based unit and integration
          tests and simultaneously reap the benefits of the TestContext
          framework such as support for loading application contexts,
          dependency injection of test instances, transactional test method
          execution, and so on. The following code listing displays the minimal
          requirements for configuring a test class to run with the custom Spring
          Runner. <interfacename>@TestExecutionListeners</interfacename> is
          configured with an empty list in order to disable the default listeners,
          which otherwise would require an ApplicationContext to be configured
          through <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename>.</para>

          <programlisting language="java">@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@TestExecutionListeners({})
public class SimpleTest {

    @Test
    public void testMethod() {
        <lineannotation>// execute test logic...</lineannotation>
    }
}</programlisting>
        </section>

        <section id="testcontext-support-classes-testng">
          <title>TestNG support classes</title>

          <para>The <literal>org.springframework.test.context.testng</literal>
          package provides support classes for TestNG based test cases.</para>

          <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
              <para><classname>AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests</classname>:
              Abstract base test class that integrates the <emphasis>Spring
              TestContext Framework</emphasis> with explicit
              <classname>ApplicationContext</classname> testing support in a
              TestNG environment.</para>

              <para>When you extend
              <classname>AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests</classname>, you can
              access the following <literal>protected</literal> instance
              variable:</para>

              <itemizedlist>
                <listitem>
                  <para><literal>applicationContext</literal>:
                  Use this variable to perform explicit bean
                  lookups or to test the state of the context as a
                  whole.</para>
                </listitem>
              </itemizedlist>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
              <para><classname>AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests</classname>:
              Abstract <emphasis>transactional</emphasis> extension of
              <classname>AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests</classname> that
              adds some convenience functionality for JDBC access. Expects a
              <classname>javax.sql.DataSource</classname> bean and a
              <interfacename>PlatformTransactionManager</interfacename> bean
              to be defined in the <classname>ApplicationContext</classname>.
              When you extend
              <classname>AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests</classname>,
              you can access the following <literal>protected</literal>
              instance variables:</para>

              <itemizedlist>
                <listitem>
                  <para><literal>applicationContext</literal>: Inherited from
                  the <classname>AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests</classname>
                  superclass. Use this variable to perform explicit bean
                  lookups or to test the state of the context as a
                  whole.</para>
                </listitem>

                <listitem>
                  <para><literal>simpleJdbcTemplate</literal>: Use this variable
                  to execute SQL statements to query the database.
                  Such queries can be used to confirm database state both
                  <emphasis>prior to</emphasis> and <emphasis>after</emphasis>
                  execution of database-related application code, and Spring
                  ensures that such queries run in the scope of the same
                  transaction as the application code. When used in conjunction
                  with an ORM tool, be sure to avoid
                  <link linkend="testcontext-tx-false-positives">false positives</link>.</para>
                </listitem>
              </itemizedlist>
            </listitem>
          </itemizedlist>

          <tip>
            <para>These classes are a convenience for extension. If you do not
            want your test classes to be tied to a Spring-specific class
            hierarchy &mdash; for example, if you want to directly extend the class
            you are testing &mdash; you can configure your own custom test classes by
            using <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename>,
            <interfacename>@TestExecutionListeners</interfacename>, and so on,
            and by manually instrumenting your test class with a
            <classname>TestContextManager</classname>. See the source code of
            <classname>AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests</classname> for an
            example of how to instrument your test class.</para>
          </tip>
        </section>
      </section>
    </section>

    <section id="testing-examples-petclinic">
      <title>PetClinic example</title>

      <para>The PetClinic application, available from the
      <link linkend="new-in-3.0-samples">samples repository</link>,
      illustrates several features of the <emphasis>Spring
      TestContext Framework</emphasis> in a JUnit 4.5+ environment. Most test
      functionality is included in the
      <classname>AbstractClinicTests</classname>, for which a partial listing
      is shown below:</para>

      <programlisting language="java">import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
<lineannotation>// import ...</lineannotation>

<emphasis role="bold">@ContextConfiguration</emphasis>
public abstract class AbstractClinicTests <emphasis role="bold">extends AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests</emphasis> {

    <emphasis role="bold">@Autowired</emphasis>
    protected Clinic clinic;

    @Test
    public void getVets() {
        Collection&lt;Vet&gt; vets = this.clinic.getVets();
        assertEquals("JDBC query must show the same number of vets",
            <emphasis role="bold">super.countRowsInTable("VETS")</emphasis>, vets.size());
        Vet v1 = EntityUtils.getById(vets, Vet.class, 2);
        assertEquals("Leary", v1.getLastName());
        assertEquals(1, v1.getNrOfSpecialties());
        assertEquals("radiology", (v1.getSpecialties().get(0)).getName());
        <lineannotation>// ...</lineannotation>
    }

    <lineannotation>// ...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

      <para>Notes:</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>This test case extends the
          <classname>AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests</classname>
          class, from which it inherits configuration for Dependency Injection
          (through the
          <classname>DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener</classname>) and
          transactional behavior (through the
          <classname>TransactionalTestExecutionListener</classname>).</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>The <literal>clinic</literal> instance variable &mdash; the
          application object being tested &mdash; is set by Dependency Injection
          through <interfacename>@Autowired</interfacename> semantics.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>The <methodname>testGetVets()</methodname> method illustrates
          how you can use the inherited
          <methodname>countRowsInTable()</methodname> method to easily verify
          the number of rows in a given table, thus verifying correct behavior
          of the application code being tested. This allows for stronger tests
          and lessens dependency on the exact test data. For example, you can
          add additional rows in the database without breaking tests.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>Like many integration tests that use a database, most of the
          tests in <classname>AbstractClinicTests</classname> depend on a
          minimum amount of data already in the database before the test cases
          run. Alternatively, you might choose to populate the database within 
          the test fixture set up of your test cases &mdash; again,
          within the same transaction as the tests.</para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

      <para>The PetClinic application supports three data access technologies:
      JDBC, Hibernate, and JPA. By declaring
      <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename> without any
      specific resource locations, the
      <classname>AbstractClinicTests</classname> class will have its
      application context loaded from the default location,
      <literal>AbstractClinicTests-context.xml</literal>, which declares a
      common <classname>DataSource</classname>. Subclasses specify additional
      context locations that must declare a
      <interfacename>PlatformTransactionManager</interfacename> and a concrete
      implementation of <interfacename>Clinic</interfacename>.</para>

      <para>For example, the Hibernate implementation of the PetClinic tests
      contains the following implementation. For this example,
      <classname>HibernateClinicTests</classname> does not contain a single
      line of code: we only need to declare
      <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename>, and the tests are
      inherited from <classname>AbstractClinicTests</classname>. Because
      <interfacename>@ContextConfiguration</interfacename> is declared without
      any specific resource locations, the <emphasis>Spring TestContext
      Framework</emphasis> loads an application context from all the beans
      defined in <literal>AbstractClinicTests-context.xml</literal> (i.e.,
      the inherited locations) and
      <literal>HibernateClinicTests-context.xml</literal>, with
      <literal>HibernateClinicTests-context.xml</literal> possibly overriding
      beans defined in
      <literal>AbstractClinicTests-context.xml</literal>.</para>

      <programlisting language="java"><emphasis role="bold">@ContextConfiguration</emphasis>
public class HibernateClinicTests extends AbstractClinicTests { }
</programlisting>

      <para>In a large-scale application, the Spring configuration is
      often split across multiple files. Consequently, configuration locations
      are typically specified in a common base class for all application-specific
      integration tests. Such a base class may also add useful instance
      variables &mdash; populated by Dependency Injection, naturally &mdash; such as a
      <classname>SessionFactory</classname> in the case of an application
      using Hibernate.</para>

      <para>As far as possible, you should have exactly the same Spring
      configuration files in your integration tests as in the deployed
      environment. One likely point of difference concerns database connection
      pooling and transaction infrastructure. If you are deploying to a
      full-blown application server, you will probably use its connection pool
      (available through JNDI) and JTA implementation. Thus in production you
      will use a <classname>JndiObjectFactoryBean</classname> or
      <literal>&lt;jee:jndi-lookup&gt;</literal> for the
      <classname>DataSource</classname> and
      <classname>JtaTransactionManager</classname>. JNDI and JTA will not be
      available in out-of-container integration tests, so you should use a
      combination like the Commons DBCP <classname>BasicDataSource</classname>
      and <classname>DataSourceTransactionManager</classname> or
      <classname>HibernateTransactionManager</classname> for them. You can
      factor out this variant behavior into a single XML file, having the
      choice between application server and a 'local' configuration separated
      from all other configuration, which will not vary between the test and
      production environments. In addition, it is advisable to use properties
      files for connection settings. See the PetClinic application for an
      example.</para>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section id="testing-resources">
    <title>Further Resources</title>

    <para>Consult the following resources for more information about
    testing:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para><ulink url="http://www.junit.org/">JUnit</ulink>:
        <quote><emphasis>A programmer-oriented testing framework for Java</emphasis></quote>.
        Used by the Spring Framework in its test suite.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><ulink url="http://testng.org/">TestNG</ulink>: A testing
        framework inspired by JUnit with added support for Java 5
        annotations, test groups, data-driven testing, distributed testing,
        etc.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><ulink
        url="http://www.mockobjects.com/">MockObjects.com</ulink>: Web site
        dedicated to mock objects, a technique for improving the design of
        code within test-driven development.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mock_Object">"Mock
        Objects"</ulink>: Article in Wikipedia.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><ulink url="http://www.easymock.org/">EasyMock</ulink>:
        Java library <quote><emphasis>that provides Mock Objects for interfaces
        (and objects through the class extension) by generating them
        on the fly using Java's proxy mechanism.</emphasis></quote>
        Used by the Spring Framework in its test suite.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><ulink url="http://www.jmock.org/">JMock</ulink>: Library that
        supports test-driven development of Java code with mock
        objects.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><ulink url="http://mockito.org/">Mockito</ulink>: Java mock
        library based on the <ulink
        url="http://xunitpatterns.com/Test%20Spy.html">test spy</ulink>
        pattern.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><ulink url="http://dbunit.sourceforge.net/">DbUnit</ulink>:
        JUnit extension (also usable with Ant and Maven) targeted for
        database-driven projects that, among other things, puts your database
        into a known state between test runs.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><ulink url="http://grinder.sourceforge.net/">Grinder</ulink>:
        Java load testing framework.</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </section>
</chapter>