Working example for running Eclipse PDE-tests with buildr & buildr4osgi

[Niklaus Giger]

Hi

I published under
https://github.com/ngiger/buildr-examples/tree/master/pde_tests
the necessary buildfile to run Eclipse PDE tests for the PhonebookExample.

If theres is an interest in the community I would invest some further work to
transform it into an more accessible feature.

Could you advise me, how I should submit it. As a git fork with a new feature
extension? As a task? Based on buildr? or buildr4osgi? Or create a new buildr
plug-in? Pointers to a good example would be wonderful.

Also I am also unsure about fixing the following problems:

1) Eclipse does not easily support nesting project, see
* https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=245412
* http://wiki.eclipse.org/Top_Ten_Architectural_Problems_in_all_of_Eclipse
Therefore many developers will have a separate test project in order to run
their tests from an eclipse workbench. Fiddeling round with the layout I
managed to merge two eclipse projects (aka directories) into one buildr
project. Is may usage of path_to(:target,:test, :classes) correct or should it
be path_to(:target,:test, :java, :classes)?

2) How to I add the resulting TEST*.xml via a junitreport to a common HTML
report of all tests run?
Is my way of deactivating the junit tests via "path_to(:target,:test,
:classes)" correct?

3) Are there other weaknesses in my code?

Any feedback would be welcome. Thanks in advance for your advice.

Best regards

--
Niklaus Giger

[Antoine Toulme]

Niklaus,

it's good to hear you got something working.

I would recommend you start a plugin from a clean slate, creating tests each step of the way. It is the most challenging approach though.

Any of the other approaches you mention are ok too - keep in mind you're doing the work, you're in charge :)

I would also look around for the guys behind the buildr bnd integration. They may have use for this code too.

1) Yes, definitely an issue for OSGi plugins. The way Maven approaches this is by defining those test projects as integration tests. I think that's the way to go.

2) That can resolve itself if you use integration tests, I think. Worth playing with.

3) You shell out to java instead of using the built-in java capabilities of Buildr. Your code is not tested and is assuming paths use slashes, which is not true on Windows (File.join is the right way, or File.expand_path).

You have a very big task to run the whole test - I would look at getting used to Rake's mind mangling decomposing and create a graph of dependencies.

Good luck!

Antoine

[Niklaus Giger]

Hi Antoine

Thanks for your feedback.

> Niklaus,
>
> it's good to hear you got something working.

>
> I would recommend you start a plugin from a clean slate, creating tests
> each step of the way. It is the most challenging approach though.

I therefore opted for the time being on reworking my example. What do you mean
when you say plugin? Fork buildr4osgi and add a module under
lib/buildr4osgi/eclipse, eg. pde_test.rb? Or a separate gem?

Running PDE tests is vital for me, therefor I am willing to invest some more
hours. But it might be, that I will work on my own build issues and try to get
a better picture of all the problems involved.

> Any of the other approaches you mention are ok too - keep in mind you're
> doing the work, you're in charge :)
> I would also look around for the guys behind the buildr bnd integration.
> They may have use for this code too.

That would be great. Do I have to post to another mailing list? Which one?

>
> 1) Yes, definitely an issue for OSGi plugins. The way Maven approaches this
> is by defining those test projects as integration tests. I think that's the
> way to go.

I added compiling the jars via integration.setup. This works fine.

>
> 2) That can resolve itself if you use integration tests, I think. Worth
> playing with.

I added a custom junitreport of all the PDEtest, generating a HTML report into
reports/PDE_test using integration.teardown.

I will dig into howto add a new TestFramework late. You suggest that I should
add a new TestFramework inheriting Buildr::TestFramework, e.g. similar to
buildr/java/bdd.rb od buildr/java/tests.rb is the best way to go?

>
> 3) You shell out to java instead of using the built-in java capabilities of
> Buildr. Your code is not tested and is assuming paths use slashes, which is
> not true on Windows (File.join is the right way, or File.expand_path).

Corrected now. The test runs now also under Windows-7.

> You have a very big task to run the whole test - I would look at getting
> used to Rake's mind mangling decomposing and create a graph of
> dependencies.

Partly done.

Best regards

Niklaus

--
Niklaus Giger
Wieshoschet 6
CH-8753 Mollis
+41 (0)55 612 20 54 P
+41 (0)77 473 02 59 Mobil

[Antoine Toulme]

See more replies inline :)

On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 11:50, Niklaus Giger <niklau...@member.fsf.org> wrote:

Hi Antoine

Thanks for your feedback.

> Niklaus,
>
> it's good to hear you got something working.

>
> I would recommend you start a plugin from a clean slate, creating tests
> each step of the way. It is the most challenging approach though.

I therefore opted for the time being on reworking my example. What do you mean
when you say plugin? Fork buildr4osgi and add a module under
lib/buildr4osgi/eclipse, eg. pde_test.rb? Or a separate gem?

Up to you. If you want to add this to buildr4osgi, just go ahead and do a pull request. Otherwise, creating  a plugin to extract more logic from the Buildfile would be the way to go. 

Running PDE tests is vital for me, therefor I am willing to invest some more
hours. But it might be, that I will work on my own build issues and try to get
a better picture of all the problems involved.

> Any of the other approaches you mention are ok too - keep in mind you're
> doing the work, you're in charge :)
> I would also look around for the guys behind the buildr bnd integration.
> They may have use for this code too.

That would be great. Do I have to post to another mailing list? Which one?

Peter Donald is behind buildr-bnd (https://github.com/realityforge/buildr-bnd) and is a committer of Buildr, so he will eventually get back to you. You can always catch him through github otherwise. 

>
> 1) Yes, definitely an issue for OSGi plugins. The way Maven approaches this
> is by defining those test projects as integration tests. I think that's the
> way to go.

I added compiling the jars via integration.setup. This works fine.

>
> 2) That can resolve itself if you use integration tests, I think. Worth
> playing with.

I added a custom junitreport of all the PDEtest, generating a HTML report into
reports/PDE_test using integration.teardown.

I will dig into howto add a new TestFramework late. You suggest that I should
add a new TestFramework inheriting Buildr::TestFramework, e.g. similar to
buildr/java/bdd.rb od buildr/java/tests.rb is the best way to go?

I was not suggesting that (it's been a while since I looked at those) but by all means, go for it if you see an opportunity.