Unit testing in AppCode

1. Download the iOSConferences project.

2. Open the application in AppCode using the iOSConferences.xcworkspace file so that the pods already added to the project can be recognized by the IDE.

3. If CocoaPods gem is not installed yet, install it:

   • Click Tools | CocoaPods | Select Ruby SDK from the main menu.

   • In the Preferences dialog that opens, click Add Ruby SDK and specify the path to the SDK (by default, /usr/bin/ruby).

   • Click Install CocoaPods.

4. In the run/debug configuration selector, select a device or simulator to run the application on and press ⇧ F10 or click :

   

   The launched application should display the list of conferences:

   

   tip

   If you encounter problems with running the application, make sure that you are using AppCode 2019.3 or later (with SwiftUI supported) and CocoaPods is successfully installed on your side.

1. Press ⌃ ⌥ ⇧ S to open the project settings.

2. Click , select iOS | Test | Unit Testing Bundle from the dialog that opens, and click Next:

   

3. On the next page, leave the default values in all the fields including the automatically generated target name iOSConferencesTests in the Product Name field and click Finish:

   

A new test target will be added to the project.

This target contains a default XCTest class with stub code for several test methods:

1. Rename the iOSConferencesTests class to DateTests using the Rename refactoring ⇧ F6:

   

   Gif

2. Import the Yams library that is used for decoding the YAML file:

   import Yams

3. Make the application code available for tests by adding the following line right after the import statements:

   @testable import iOSConferences

4. Delete all existing stub code inside the DateTests class.

5. In the DateTests class, add the decoder instance variable:

   let decoder = YAMLDecoder()

6. Add the following test methods:

   func testSameStartEndDatesShownCorrectly() {
       let yaml = try! decoder.decode([Conference].self, from:
       """
       - name: mDevCamp
         link: https://mdevcamp.eu/
         start: 2019-05-30
         end: 2019-05-30
         location: 🇨🇿 Prague, Czech Republic
       """
       )
       let conference: Conference = yaml[0]
       let textDate = conference.textDates()
       XCTAssertEqual(textDate, "May 30, 2019")
   
   }
   
   func testDateWithoutEndShownCorrectly() {
       let yaml = try! decoder.decode([Conference].self, from:
       """
       - name: mDevCamp
         link: https://mdevcamp.eu/
         start: 2019-05-30
         location: 🇨🇿 Prague, Czech Republic
       """
       )
       let conference: Conference = yaml[0]
       let textDate = conference.textDates()
       XCTAssertEqual(textDate, "May 30, 2019")
   }
   
   func testEndEarlierThanStartReplaced() {
       let yaml = try! decoder.decode([Conference].self, from:
       """
       - name: mDevCamp
         link: https://mdevcamp.eu/
         start: 2019-05-30
         end: 2019-05-29
         location: 🇨🇿 Prague, Czech Republic
       """
       )
       let conference: Conference = yaml[0]
       let textDate = conference.textDates()
       XCTAssertEqual(textDate, "May 29, 2019 - May 30, 2019")
   }

   These methods test if the application shows the conference dates correctly in some specific cases:

   • testSameStartEndDatesShownCorrectly(): if the values in the start and end fields are the same, the application should display just one date instead of an interval (May 30, 2019 instead of May 30, 2019 - May 30, 2019).

   • testDateWithoutEndShownCorrectly(): if there is no end value specified for the conference, the application should display just the start date (May 30, 2019).

   • testEndEarlierThanStartReplaced(): if the start date is later than the end one, they should be replaced (May 30, 2019 - May 31, 2019 instead of May 31, 2019 - May 30, 2019).

We will run and debug the created tests later. Now, let's see how to create tests with the Quick and Nimble frameworks.