An Introduction to Cactus
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
In its basic form, Cactus is a layer on top of JUnit that allows for test code to be run in both a client space and a server space. Thus, a test can initiate a call from the client, test the server-side code, and review the results. One of the major benefits of Cactus is that it handles all the session creation, request creation, and response creation for me—so I can write my tests quickly and consistently.
Example Servlet
The best way to explain how to use Cactus is to set up a simple bean and write tests for it. In this example, I use the following tools:
The first step is to set up the servlet I want to test:
package com.dzrealms.example.servlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import java.io.IOException;
/**
* A very simple Servlet example
*/
public class ExampleServlet extends HttpServlet {
/**
* This method is the entry point for a post from a client. I gather the
* parameters being passed in then hand them off to some internal methods.
* @param req HttpServletRequest
* @param resp HttpServletResponse
*/
protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp)
throws IOException, ServletException {
String variable1 = req.getParameter("variable1");
String variable2 = req.getParameter("variable2");
boolean valid = validate(variable1, variable2);
if (!valid) {
//forward the user to a page to handle the error
req.getRequestDispatcher("someErrorURL").forward(req, resp);
return;
}
//Since it is valid the user should be forward to another jsp.
req.getRequestDispatcher("someURL").forward(req, resp);
}
/**
* This method is supposed to validate the data that was received. In this
* example it just returns true.
* @param var1 First variable to validate
* @param var2 Second variable to validate
* @return true if the data is valid
*/
protected boolean validate(String var1, String var2) {
//Do something interesting with this method
return true;
}
}
Although this very simple servlet does not do much of anything, it has a method I want to test. Therefore, I want to set up a class that will test the validate method for me.