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GitHub Actions

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Lecture equivalentDuration
32h 15min

At the end of this task, students

  • can write and run Unit Tests
  • can run Unit Tests / GitHub Actions on Pull Requests
  • have configured their repository to always require checks to pass

Read about pull requests

Pull Requests are the 🫀 of GitHub or even Git. Only when using them, you can achieve proper Continuous Integration.

Today we write Unit Tests as checks. But actually, as you can read in GitHub Actions, everything is possible 🪄.

Bite

Before taking any step further, finish the bite.

After the bite, you can run unit tests and run them on Pull Requests.

Extend spring-starer

Before we can test unit code in spring-starter, we actually need something to test.

Task

Create this class.

src/main/java/ch/abbts/nds/swe/swdt/starter/logic/Employee.java
public class Employee {
  private Integer age;

  public Employee(Integer age) {
    this.age = age;
  }

  public boolean isOfAge(Integer age) {
    return this.age > age;
  }
}

Unit Test

Task

As in the bite, write a Unit Test testing the isOfAge() method in various cases.

You might need to install some dependencies (JUnit and Jupiter). Check the bite or use your engineering google skills.

Verify

Employees are of age, if they are older or the same age as the required minimum age.

Task

Verify, that both your tests and the implementation reflect this specification.

Test more cases

Task

Test three cases:

  • too young
  • same age
  • old enough

Write one unit test for each of them.

Run the tests locally

Task

Run the tasks locally, the result should be 4 passing tests (3 from you, one from Spring).

❯ ./gradlew test

> Task :compileJava
Note: /Users/i511895/SAPDevelop/abb/spring-starter/src/main/java/ch/abbts/nds/swe/swdt/starter/CustomWebSecurityConfigurerAdapter.java uses or overrides a deprecated API.
Note: Recompile with -Xlint:deprecation for details.

> Task :test
2021-05-11 21:04:04.515  INFO 53693 --- [extShutdownHook] o.s.s.concurrent.ThreadPoolTaskExecutor  : Shutting down ExecutorService 'applicationTaskExecutor'

BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 8s
4 actionable tasks: 3 executed, 1 up-to-date

With this step we have a minimal set of unit tests we can now run on GitHub Actions.

Create workflow

Task

As in the bite, create a workflow file that runs the newly written Unit Tests on Pull Request.

Make one adoption though.

Limit branches

.github/workflows/test_pull-request.yml
...
on:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main
...

Only run the workflow, when a Pull Request is made against the main branch. You can learn more about that syntax here.

Push

Task

Push these changes, but on a branch! Like that, you can directly test your new action!

If the tests pass, merge. If they do not pass, you learn an important lesson. Fix them! before you merge, remember Continuous Integration.

Require Unit Tests

Task

Setup a branch protection for your main branch like so.

Require, that your newly created unit test must pass for any merge (see point 7 there specifically)!

Note: It might take some time until your workflow shows up there as the Actions are indexed asynchronically. Give it 24h in the worst case.

success

From now on, no code change that you will do, can be merged if your unit tests fail. This makes your main always 🟩 and you have a simple setup of Continuous Integration.

Sample

Here. Note that you should also apply the fix in order for this sample to run successfully.