SenTestingKit in Xcode 4: Asynchronous testing?

Question

I have been searching for a way to use SenTestingKit to do some integration testing between my client-side code and our server. I haven't had any luck. It seems that once the code is run in a method, the object gets destroyed. This means that any asynchronous responses never call the selectors.

Questions:

Is there a way to keep the object instantiated until such time as I see fit to destroy it - ie. after the tests have completed?
If not, how could I create a class that blocks (ie. acts synchronously) until the tests are completed?

FYI, I'm running a test server where I know the expected results.

I've done a fair bit of Googling but haven't seen proof one way or another about this. I'm sure others would be interested as well.

The accepted answer can be viewed as "out of date". There are several good, new, answers. Might want to reconsider? — hfossli
– hfossli, Commented Jul 26, 2013 at 10:19

samwize · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-03 14:21:25Z

30

You can use a semaphore to wait until the asynchronous method finishes.

- (void)testBlockMethod {
    dispatch_semaphore_t semaphore = dispatch_semaphore_create(0);

    // Your block method eg. AFNetworking
    NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://httpbin.org/ip"];
    NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
    AFJSONRequestOperation *operation = [AFJSONRequestOperation JSONRequestOperationWithRequest:request success:^(NSURLRequest *request, NSHTTPURLResponse *response, id JSON) {
        NSLog(@"IP Address: %@", [JSON valueForKeyPath:@"origin"]);
        STAssertNotNil(JSON, @"JSON not loaded");
        // Signal that block has completed
        dispatch_semaphore_signal(semaphore);
    } failure:nil];
    [operation start];

    // Run loop
    while (dispatch_semaphore_wait(semaphore, DISPATCH_TIME_NOW))
        [[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] runMode:NSDefaultRunLoopMode
                                 beforeDate:[NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:10]];
    dispatch_release(semaphore);

}

http://samwize.com/2012/10/03/sentestingkit-does-not-support-wait-for-blocks/

answered Oct 3, 2012 at 14:21

samwize

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6 Comments

NSCry Over a year ago

I did exactly as your code but it's never printing the log inside the success block.

Brane Over a year ago

Brilliant till you consider the code you're calling probably doesn't dispatch a semaphore signal on completion.

Ben G Over a year ago

Perfect for me as well. I saw on another SO thread a use of NSCondionalLocking which doesn't work well since it locks the main thread and prevent AFNetworking from dispatching the success/error callbacks.

Matt Connolly Over a year ago

If your loop here and your callback are running on the same (main) thread then a flag like __block BOOL finished = NO and then set finished to true in the callback will work. The callback and the test are serialised on the main thread so there's no /need/ for a semaphore, like this: mattconnolly.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/…

CouchDeveloper Over a year ago

Not that brilliant, actually. There are couple of issues, here's one: the run loop only returns when there was an event or when the timeout fires. That means in the worst case, that - even the delegate signals the semaphore, but there was no event which has been enqueued on that run loop and mode - the while loop will still wait up to 10 seconds until it checks the semaphore again. Another is, that you cannot have a timeout. Not that good for testing...

|

Simon Whitaker · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-28 16:19:51Z

9

Two options:

switch to GHUnit, which actually contains support for waiting for asynchronous events
narrow the design of your tests so that you can test things as they stand. E.g. test that your controller code causes a selector to be detached and run, and (separately) test that this selector does what it ought. If both of those things work, then you can be confident that your controller detaches the correct work.

edited Nov 28, 2011 at 16:19

Simon Whitaker

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answered May 31, 2011 at 16:18

user23743

2 Comments

hocker Over a year ago

Unfortunately, what I'm testing is the connect-encrypt-authenticate-getsomedata process, which can't be broken down without having something persistent to handle callbacks. SenTestingKit doesn't seem to give me the persistence that I need. But I will look at GHUnit.

hocker Over a year ago

GHUnit seems like the best bet here. The examples page at gabriel.github.com/gh-unit/_examples.html shows exactly the situation I need to test for... time to learn a new tool!

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:21:58Z

5

Kiwi supports asynchronous testing. Kiwi is a Behavior Driven Development (BDD) library for iOS that extends SentTestingKit (OCUnit), so it's easy to set up & use.

Also, check out:

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:21

CommunityBot

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answered May 31, 2011 at 16:21

ma11hew28

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1 Comment

hocker Over a year ago

Kiwi looks interesting. Does it handle asynchronous callbacks?

hfossli · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-03 13:36:24Z

3

This project https://github.com/hfossli/AGAsyncTestHelper has a very convenient macro

WAIT_WHILE(<expression_to_evaluate>, <max_duration>);

Which ables you to write the test like so

- (void)testDoSomething {

    __block BOOL somethingIsDone = NO;

    [MyObject doSomethingAsyncThenRunCompletionBlockOnMainQueue:^{
        somethingIsDone = YES;
    }];

    WAIT_WHILE(!somethingIsDone, 1.0); 
    NSLog(@"This won't be reached until async job is done");
}

edited Mar 3, 2014 at 13:36

answered Jul 26, 2013 at 9:57

hfossli

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Comments

Aditya · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-19 09:01:42Z

0

Checkout the SenTestingKitAsync project - https://github.com/nxtbgthng/SenTestingKitAsync. The related blog is here - http://www.objc.io/issue-2/async-testing.html

answered Aug 19, 2013 at 9:01

Aditya

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