I'm left inspired to write unit tests for every upcoming task, and I regret many previous tasks for which I've never written tests.
— John Flinchbaugh's Weblog
While basic techniques of test-driven development are simple to understand, real-world application requires knowledge of tools and techniques to effectively create, run and organize tests. This book bridges the gap between simple concepts and complex application. Ideal for you Java developers, this book explains how to use test-driven development to improve J2EE construction.
Not version-specific, this unprecedented book explains development tools and methodologies in conjunction with real-world cases and examples. It includes the use of open source unit testing frameworks such as JUnit and its extensions. The authors include complete stages: test coverage strategies, test organization, TDD incorporation, and automation. Two appendices are also included, for test planning and reference.
User review
Great testing book
This book is well written and organized. Hammell provides many insights into testing and development. Examples are written in Java, but the concepts and techniques apply to the .Net world equally well. A MUST READ!
User review
Great mixture of tutorial and future reference book
If you are involved with combined development and functional testing using J2EE technology, this is the book for you!
I am a great fan of tutorials that start with a simple example and add complexity levels to the example in a logical development sequence. This book tackles simple servlet TDD and moves through Complex EJB and Swing GUI testing.
A thorough treatment of test and rationalization is presented. Probably the most important aspect of this publication is that once a developer becomes familiar with the example application, the text serves as a great application reference for future development needs!
User review
Interesting case study in TDD
This is an interesting book. It takes a case study approach to teaching test driven development on an application to track sports results. It's pretty code heavy, which is something that I don't like about it. But given the topic that is to be expected.
Test Driven Development is a tough topic to teach. I respect APress for publishing a book with a unique design to try address this problem. It's well worth the time because this unique development approach can be very powerful when it's employed properly.
I recommend looking into Test Driven Development if you haven't already. And this is a reasonable place to start if you like to learn by example more than by reading process documentation like the Agile books.
User review
Extensive problems and answers
Hammell puts forth to us that testing code is a rigorous discipline. He explains how to do this in the context of writing Java and using J2EE. The bedrock of his exposition is unit testing. This being Java, he shows how JUnit can be used to configure and run such tests, in a highly automated fashion. Hopefully, you will agree with his contention that indeed integrating JUnit and unit testing into the overall fabric of your development process is easy.
Building on this, he treats the important cases of testing a Java GUI and servlets and JSPs. The basic ideas are easy to grasp. There is a mass of example code that might obscure it, on first glance. But part of your skill set, which you need to develop, is that you should be able to hone down through the source code for the essential implementation of the ideas.
A nice trait of the book is the problem sets. And the lengthy answers to them. Rather unusual in books of these type. Typically, there aren't even any problems furnished. Let alone answers. If you end up using this book, you should avail yourself of the problems, for better learning.
User review
Decent book with good examples. Worth buying
Overall I really liked this book. It has a lot good examples and practical advice on how to use TDD to build a J2EE application. The code I downloaded from the book's web site is nice also because besides the source code for the book you get a full build environment including a set of Ant build files that can be used to easily build and the run the examples. I really liked the chapter on servlet development using TDD since it showed me some tools and techniques that I hadn't seen before.
