Problem

When developing software one is always in a cycle of writing, compiling and testing. Integrated development environments like eclipse care about compiling and displays errors as small marks, but the testing must still be done explicitly.

Idea

The idea of this diploma theses is to support the user in the field of regression testing, by running jUnit test cases in the background and adding marks - similar to the compilation error marks - directly to the editor.

Solution

Download

A first version of the work can now be downloaded here: org.eclipse.contribution.junit_1.0.1.zip

Its also possible to install the plugin directly over the eclipse update mechanism, the url of the needed remote site is:
http://www.ssw.uni-linz.ac.at/Teaching/DiplomaTheses/EclipsePluginZumTestenVonJavaDateien/update/

Description

The plugin is able to visualize if some code was tested over a JUnit test, and if the test was successfull or not. This will be done over colored bars on the left side of the editor. The possible states are:

• no bar means, this line has not been tested so far
• green bar, all tests concerning this line of code passed
• blue bar, some tests concerning this line of code passed, some failed
• red bar, all tests concerning this line of code failed

At the moment this plugin is only good for small software projects and evalution, as is has some performance issues, but it's a good proof of concept and may show a new direction in test driven development.

Further Information

Please send feedback and questions to the author under: JUnitPlugin AT gmx.at

If you are interested, you can download the original project sepecification in german.

F.A.Q

• How to uninstall the plugin?
  • If you installed the plugin with eclipse's software updates, just uninstall it: Help > Softwareupdates > Manage Configuration
  • If you copied the plugin from the jar file into your plugin directory, delete all contents. Don't forget to restart eclipse.
• How to configure the plugin?
  • The only setting is to enable the Autotest feature (see "How to use the plugin?").
• How to use the plugin?
  • When you have a Java Project with corresponding Junit Tests, click on the "JU" button in the toolbar. Make sure one editor of your Project has focus. This is neccessary because the Plugin searches the actual Project for all Unit Tests.
  • The second way to start the Plugin is to activate the auto test feature. Look for the Autotest checkbox in Project > properties > Autotest. Activating the checkbox will start the JUnitPlugin each time your Project is built.
  • If there are colored lines in the left vertical ruler created from the Plugin, you are able to jump to the corresponding test method. Just click on the colored line to do so.

Screenshots