Configuration Management

In the previous chapter about variant management, we showed you how to execute test code depending on specific Features and Variants. You are now able to test the variants of your software. However, you might encounter situations in which you want to test your software also in different configurations. Let us assume that your software provides the possibility to configure the control steps between two eye and four eye principle. Now you want to run all your tests with a two eye configuration of your software and at some other time with a four eye configuration. tapir’s configuration module provides you with the possibility to deposit default configurations which can be different for different configuration variants.

<dependency>
    <groupId>de.bmiag.tapir</groupId>
    <artifactId>tapir-configuration</artifactId>
</dependency>

Configuration

A single configuration is a container for a data value. You specify such a class by marking it with the annotation @Configuration. You specify the type of the data container by parameterizing the annotation and you have to provide a default value for the configuration. The following example shows a configuration for an Integer value.

Configuration1.xtend

@Configuration(Integer)
class Configuration1 {

    override defaultValue() {
        1
    }

}

Some types cannot be specified in the annotation, especially when you use generics. You can therefore also specify a field named valueType which declares the type. Following example shows a configuration for a List of Integer.

Configuration2.xtend

@Configuration
class Configuration2 {

    List<Integer> valueType

    override defaultValue() {
        #[1]
    }  

}

In order to get the actual value of a configuration, you use the ConfigurationValueService. You can inject this service into your test case and retrieve the value. The following excerpt shows how to use the service as an extension in order to access the value of Configuration1.

TestClass1.xtend

@TestClass
@UseExtension(ConfigurationValueService)
class TestClass1 {

    @Step
    def void step1() {
        if (Configuration1.value >= 2) {
            ...
        }
        ...
    }
}

ConfigurationVariant

Now we know how to create configurations with a default value. But how do we actually create a variant of this configuration? We do this by annotating a class with @ConfigurationVariant. The annotation is parameterized with the configurations it overwrites. The following example shows a variant which overwrites the default values of Configuration1 and Configuration2 and a second variant which uses just the default values.

Variant1.xtend

@ConfigurationVariant(configurations=#[Configuration1, Configuration2])
class Variant1 {

    override configuration1Value(Integer defaultValue) {
        2
    }      

    override configuration2Value(List<Integer> defaultValue) {
        #[2]
    }

}

Variant2.xtend

@ConfigurationVariant
class Variant2 {

}

Depending on which of those configuration variants is active, the ConfigurationValueService delivers the corresponding value. If Variant1 is active, the service returns 2 for Configuration1. If Variant2 is active, the service returns 1. A configuration variant is active, when the value of the property configurationVariant is the name of the variant. The name of a variant is the classname, unless you specify it with the attribute name in the annotation. This chapter explains how to configure properties.