Spy
Spy - a Clojure and ClojureScript library for stubs, spies and mocks. This library is aimed at users of clojure.test.
It records calls and responses to and from a function, allowing you to verify interactions. Terms used in this library are as follows, there are many different names for Mocks, see Test Doubles, Fakes, Mocks and Stubs for more detail.
- Stub - function that returns a hardcoded value
- Spy - wrapper around a function allowing verification of interactions with the function
- Mock - function with a fake implementation to be used in place of the real thing
Usage
REPL (Clojure)
(require '[spy.core :as spy] ;; the core library with functions returning booleans
'[spy.assert :as assert] ;; assertions wrapping clojure.test/is
'[spy.test] ;; assert-expr definitions for clojure.test
'[clojure.test :refer [testing is]])
(defn adder [x y] (+ x y))
(def spy-adder (spy/spy adder))
(is (= [] (spy/calls spy-adder)))
(is (= [] (spy/responses spy-adder)))
(is (true? (spy/not-called? spy-adder))) ;; spy.core/not-called? returns a boolean
(assert/not-called? spy-adder) ;; spy.assert/not-called? returns a boolean, but also wraps clojure.test/is so failures are reported
(testing "Let's see what a failure looks like..."
(assert/called? spy-adder))
;; FAIL in () (form-init4641634702245604141.clj:37)
;; Let's see what a failure looks like...
;; Expected at least 1 call
;; Actual: 0 calls.
;; expected: (spy.core/called-at-least-n-times? spy-adder 1)
;; actual: (not (spy.core/called-at-least-n-times? #function[clojure.lang.AFunction/1] 1))
;; false
(testing "calling the function"
(is (= 3 (spy-adder 1 2))))
(testing "calls to the spy can be accessed via spy/calls"
(is (= [[1 2]] (spy/calls spy-adder))))
(testing "responses from the spy can be accessed via spy/responses"
(is (= [3] (spy/responses spy-adder))))
(testing "let's do another call"
(is (= 42 (spy-adder 40 2))))
(testing "calls and responses are stored on the spy using metadata"
(meta spy-adder) ;; {:calls #atom[[(1 2)] 0x7612740d],
;; :responses #atom[[3] 0x26525904]}
(let [{:keys [calls responses]} (meta spy-adder)]
(is (= [[1 2] [40 2]] @calls))
(is (= [3 42] @responses))))
(testing "but they can be access via spy/calls and spy/responses"
(is (= [[1 2] [40 2]] (spy/calls spy-adder)))
(is (= [3 42] (spy/responses spy-adder))))
(testing "we can check if the spy was called with some arguments"
(is (true? (spy/called-with? spy-adder 1 2)))
(is (false? (spy/called-with? spy-adder 1 59))))
(testing "but spy.assert gives us better error messages when our assertions don't hold true"
(assert/called-with? spy-adder 66 99))
(testing "spy defines assert-expr for core spy verification"
(is (spy/called? spy-adder))
(is (spy/called-with? spy-adder 66 99)))
;; FAIL in () (form-init15061478131364358.clj:197)
;; assert gives us better error messages when our assertions don't hold true
;; Expected a call with (66 99)
;; Actual calls: [(1 2) (40 2)]
;; expected: (spy.core/called-with? spy-adder 66 99)
;; actual: (not (spy.core/called-with? #function[clojure.lang.AFunction/1] 66 99))
;;false
Spies
spy.core/spy
wraps a function and records calls to the function and responses returned by the function, this is done using an atom. Calls and responses are stored on the function itself using metadata.
(defn my-adder [x y]
(+ x y))
(let [f (spy/spy my-adder)] ;; create a spy that wraps a simple adder function
(is (spy/not-called? f)) ;; verify it hasn't been called yet
(is (= 3 (f 1 2))) ;; call the function
(is (spy/called-with? f 1 2)) ;; verify it was called with the arguments
(is (spy/called-once? f))) ;; verify it was called only once
Stubs
A stub is a spy that wraps constantly, providing us with a function that returns a value and giving us the ability to verify calls were made to the stub.
(let [f (spy/stub 42)] ;; create a stub that returns a hardcoded value
(is (spy/not-called? f)) ;; verify the stub has not been called yet
(f) ;; call the stub
(is (spy/called? f))
(is (spy/called-once? f))
(f) ;; call it for a second time
(f) ;; call if for a third time
(is (spy/called-n-times? f 3))) ;; verify it was called 3 times
Mocks (also known as Fakes / Test Doubles)
To implement a mock you just need to implement a function that has the same contract as the one you're replacing, the best person to do this is you! For convenience this library provides s/mock
which is an alias for s/spy
, it's up to you to write the function that mocks the behaviour:
(let [f (spy/mock (fn [x] (if (= 1 x)
:one
:something-else)))]
(is (= :one (f 1)))
(is (spy/called-once? f))
(is (= :something-else (f 42))))
Exceptions
If you spy on a function that throws an exception then Spy will catch your exception, record it in the responses, then re-throw the original exception, thus enabling you to test that the exception was thrown. A stub-throws
helper function is provided.
Clojure
(let [f (spy/stub-throws (Exception. "Goodbye World!"))]
(is (thrown? Exception (f)))
(is (= 1 (count (spy/responses f))))
(is (contains? (spy/first-response f) :thrown))
(is (= "Goodbye World!" (-> (spy/first-response f) :thrown :cause))))
ClojureScript
(let [f (spy/stub-throws (js/Error "Goodbye World!"))]
(is (thrown? js/Object (f)))
(is (= 1 (count (spy/responses f))))
(is (contains? (spy/first-response f) :thrown)))
Using with-redefs to replace functions with spies
If you are testing synchronous code then you can replace functions using with-redefs, if you're testing async code then it's safer to pass the functions in using dependency injection. If you want to see more examples of this checkout this excellent blog post about TDD in Clojure.
(ns spy-example.core-test
(:require [clojure.test :refer [deftest testing is]]
[spy.core :as spy]))
(def beatle->email
{:john "[email protected]"
:paul "[email protected]"
:george "[email protected]"
:ringo "[email protected]"})
(defn lookup-email [beatle-id]
(get beatle->email beatle-id))
(defn send-message [email message]
(println (str "Sending " message " to " email))
nil)
(defn email-beatle [beatle-id message]
(when-let [email (lookup-email beatle-id)]
(send-message email message)))
(deftest email-beatle-test
(testing "A message is sent to a Beatle"
;; example 1 - wrap the original fn (so it is still called)
(with-redefs [send-message (spy/spy send-message)]
(email-beatle :ringo "Hello Ringo!")
(is (spy/called-once? send-message))
(is (spy/called-with? send-message "[email protected]" "Hello Ringo!"))))
(testing "A message is not sent to a Rolling Stone"
;; example 2 - call spy without passing a fn (to avoid sending the email)
(with-redefs [send-message (spy/spy)]
(email-beatle :mick "Hello Mr Jagger!")
(is (spy/not-called? send-message)))))
Protocols (Experimental)
Currently only Clojure is supported, I intend to make this work for ClojureScript too but it's a little trickier. I'm open to suggestions on how to improve this and support ClojureScript, contributions are welcome.
spy.protocol/mock
uses the same signature as reify
and can be used
to mock multiple protocols.
(require '[spy.protocol :as protocol])
(defprotocol Rockable
(rock [this x] "rock this!"))
(defprotocol Tuneable
(tune [this x y]))
(def my-mock
(protocol/mock
Rockable
(rock [_ x]
(str "Rock: " x "!"))
Tuneable
(tune [_ x y]
(str "Tune: " x ", " y "!"))))
;; `protocol/spies` returns a map of the spy functions on the mock
(protocol/spies my-mock)
;; {:rock #function[clojure.lang.AFunction/1],
;; :tune #function[clojure.lang.AFunction/1]}
;; use the core functions from the spy ns on the protocol spy
(spy/call-count (:rock (protocol/spies my-mock)))
;; 0
;; call the rock method
(rock my-mock "Living easy, lovin' free")
;; extract the spy from the mock and verify
(spy/called-with? (:rock (protocol/spies my-mock))
my-mock
"Living easy, lovin' free")
;; true
You will also find a spy
macro within the protocol namespace, this
currently supports spying on an implementation for a single protocol.
Caution: the protocol spy
macro will change in the future when I add support for spying on multiple protocols, you can see examples in the
spy.protocol-test
namespace.
Contributing
Pull requests are welcome. Please run the test suite and check that all tests pass prior to submission.
Tests:
$ lein test
Code coverage:
$ lein cloverage
License
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2023 Alexander James King
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