This document discusses unit testing PL/SQL code with Ruby. It introduces the ruby-plsql-spec library, which allows writing unit tests for PL/SQL in Ruby. The benefits of this approach include more compact and readable test syntax compared to traditional PL/SQL testing frameworks. The document provides an example of substring testing and discusses why more developers don't use unit testing. It also lists some typical problems with PL/SQL testing and introduces visual testing tools.

1. PL/SQL Unit Testing
with Ruby

2. Raimonds Simanovskis
github.com/rsim

3. What is good code?
Test
Correct
functionality!
Test
Fast enough
performance!
Test after
Maintainable
changes!

4. How is it done?
try something...
dbms_output.put_line(...)
it is obvious that
there are no bugs :)
testers should test,
that’s their job

5. What are typical
problems?
“trying” and not testing
tests are not repeatable
manual verification of results
testing is done too late in development

6. Types of tests
unit tests
integration tests
programmer’s
performance & load tests responsibility
exploratory & usability tests

7. Test Driven
Development
Write test
Run test
Write code
Run test
Refactoring

8. Good unit tests
Automatic, run fast
Wide code coverage including edge cases
Repeatable
Independent from execution order
Using real and understandable test data

9. How to do it
when programming in
PL/SQL ?

10. utPLSQL
created by Steven Feuerstein, 1999
based on “xUnit”-style frameworks
not maintained anymore :(

11. Example
Substring from start
until end position

12. Tests

13. Results

14. Visual testing tools
Quest Code Tester SQL Developer 2.1

15. Why used just by
few?
too large / too verbose test code?
hard to read, too much noise?
hard to test complex cases?
no best practices how to write tests?
nobody is using, why should I use?

16. ruby-plsql-spec
ideal language for writing tests
RSpec powerful testing tools
with “readable” syntax
library for calling
ruby-plsql PL/SQL procedures
from Ruby

17. ruby-plsql-spec
Demo

18. Benefits
compact, readable syntax
powerful features also for complex tests
best practices from Ruby community
based on needs from real projects
opensource – “free as in beer” :)

19. Links
http://blog.rayapps.com/2009/11/27/oracle-
plsql-unit-testing-with-ruby/
http://blog.rayapps.com/2010/01/06/
screencasts-of-oracle-plsql-unit-testing-with-
ruby/
http://github.com/rsim/ruby-plsql-spec