How to create unit tests against non in-memory database such as MySQL in Play framework, with resetting to known state?

Question

I want to create unit tests that cover code that use relational database in Play framework 2.1.0. There are many possibilities for this and all cause problems:

Test

Answer 1

First, I would recommend you to use the same RDBMS for testing and production as it could avoid some hard-to-find bugs.

Concerning the need to clean your database between each test, you can use Ebean DdlGenerator to generate scripts to create a clean database and JUnit's @Before annotation to automatically execute these scripts before every test.

Using the DdlGenerator can be done like this :

    EbeanServer server = Ebean.getServer(serverName);
    ServerConfig config = new ServerConfig();
    DdlGenerator ddl = new DdlGenerator((SpiEbeanServer) server, new MySqlPlatform(), config);

This code can be placed in a base-class that you could make inherit your tests (or inside a custom Runner that you can use with the @RunWith annotation).

It will also allow you to easily automate the FakeApplication creation, avoiding some boilerplate code.

Some links that can be helpful :

• http://blog.matthieuguillermin.fr/2012/03/unit-testing-tricks-for-play-2-0-and-ebean/
• https://gist.github.com/nboire/2819920