pgTAP

pgTAP is a suite of database functions that make it easy to write TAP-emitting unit tests in psql scripts or xUnit-style test functions. The TAP output is suitable for harvesting, analysis, and reporting by a TAP harness, such as those used in Perl applications.

Why would you want to unit test your database? Well, there are a couple of scenarios in which it can be useful.

Application Development

So you write PostgreSQL-backed applications, maybe in Rails, or Django, or Catalyst, and because you’re an agile developer, you write lots of tests to make sure that your application works as you practice iterative development. But, as one of the most important parts of your application, should you not also test the database? Sure, you write tests of your API, and the API covers the database, but that’s not really unit testing the database itself, is it?

pgTAP allows you to really test the database, not only verifying the structure of your schema, but also by exercising any views, procedures, functions, rules, or triggers you write. Of course you could use your application’s unit-testing framework to test the database, but by writing your tests with pgTAP, you can keep your database tests simple. Consider these simple tests written with Test::More and the Perl DBI to test a custom database function:

use Test::More tests => 3; use DBI; my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:Pg:dbname=try', 'postgres', '' ); # Start a transaction. $dbh->begin; END { $dbh->rollback; $dbh->disconnect; } my $domain_id = 1; my $src_id = 2; # Insert stuff. ok $dbh->do( 'SELECT insert_stuff( ?, ?, ?, ?)', undef, 'www.foo.com', [1, 2, 3], $domain_id, $src_id ), 'Inserting some stuff should return true; # Grab the stuff records. ok my $stuff = $dbh->selectall_arrayref(q{ SELECT stuff_id FROM domain_stuff WHERE domain_id = ? AND src_id = ? ORDER BY stuff_id }, undef, $domain_id, $src_id), 'Fetch the domain stuff'; # Make sure we have the right stuff. is_deeply $stuff, [ 1, 2, 3 ], 'The rows should have the right stuff';

The upshot is that you have to connect to the database, set up transactions, execute the database functions, fetch back data into Perl data structures, and then compare values. Now consider the equivalent written with pgTAP:

-- Start a transaction. BEGIN; SELECT plan( 2 ); \set domain_id 1 \set src_id 1 -- Insert stuff. SELECT ok( insert_stuff( 'www.foo.com', '{1,2,3}', :domain_id, :src_id ), 'insert_stuff() should return true' ); -- Check for domain stuff records. SELECT is( ARRAY( SELECT stuff_id FROM domain_stuff WHERE domain_id = :domain_id AND src_id = :src_id ORDER BY stuff_id ), ARRAY[ 1, 2, 3 ], 'The stuff should have been associated with the domain' ); SELECT * FROM finish(); ROLLBACK;

Now isn’t that a lot easier to read? Unlike the Perl tests, the pgTAP tests can just compare values directly in the database. There is no need to do any extra work to get the database interface to talk to the database, fetch data, convert it, etc. You just use SQL. And if you’re working hard to keep SQL in the database and application code in the application, why would you write database tests in Application code? Just write them in SQL and be done with it!

Schema Validation

Even better is the scenario in which you need to test your database schema objects, to make sure that everything is where it should be. pgTAP provides a wealth of test functions that make schema testing a snap!:

BEGIN; SELECT plan( 18 ); SELECT has_table( 'domains' ); SELECT has_table( 'stuff' ); SELECT has_table( 'sources' ); SELECT has_table( 'domain_stuff' ); SELECT has_column( 'domains', 'id' ); SELECT col_is_pk( 'domains', 'id' ); SELECT has_column( 'domains', 'domain' ); SELECT has_column( 'stuff', 'id' ); SELECT col_is_pk( 'stuff', 'id' ); SELECT has_column( 'stuff', 'name' ); SELECT has_column( 'sources', 'id' ); SELECT col_is_pk( 'sources', 'id' ); SELECT has_column( 'sources', 'name' ); SELECT has_column( 'domain_stuff', 'domain_id' ); SELECT has_column( 'domain_stuff', 'source_id' ); SELECT has_column( 'domain_stuff', 'stuff_id' ); SELECT col_is_pk( 'domain_stuff', ARRAY['domain_id', 'source_id', 'stuff_id'] ); SELECT can_ok( 'insert_stuff', ARRAY[ 'text', 'integer[]', 'integer', 'integer' ] ); SELECT * FROM finish(); ROLLBACK;

And there are many more testing functions to be had. Read the complete documentation for all the good stuff.

xUnit-Style Testing

In addition to the scripting-style of unit testing typical of TAP test frameworks, pgTAP also supports xUnit-style testing of the database, similar to the approach taken by PGUnit and Epic. It’s simple to use: Just write your test functions in the schema of your choice and use the the pgTAP assertion functions to do the tests:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION mytest.testschema() RETURNS SETOF TEXT LANGUAGE plpgsql AS $$ BEGIN RETURN NEXT has_table( 'domains' ); RETURN NEXT has_table( 'stuff' ); RETURN NEXT has_table( 'sources' ); RETURN NEXT has_table( 'domain_stuff' ); END; $$;

Once you’ve created your test functions and installed them in your database, you can run them at any time using the runtests() function:

SELECT * FROM runtests('mytest'::name);

And that’s it. The runtests() function will handle all the particulars, including rolling back any changes made to the schema during the running of each test. It also supports setup and teardown functions, as well as startup and shutdown. Consult the complete documentation for details.

Module Development

If you’re developing third-party modules for PostgreSQL, such as custom data types or foreign data wrappers, you can of course use PostgreSQL’s standard regression test architecture. But if you’re doing agile development, writing tests as you go, which test output would you rather read? This:

% psql -Xd try -f pg.sql CREATE TEMP TABLE srt ( name CITEXT ); CREATE TABLE INSERT INTO srt (name) VALUES ('aardvark'), ('AAA'), ('aba'), ('ABC'), ('abd'); INSERT 0 5 SELECT LOWER(name) as aaa FROM srt WHERE name = 'AAA'::text; aaa ----- aaa (1 row) SELECT LOWER(name) as aaa FROM srt WHERE name = 'AAA'::varchar; aaa ----- aaa (1 row) SELECT LOWER(name) as aaa FROM srt WHERE name = 'AAA'::bpchar; aaa ----- aaa (1 row) SELECT LOWER(name) as aaa FROM srt WHERE name = 'AAA'; aaa ----- aaa (1 row)

Which tests pass? Which fail? Not only is it hard to tell, but because pg_regress compares the output against an expected output file, you have to maintain that file, too. Too much work!

In contrast, the output for the equivalent tests using pgTAP looks like this:

% pg_prove -d try pgtap.sql --verbose pgtap.... 1..4 ok 1 - Should find "AAA"::text ok 2 - Should find "AAA"::varchar ok 3 - Should find "AAA"::bpchar ok 4 - Should find "AAA" ok All tests successful. Files=1, Tests=4, 0 wallclock secs ( 0.00 usr 0.00 sys + 0.01 cusr 0.00 csys = 0.01 CPU) Result: PASS

Now can you tell what tests pass and fail? Can you tell what, exactly, was tested? Yeah, so can I.

Get Started

So, what are you waiting for? Download the latest version of pgTAP, or grab fork the git repository, read the documentation, and get going with those tests!