Testing Interactive Interface?

pirkil has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Dear monks,

I have a program which uses Term::ReadLine in order to set input options interactively. I can't present the code, so my question/meditation is a bit gnomic, I know. However, there are several options for the script, so the user is first being asked for the input file, then for the output destination, etc.

Now I need to extend my test to cover this behaviour. How can I simulate an interactive process from the test? I would appreciate any suggestions, thank you.

Comment on Testing Interactive Interface?

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Re: Testing Interactive Interface? by moritz (Cardinal) on Oct 18, 2013 at 08:57 UTC
There are several approaches: Make the interactive parts optional, for example accept command line arguments, and only ask interactively if command lines are missing. Simplifies testing and automation a lot. Make the code an object on which it calls the `->readline` method, and only create a Term::ReadLine object in its place if no such object was passed. That makes it easy to supply a "fake" Term::ReadLine object of your own creatin in the test code (that's called "dependency injection"). Automate the whole thing across a process boundary with Expect-like modules. I'd certainly go with the first option if possible, and fall back to the second option if ithe first isn't applicable. Perl 6 - the future is here, just unevenly distributed	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Testing Interactive Interface? by GrandFather (Saint) on Oct 18, 2013 at 08:30 UTC
Use Test::MockObject to mock up whatever you need from Term::ReadLine. I can't present any code, so my answer is a bit gnomic, I know. However, I'm sure you'll figure it out. True laziness is hard work	[reply]