[Qgis-developer] Tool for creating unit tests for SEXTANTE.

[Victor Olaya]

Hi all,

I have been thinking about how to ease the process of creating unit
tests for SEXTANTE algorithms. Ideally, there should be (at least) a
test for each algorithm. I do not fancy the idea of automating that
and just feeding whatever data to an algorithm and checking it
produced something, since that is not a good solution. Instead, I
would like to have meaningful tests, taking a sample dataset, running
an algorithm, and checking it produces a correct result.

This is time-consuming, but I have created a small tool, so anyone,
even non-programmers, can use it and help us. Basically, you have to
run an algorithm using a test dataset that will be provided along with
SEXTANTE. Then you check that the resulting data is correct. If so,
you go to the SEXTANTE history, right click on that algorithm you have
just run, and select "create test". It will create the corresponding
python code that calls that algorithm with that same input values and
tests the output is exactly that one. That code can later be send
somehow, to be included in the testing suite.

Before lauching this and tell people to start helping us, I would like
to hear your opinion on it, and if you have something to add, please
feel free to comment.

Thanks!