[Asunit-users] Re: [osflash] AutotestFlex?

[Luke B. <lb...@gm...>]

Hey Mark,

I just wanted to make the point that there is a huge distinction
between UI testing and Unit testing.

I have heard very compelling arguments against automated UI test
fixtures and have seen competent development houses build quality
software with more manual/scripted processes for testing their UI.
Some of the main problems associated with automating this process have
to do with how fragile these tests tend to be. Unlike unit tests, they
tend to impede development and refactoring and by the end of a project
and can often wind up being ignored because of their fragility.

I should qualify these assessments with the fact that they are
definitely anecdotal for me as I have never worked on a project with
an automated UI test framework...

On the other hand, there is no reason you can't build Unit tests for a
Flex application if you're building components using ActionScript. You
can make sure that your module does what it is supposed to do, and
simply use MXML as the "glue" for a series of objects. If you find
yourself wishing you had an automated test for an mxml entity, you
should probably consider refactoring your application to put the
complexity in a scripting language rather than the more declarative
language of XML.

Good luck,

Luke Bayes
www.asunit.com