cocos2d-x: Adding Unit Test Framework "SimpleTDD"

Introduction: 

SimpleTDD is a simple unit test framework that help you to develop tests to examine the behaviour of your codes;

Storyboard about SimpleTDD



Setup Overview

This is the steps to install SimpleTDD in your project:

1. Download SimpleTDD 
2. Run the setup script 
3. Set Macro for Debug version
4. Add Test Button
5. Create Unit Tests

Required software for SimpleTDD is just python, which should be installed when Xcode is installing;


Download SimpleTDD

Simplify clone the SimpleTDD project from the Github
https://github.com/tklee1975/SimpleTDD-cocos2dx


Run the setup script

Setup script is python script that help you to copy Library classes and script to your project;



After setup script is run, add the files to your project build; 
For XCode (iOS): 

• File -> Add Files to "your project"
• Select "UnitTest" and "SimpleTDD" folders

For Android: Add them in the Android.mk 


Set Macro for Debug version

SimpleTDD need you to set Macro "ENABLE_TDD" to open the route to the Test Main Menu so that It won't affect the release build;

For XCode(iOS):

• Open "Build Setting"
• Search for "Macro"
• Modify "Preprocessor Macros" values 
• Add "ENABLE_TDD" 

For Android: Define "-DENABLE_TDD" at "LOCAL_CPPFLAGS"  in Android.mk

Add Test Button

To enter the Test Main, you need add a button at your main scene;

This are the codes:
// At the header 
#include "TDDHelper.h" 

// Inside the Scene or Layer setup method
TDDHelper::addTestButton(this, Vec2(100, 80));


Create Unit Tests

These are the steps to create unit tests that help you to test individual code; You are going to do these steps many many times; It will be fine because it is not hard to do;

Create the TestSuite Class

• Run the createTest.sh to create the TestSuite Class
• run "./script/createTest.sh Example1" 
• It will generate source code "Example1Test.h" & "Example1Test.cpp" in Classes/UnitTest Folder
• Add Test Class to project 
• For Xcode, use Add files to project
• For Android, include these files in Android.mk
• Edit "MyTDDCase.h"
• MyTDDCase.h is the header file to control which Unit Test will be shown in the Test Menu
• First, include the new Test Class using "#include Example1Test.h"
• Second, add "TEST(Example1Test)" in the TDD_CASES block
• When it is done, the test suite "Example1" will be shown

Create a test in the TestSuite Class

• By default, there is test method called "subTest" in the TestSuite class; it will simply print something to the console;
• To add a new test (e.g: testSpriteRotate), just follow the way "subTest" do;
• Define the method in .h & .cpp;  example: void Example1Test::testSpriteRotate(Ref *sender);
• Add the method in "setSubTest" method: example: SUBTEST(Example1Test::testSpriteRotate)
• Do the unit test code inside testSpriteRotate method
• Test & Run!!!

SimpleTDD Demo

A simple demo of SimpleTDD is located at github:
https://github.com/tklee1975/SimpleTDD-ccx3-demo

Four "C" of the Clean Code

Recently I am reading the book "Clean code" again. I have found there are 4 characteristics of the clean code. 

The 4 characters of the clean code should have:  

• Controllable
• Comprehensible
• Convenient
• Consistent 

Controllable

If there only just one concept to be remembered, it should be this one. 
If the program can be controlled by you, the author of the code or other who involved, this program will be a good program. 

For a controllable program, which is the program can be easily understood, changed, adding new features, and easy to debug. 
The more code involved, the more uncontrollable. It will become the "Gordian Knot" .

Comprehensible:

Every program we write have two group of audiences; 
First is the machine, compiler, syntax checker, …., they will transfer our programs to executable;
Second is us, human being; The program should be readable so that we could understand and work on it. 
There are many chances that our programs will be read by someone else or yourself later. 
Therefore it is important to make the code comprehensible. 

Convenient:

While making a large program, we may involve a lots of code. Therefore, we need to arrange the code so that it helps to do thing fast. 

Here some examples:
- Find the libraries and functions available in the project and how to use it
- Quickly navigate to the class or method we want to go. 
- Easy to remember the classes involved

To do so, we need to adopt a good naming contention and code style.

Consistent

As we know, many words in English can refer to a similar meaning; One frequent met example in coding: number of X, count of X, size of X;  In order to prevent our code audience getting confused or mislead, we need to make sure the same word have the same meaning;
If you use "count" as the suffix telling how many, keep to use it over your class. 

TDDccx3 1.1.0 - New Submenu UI developed.

The submenu of TDDccx3 is modified:

In the new design, we want to decrease the interference of the test components;

So the following changes are made

- Top toolbar is removed 

- Provide a Hide/Show button to hide/show the menu items

- Menu can be moved to wherever you want

- Toggle Stat is placed in the menu items;

The change is just made and not yet well test. It will be polished and tested soon. 

Available at:

https://github.com/tklee1975/tddlib_cocos2dx3

A day in my coding life.

Here is a short sharing of my daily coding life.

While arrived to office, prepare the basic first, breakfast, water and tea;

Then first thing first, I starts with a simple prayer and listening to biblical messages.

And then I read some industrial news from Twitter, Google Plus, Techcrunch, ... to get updated;

Next I prepare:
- Spotify (provide music for my concentration)
- Tomato.es (For Pomodoro Technique, one of time management skill)
- Trello (For task management)
- Evernote (for note taking and daily planning)

And then Tomato Clock starts, several 25 minutes session begin:

Every 25 minutes, I will focus on my different coding works:

• Planning : Fail to plan, plan to fail. Always keep works being planned.
• Program Design : Design is the origin, without a design, it will be very hard to code. 
• Write and Run Code 
• Refactor and Documentation : It help to re-organise what I have done
• Sharing to other coders
• Learn something new 
• Testing : More test, more bugs unveiled and quality UP. 

While my team members are all there, we start the daily SCRUM to update the progress of each others.

A day of coding if full of fun and challenges !!!

Wish you enjoy your work and coding as well.

SDK & Open Source used in my iOS project (2014)

In my recent iOS project, we have used a lots of open source code and SDK like many app do;

Here is the list of them:

• Crashlytics: Crash Logging
• Google Analytics: User Analytics: 
• Parse: Push Notification Helper
• EGORefreshTableHeaderView: PullToRefresh
• SDWebImage: ImageView using URL
• UIImage+ImageEffects: Making Blur Effect
• UIImage+animatedGIF: Playing animated GIF in UIImageView
• GCPlaceholderTextView: placeholder show in TextView
• URBMediaFocusViewController: Enlarge the thumbnail image
• YDSlider: Slider for audio player
• JSONKit: JSON Helper
• ASIHTTPLibrary: Asynchronous HTTP Request
• TTAttributedLabel: Make UILabel having clickable link

Thanks for the developers of the above project! These save us a lot of time.

TDDLib (cocos2d-x 3) updated: Improved UI

My TDD Testing framework for cocos2d-x 3.0 is updated.

Changes:
- Modified UI
- Filter test without the need to touch the "Find" button
- Add Background colour setting (help to check coloured elements)

Source: https://github.com/tklee1975/tddlib_cocos2dx3

Fixing undesired outline of Label in cocos2d-x 3.0

Recently, when I work on my TDDLib project, I found that the Label of cocos2d-x 3.0 show the Label with an undesired outline which isn't I want to (The first label shown below).

After several google search, I found the solution to fix it (The second label shown above).

It's simple, just call the blend of the Label to BlendFunc::ALPHA_PREMULTIPLIED.

Code: label->setBlendFunc(BlendFunc::ALPHA_PREMULTIPLIED

Source example:

std::string sysFont = "GillSans";

std::string test1 = "No BlendFunc";

std::string test2 = "ALPHA_PREMULTIPLIED";

Label *label;

Color3B textColor = Color3B(200, 245, 245);

// First Label (Undesired outline)

label = Label::createWithSystemFont(test1, sysFont, 40);

label->setColor(textColor);

label->setPosition(Point(250, 300));

addChild(label);

// Second Label (Fixed outline)

label = Label::createWithSystemFont(test2, sysFont, 40);

label->setColor(textColor);

label->setPosition(Point(250, 200));

label->setBlendFunc(BlendFunc::ALPHA_PREMULTIPLIED);

addChild(label);