Assume that we are developing a web application, and Hudson does typical jobs such as compile, unit test and static code analysis.
But the tricky part is: Hudson deploys and starts up application server to do integration tests, once the previous jobs done.
That means some difficult things, such as database connection, 3rd part application connection, socket port listening, environment variables, server start up failure handing, etc. We have to set up and tear down these things correctly each time, it’s hard thing. Worse, the integration tests can break the integration test easily.
Do you think if integration test should be included in continues integration (CI)? Can it be manually? Or simplify integration test?
Best Answer
the name Continuous Integration says a lot. What better place to do integration testing than where you're integrating already?
Of course it should not be the only place those tests take place, when developing you should try to ensure that you don't break things after all, not just that your changes work in isolation.
In the end, it's the responsibility of every team member that things don't break, trying to lay blame and rigidly define people or stages to which testing is restricted are counter productive.