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Jenkins Spock

Pipeline libraries are tested using Jenkins-Spock, a variation of the Spock testing framework that has been designed around testing Jenkins pipelines.

Writing a Specification File

A specification is a list of features derived from business requirements. A specification file contains that list of features as unit tests, and those tests validate that the features work as expected. There should be a separate file for each pipeline step in your library.

Below is an outline of a specification file. It shows what you need to include to run tests, as well as some conventions for what to name methods and variables. Create a groovy file with the same name as the class (such as MyPipelineStepSpec.groovy) and use this outline to get started, making sure to swap names with ones for your library.

Sample Specification

  1. Import the framework
  2. Create a class extending JTEPipelineSpecification
  3. Create a field to house the loaded step
  4. Define a setup method where you will load the step
  5. Write a test
// Create a new class for the Spec
// The naming convention is the pipeline step's name, followed by Spec,
// all camel-cased starting w/ a capital.
public class MyPipelineStepSpec extends JTEPipelineSpecification {

  // Define the variable that will store the step's groovy code. This variable
  // follows the same naming variable as the class name, with Spec omitted.
  def MyPipelineStep = null

  // setup() is a fixture method that gets run before every test.
  // http://spockframework.org/spock/docs/1.2/spock_primer.html#_fixture_methods
  def setup() {
    // It's required to load the pipeline script as part of setup()
    // With the library monorepo, pipeline step groovy files can be found in "sdp/libraries"
    MyPipelineStep = loadPipelineScriptForTest("sdp/libraries/my_library/my_pipeline_step.groovy")
  }

  // Write a test (i.e. Feature Method) for each feature you wish to validate
  // http://spockframework.org/spock/docs/1.2/spock_primer.html#_feature_methods
  def "Successful Build Sends Success Result" () {
    setup:
      // unlike in the pipeline, the config object is not loaded during
      // unit tests. Use this to set it manually
      MyPipelineStep.getBinding().setVariable("config", [ field: "String" ])
    when:
      // This is the "stimulus". It does things to test what happens
      // Typically, you execute the step's groovy code like this
      MyPipelineStep()
    then:
      // Here's where you describe the expected response
      // If everything in here is valid, the test passes
      1 * getPipelineMock("sh")("echo \"field = String\"")
  }

}
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