Creator: Joel Champagne, President of CodeX Enterprises This presentation covers various issues associated with SQL unit testing. We’ll look at end solutions in demo form using Visual Studio 2010 and other third party tools. You'll learn: * The value of pursuing SQL testing, early and continually in the development cycle * Capabilities in Visual Studio 2010 to support SQL unit testing * Capabilities in other tools to support SQL unit testing

1. SQL Server Unit Testing
Joel Champagne
President, CodeX
President CodeX Enterprises
July 2011
Mark Ginnebaugh, User Group Leader,
mark@designmind.com
mark@designmind com

2. Who am I?
Who am I?
• President CodeX Enterprises LLC
President CodeX Enterprises LLC
• 20 years consulting experience
–LLarge mission critical systems
i i iti l t
– .NET, SQL 2000‐2008, SSAS, SSRS, SSIS
– Architecture, Data Architecture
• Focus on developer productivity tools

3. Why?
• Unit Testing… what’s a “unit”?
• U it t ti h
Unit testing has proven valuable in many
l bl i
languages
• Things can break for countless reasons – find
Things can break for countless reasons find
those breakages early
• Some may say SQL has gotten the short end of
the stick here for various reasons
h i kh f i
– Harder: time/effort to write tests for possibly
thousands of objects (many of which could be CRUD)
j ( y )
– Separation of development process
– Statefulness: dependence on specific data to make it
fly (well)
fly (well)

4. Scenarios for Failure
Scenarios for Failure
• Suppose there’s an existing procedure which
has been working for ages
• Someone renames a table column, missed
Someone renames a table column, missed
updating this procedure for whatever reason
(e.g. different database)
(e.g. different database)
• Fails at run‐time… you would have known,
however, if it had at least been exercised
however if it had at least been “exercised”
• Also, what does SSMS tell us when we commit
the broken procedure…?
th b k d ?

5. Integration Points
Integration Points
• On Demand
On Demand
• Scheduled
• S
Strategic
i
– Build / moving objects
• Automation
– Includes “on change”
– Continuous Integration strategies

6. Visual Studio 2010
Visual Studio 2010
• Ability to run tests within VS
Ability to run tests within VS
• Setup tests, per object
• Can have “expected results”
C h “ d l ”
• Schema View offers easy way to script, per
object
• Demo

7. Observations…
• Quite powerful as we can craft data driven
tests using a bit of C#
tests using a bit of C#
– Not necessarily testing SQL directly (can be .NET
components)
p )
– Next slide example
• Hosts tests in “runnable” code (SQL scripts
( Q p
themselves stored in resource file)
• Integrates as part of a larger testing
g p g g
infrastructure available with Visual Studio
– Test rigs, agents, etc.
– Can make as complex as desired

8. Data‐driven example

9. SQL‐Hero
• Problems trying to address:
– Developers often don’t like to invest time in writing tests
• At least get some “touch tests” as a starting point
At least get some touch tests as a starting point
– Want to exercise tests early and often!
• On ALTER and scheduled (and on demand)
–L
Leverage tests we do have at strategic times: e.g. scripting
d h i i i i
changes to a new place
• Can include these automatically from the schema compare tool!
– Setting of targets, not just thresholds (so we can do
reporting / analysis vs. targets)
– Tests can be somewhat “portable” (i.e. do not need to
Tests can be somewhat portable (i.e. do not need to
strictly tie to a single database)
– Reality of databases with hundreds of tables, reference
data, etc. – may not be practical to re‐gen the entire thing
data etc may not be practical to re gen the entire thing
from scripts, etc.

10. Configuration
g

11. TestingPolicies.xml
Example: a proc parameter that ends in AreaID, populate using a select from Area table that is filtered
<PARAMETER>
<PATTERN>AreaID$</PATTERN>
<SQL_LOOKUP>SELECT AreaID FROM Area a WHERE a.AreaAbbr LIKE 'A%'</SQL_LOOKUP>
/
</PARAMETER>
Example: a proc parameter of @DocTypeID that relates to a table called CommDocumentType
<PARAMETER>
PARAMETER
<NAME>@DocTypeID</NAME>
<CHANGE_NAME_TO>CommDocumentType</CHANGE_NAME_TO>
</PARAMETER>
Example: a sample plug‐in, put in the program filessqlheroplugins directory
<PLUGIN>
<ASSEMBLY_FILE>SampleTestingPlugIn.dll</ASSEMBLY_FILE>
<TYPENAME>SampleTestingPlugIn.MyTestPolicy</TYPENAME>
</PLUGIN>
Example: all objects in the Debug schema would be excluded from testing
<OBJECT>
<PATTERN>^[?Debug]?.</PATTERN>
<IS_EXCLUDED>True</IS_EXCLUDED>
</OBJECT>

12. Notes
• The test generation process will look at
The test generation process will look at
captured workloads to see if an already‐
executed invocation will work
executed invocation “will work”
• Is using a randomized process, but influenced
by testing policy file
by testing policy file
• No “side‐effects”
– Rollback per object
– Advantages / Disadvantages

13. Creating Tests
g

14. Running Tests
Running Tests
• Scheduling
• Via Template
• Via Template, with parallel execution!
i l ih ll l i !
• From SHCommand.exe
• From .sqlheroproj Visual Studio project type
• Demo

15. Some Observations…
• Presence of touch testing has proven value from
experience
experience ‐ example
• SQL‐Hero testing can augment VS testing:
– VS for formal unit tests which are part of build
process, complex cases where can use C#
– SH for touch tests that are just “there” behind the
scenes to find certain issues for you transparently
y p y
– Output of SH testing template can be used in VS, if
you like!
• Not intending SQL Hero to “do it all” but
Not intending SQL‐Hero to do it all but
considering some new features along the lines of
turning captured workloads into complex test
cases (C#)
( )

16. Some Observations…
• Presence of touch testing has proven value from
experience
experience ‐ example
• SQL‐Hero testing can augment VS testing:
– VS for formal unit tests which are part of build
process, complex cases where can use C#
– SH for touch tests that are just “there” behind the
scenes to find certain issues for you transparently
y p y
– Output of SH testing template can be used in VS, if
you like!
• Not intending SQL Hero to “do it all” but
Not intending SQL‐Hero to do it all but
considering some new features along the lines of
turning captured workloads into complex test
cases (C#)
( )

17. A more complex use case…
p
• Problems trying to address:
– Data quality in development regions
– Security and isolation of production data
– In progress work (using external source control?)
– Making this easy
Making this easy
• How does unit testing relate?
– Integrated as part of the process to ensure things “still
work” at the end (could be a different process too)
work” at the end (could be a different process too)
– Overall process can serve as one way to achieve the
coveted “known starting point” – easily
• YMMV – may be simpler or more complex (likely
b i l l (lik l
supported!)
p p g g
• Watch for a whitepaper describing this in great detail
• Demo

18. A more complex use case ‐ illustrated…
Production QA/Development
Prod
QANew QA
(remote)
Backup
Backup /
Restore
Backup
QANew
Remove…
(remote)
Scramble
sensitive
data

19. A more complex use case ‐ illustrated…
Production QA/Development
Detach, Move
Detach, Move
Prod Files, Attach…
QANew QA
(remote)
Backup
Sync
Pending
Changes
QANew
Backup
Restore
QANew
FTP Landing
Zone
Perform tests

20. A more complex use case ‐ illustrated…
Production QA/Development
Prod
QAOld
(remote)
E‐mail
relevant
parties about
parties about
completion…
QA

21. Putting it together…
• VS Database Project
VS Database Project
– “Build” ‐> Deploy (local or shared)
– Can exercise static code analysis
– Can include unit testing
Can include unit testing
– Can use MSBuild, which in turn integrates with TFS / CI options
• SQL‐Hero
– Precludes none of the above
Precludes none of the above
– Adds touch testing capability during development cycle, transparently
– Source control integration interops with Database Projects!
– Large data sets are encouraged and easy to build
– Compliance checking incorporated there acts against “real” databases, can
be scheduled, email delivery (advantages!)
– Supports automated operations
• Example: DB reconcile from branched dev to branched QA (both stateful worked
Example: DB reconcile from branched dev to branched QA (both stateful, worked
pretty flawlessly with a simple .cmd script)
– More use cases to support: testing from a collected workload
• Your environment
– Do developers do actual data modeling?
– Do developers want a shared environment?

22. Offers…
• Looking for Customer Advisory Board
members
– Free enterprise edition in exchange for on‐going
feedback (iterative development on v next
feedback (iterative development on v‐next
features)
• Next release coming soon (along with new
g ( g
whitepapers)
– Still free!
– www.codexframework.com (Library)
– @sqlheroguy
– joelc@codexframework.com

23. To learn more or inquire about speaking opportunities, please contact:
o ea o e o qu e about spea g oppo tu t es, p ease co tact:
Mark Ginnebaugh, User Group Leader
mark@designmind.com