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Testing Guide

You cannot create new programs with splashkit-core as you do when using the traditional SplashKit library. Instead, two programs are generated which can be configured to test its functionality: sktest and skunit_tests. They are built with CMake using a preconfigured CMakeLists.txt file, which builds the SplashKit library and both test programs.

Making Changes

Section titled “Making Changes”

sktest is built with the .cpp files from splashkit-core/coresdk/src/test/. To add your own tests, modify one or more of the files such as test_animation.cpp. Tests in sktest tend to focus on demonstrating the output of functions, and require a human to validate that output. They are written in standard C++ and can make use of SplashKit functions.

skunit_tests is built with the .cpp files from splashkit-core/coresdk/src/test/unit_tests/. When it runs, all unit tests from all files in this folder are executed. Additional files can be added to this folder if necessary. If adding a new file, copy the structure from one of the existing unit test files. Unlike sktest, tests here need to be written as Catch2 test cases and #include "catch.hpp" must be present in a given file for it to be compiled into skunit_tests. These tests evaluate actual output against expected output and produce an error if a test fails. See the unit testing guide for a more in depth explanation of how unit tests are written.

Building the test project

Section titled “Building the test project”

If a change is made to the code, the build process needs to be run. This applies whether changes were made to coresdk files (such as adding new functions to SplashKit or changing existing code) or new tests were added to sktest or skunit_tests.

Install prerequisites

Section titled “Install prerequisites”

Open a terminal and install prerequisites with these commands:

Terminal window
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get install -y \
git build-essential cmake g++ libpng-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libsdl2-dev \
libsdl2-mixer-dev libsdl2-gfx-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-net-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev \
libmikmod-dev libbz2-dev libflac-dev libvorbis-dev libwebp-dev libfreetype6-dev

Build from the command line

Section titled “Build from the command line”
Terminal window
cd projects/cmake
cmake --preset Linux
cmake --build build/

Build in VS Code

Section titled “Build in VS Code”

  1. Install the CMake Tools extension from the VS Code extension browser or here.

  2. Configure the extension:
    Select ${workspaceFolder}/projects/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
    Select CMake Lists
    Select the Linux preset
    Select Linux preset
    Select the Default configure preset
    Select Default preset
    In the CMake Tools extension click the button Build target button next to Build and select all
    Select build target
    Click the button Select Default preset next to Debug and select skunit_tests
    Select debug/launch target

  3. Build test project:
    In the CMake Tools extension, click the Build button. The test project will also be built when you refresh tests on the Testing tab of VS Code.
    Build tests

Running Tests

Section titled “Running Tests”

After building the test programs, the compiled executables wiil be found in the splashkit-core/bin directory. Running tests differs depending on if the tests are part of sktest or skunit_tests.

The sktest program

Section titled “The sktest program”

To run sktest, open a terminal and enter:

Terminal window
cd splashkit-core/bin
./sktest

A menu will be presented, showing a list of all the tests that are part of sktest. Select a test to run by entering the corresponding number.

---------------------
 SplashKit Dev Tests
---------------------
 -1: Quit
 0: Animations
 1: Audio
 2: Bundles
 3: Camera
 4: Geometry
 5: Graphics
 6: Input
 7: Logging
 8: Physics
 9: Resources
 10: Shape drawing
 11: Sprite tests
 12: Terminal
 13: Text
 14: Timers
 15: Windows
 16: Cave Escape
 17: Web Server
 18: RESTful Web Service
 19: Network conversions
 20: UDP Networking Test
 21: TCP Networking Test
 22: GPIO Tests
 23: ADC Tests
 24: Motor Driver Tests
 25: Servo Driver Tests
 26: Remote GPIO Tests
 27: GPIO Tests - SPI
 28: UI Tests
---------------------
 Select test to run:

Unit tests

Section titled “Unit tests”

Unit tests are built with the same process as sktest, but run with the skunit_tests program.

From the command line

Section titled “From the command line”

  • It’s a good idea to run the unit tests in a random order so that you can confirm that they run indepedently of one another. If tests run in order, you may miss issues that occur when a test runs without the tests before it passing.

    Terminal window
    cd ../../bin
    ./skunit_tests --order rand

    By default, this will only show reports for failed tests. To show reports for successful tests as well, use the option --success. More command line options can be found in Catch2’s documentation.

  • If you want to run a specific test, or group of tests, you can do so:

    Terminal window
    ./skunit_tests <test spec>

    The test spec can be a test name or tags and supports wildcards. For example, *string* would run all of the tests with “string” in the name.

In VS Code

Section titled “In VS Code”

You can run tests from the Testing tab in VS Code if you’ve set up the CMake Tools extension as outlined above Testing tab

  • Running all tests:
    Click Run Tests. Each test will be run and the status of each can be seen in the test list after a test runs.
    Run Tests
  • Running a specific test:
    Click Run Test next to any test on the test list to run it
    Run Test
    Test status