Rating: 
Summary: You Need This Book
Review: Do you write code? Do you develop software? Do you think about writing software? Then you need this book. This book should become your friend, your companion, a part of your family. Even though the title is "JUnit in Action", many of the topics in this book apply to the other xUnit frameworks.Vincent Massol takes the reader on a journey though the JUnit framework, the Cactus extension, Ant, and Mock Objects. He explains each topic in detail and leaves me with a good understanding of the topics. The book is liberally sprinkled with JUnit best practices that every reader should take to heart. The examples are clear and real world. The author addresses the complex issues of unit testing EJBs, and web apps head on. He does not shy away from the real issues that come with testing these kinds of applications. The author also writes about how to integrate your unit testing into you build and configuration management systems. Personally, this is an area that most projects I have worked on needed the most help. It is all fine to have unit tests, but if they are not automated and part of your build process, there value is significantly decreased. Vincent deals with the complex problems of automating deployment of web apps and EJB components and testing them with your build system. Another area that gets much needed attention is test database applications. The author presents a great chapter and example of using DBUnit and how to address the typical problems associated with database testing. One flaw in the book has to be the snapshots of the JUnit GUI results screen. The author tells me the bar is green, but as hard as I squint it still looks dark grey. To sum up, I think every Java software developer needs this book on their shelf. I am currently doing C# and I am happy that I have this book on my shelf as many of the ideas and best practices translate directly into NUnit testing.
Rating:
Summary: You Need This Book
Review: Do you write code? Do you develop software? Do you think about writing software? Then you need this book. This book should become your friend, your companion, a part of your family. Even though the title is "JUnit in Action", many of the topics in this book apply to the other xUnit frameworks. Vincent Massol takes the reader on a journey though the JUnit framework, the Cactus extension, Ant, and Mock Objects. He explains each topic in detail and leaves me with a good understanding of the topics. The book is liberally sprinkled with JUnit best practices that every reader should take to heart. The examples are clear and real world. The author addresses the complex issues of unit testing EJBs, and web apps head on. He does not shy away from the real issues that come with testing these kinds of applications. The author also writes about how to integrate your unit testing into you build and configuration management systems. Personally, this is an area that most projects I have worked on needed the most help. It is all fine to have unit tests, but if they are not automated and part of your build process, there value is significantly decreased. Vincent deals with the complex problems of automating deployment of web apps and EJB components and testing them with your build system. Another area that gets much needed attention is test database applications. The author presents a great chapter and example of using DBUnit and how to address the typical problems associated with database testing. One flaw in the book has to be the snapshots of the JUnit GUI results screen. The author tells me the bar is green, but as hard as I squint it still looks dark grey. To sum up, I think every Java software developer needs this book on their shelf. I am currently doing C# and I am happy that I have this book on my shelf as many of the ideas and best practices translate directly into NUnit testing.
Rating:
Summary: A rarity: a deep overview
Review: I finally had the opportunity to read Vince's finished product and I am impressed at how he and Ted managed to find the balance between an easy-to-follow overview and the necessary technical depth to understand JUnit more fully. Most books only do one or the other (if that). Whether you are brand new to JUnit or have some experience and are looking for good practices, JUnit in Action is for you. On a first reading you can concentrate on the first few chapters and all the diagrams; then after some practice, you can return to the remaining chapters and learn JUnit in increasing depth. This book describes a number of different ways to use JUnit to tackle specific problems in testing both plain Java code and J2EE code, a theme which I have taken further in JUnit Recipes (I couldn't resist the plug -- sorry about that), making "in Action" an excellent prelude to "Recipes". Of course, we hope you'll buy and enjoy both. Vince's early drafts even motivated me to learn more about Cactus and now it is an important part of my J2EE testing arsenal. I will use Vince's book as a primary reference whenever I teach a course on Java, J2EE programming or Test-Driven Development.
Rating:
Summary: Every programmer should own this book
Review: I think we can all agree that unit testing is a good thing that can be painful to implement. The main problem with unit testing is building tests that are easy to run and maintain. That is where JUnit enters the picture. JUnit simplifies the task of creating unit tests and this book simplifies the task of understanding and using JUnit. The book starts with the basics of using JUnit but then moves on to explaining the intricacies of JUnit. UML diagrams clearly show the flow of control within JUnit and your unit tests. The author gives a good description of how to integrate JUnit with Ant, Maven, and Eclipse. The book also shows how to do unit testing of Servlets and JSPs which can be much more complex to test. The author demonstrates both the use of Cactus as well as the use of mock objects for J2EE testing. In fact, the best part of the book is that the author helps you determine how to decide what type of testing strategy is right for your application. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found the author's comments clear and insightful. The author supplies plenty of code samples with explanations of not just how but why we do our testing a certain way. The author's own experience is passed on to us with his "best practices". Anyone who is writing Java code should read and understand this book. The quality of the code you produce will vastly improve.
Rating:
Summary: Every programmer should own this book
Review: I think we can all agree that unit testing is a good thing that can be painful to implement. The main problem with unit testing is building tests that are easy to run and maintain. That is where JUnit enters the picture. JUnit simplifies the task of creating unit tests and this book simplifies the task of understanding and using JUnit. The book starts with the basics of using JUnit but then moves on to explaining the intricacies of JUnit. UML diagrams clearly show the flow of control within JUnit and your unit tests. The author gives a good description of how to integrate JUnit with Ant, Maven, and Eclipse. The book also shows how to do unit testing of Servlets and JSPs which can be much more complex to test. The author demonstrates both the use of Cactus as well as the use of mock objects for J2EE testing. In fact, the best part of the book is that the author helps you determine how to decide what type of testing strategy is right for your application. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found the author's comments clear and insightful. The author supplies plenty of code samples with explanations of not just how but why we do our testing a certain way. The author's own experience is passed on to us with his "best practices". Anyone who is writing Java code should read and understand this book. The quality of the code you produce will vastly improve.
Rating:
Summary: The definitive how-to manual for unit testing J2EE code
Review: If you've ventured into a bookstore lately, you may have noticed that the number of titles available on agile methodologies is multiplying more rapidly than the populations of some third-world countries. Leafing through any one of these titles while sipping an espresso in the bookstore's coffee bar, you'll quickly figure out that repeatable, automated unit tests are a good thing, and that JUnit is the unit testing framework most often used for Java unit testing. A couple of mochachino grande's later, and you've read enough to convince you that your continued survival rests on writing these automated unit tests. Unfortunately, and before your caffeine buzz even wears off, you're struck with the realization that while you're motivated and ready to go, you're just not sure exactly how to go about writing tests for many of your J2EE components. "JUnit in Action" picks up where these other texts leave off. This is not a book on test-driven development, and it's not a book trying desperately to convince you of the value of tests. The book's goal is to demonstrate exactly how to write comprehensive unit tests for the various components of your J2EE applications. Writing tests for servlets, filters, JSPs, taglibs, database components, and EJBs are all covered in detail, as are testing strategies using mock objects and Cactus. Not only are you shown how to write the tests, but also how to write testable code. Along the way, the author points out useful "best practices" and how to use design patterns to improve your tests and the code you are testing. Code examples are thoroughly documented throughout the text in order to illustrate the techniques being discussed. "JUnit in Action" is the definitive how-to manual for unit testing J2EE components. Pick up one of the other books if you're looking for something more motivational, but when you're ready to sit down and bang out some code, you'll want this book at your side.
Rating:
Summary: The best of the Java testing books
Review: Of the half dozen book I've seen that deal with Java testing this is the best. Massol is a technical expert. He talks about testing tool, test design and strategy, and deals realistically with installation and configuration issues. He deals with JUnit, does a little with Maven, and talks quite a bit about J2EE testing strategies including the use of mock objects and Cactus to test JSP, taglibs, servlets, and EJBs. This book is much more than the "hot to use the tool" approach of many current books as it deals very thoughtfully with test design and architetcure issues.
Rating:
Summary: The best of the Java testing books
Review: Of the half dozen book I've seen that deal with Java testing this is the best. Massol is a technical expert. He talks about testing tool, test design and strategy, and deals realistically with installation and configuration issues. He deals with JUnit, does a little with Maven, and talks quite a bit about J2EE testing strategies including the use of mock objects and Cactus to test JSP, taglibs, servlets, and EJBs. This book is much more than the "hot to use the tool" approach of many current books as it deals very thoughtfully with test design and architetcure issues.
Rating: 
Summary: A joy to read but...
Review: This book is required reading for any professional Java developer. Even if you are not convinced of the benefits of test driven development and unit testing you owe it to yourself to check what this is all about. This book will serve as a very hands-on introduction to a lot of APIs, libraries and techniques in the field of unit and integration testing. My only complaint is that it tries to cover too many subjects in too little space. The introductory part on JUnit is superb. I found the treatment of Cactus, surprisingly, too superficial (Vincent Massol is the cactus creator) : the author makes you first run the cactus test using Maven, and that would be ok with me if he gave a through introduction to this tool, but instead all you get is a "run the tests typing maven cactus:test". Now this kind of monkey work is not what an intelligent developer loves to do.. and besides when things go even slightly wrong (and you know they will...) you are left clueless. You also get a chance to run cactus tests with ant but the treatment is not general enough to give you a solid understanding of this procedure. Anywhow after reading this book you will be much more competent on software development best practice and testing, but probably wondering if, having to learn and employ all these tools and APIs, unit testing is still useful or is monstrously transforming into a heavy and complex part of your application...
Rating:
Summary: great coverage of JUnit - get this one
Review: This book really got me moving in the right direction with JUnit. I feel very comfortable writing all kinds of unit tests now and am incorporating my new knowledge into my projects at work. Get this book if you are looking to learn JUnit fast. I gave it 4 stars because it wasn't the best book for reference material.
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