Meta annotation support for testing

Most testing-related annotations can be used as meta annotations to create your own annotations and reduce configuration duplication in the test suite.

Each of the following annotations can be used as a meta annotation in combination with the TestContext framework.

• @BootstrapWith

• @ContextConfiguration

• @ContextHierarchy

• @ActiveProfiles

• @TestPropertySource

• @DirtiesContext

• @WebAppConfiguration

• @TestExecutionListeners

• @Transactional

• @BeforeTransaction

• @AfterTransaction

• @Commit

• @Rollback

• @Sql

• @SqlConfig

• @SqlMergeMode

• @SqlGroup

• @Repeat (only supported on JUnit 4)

• @Timed (only supported on JUnit 4)

• @IfProfileValue (only supported on JUnit 4)

• @ProfileValueSourceConfiguration (only supported on JUnit 4)

• @SpringJUnitConfig (only supported on JUnit Jupiter)

• @SpringJUnitWebConfig (only supported on JUnit Jupiter)

• @TestConstructor (only supported on JUnit Jupiter)

• @NestedTestConfiguration (only supported on JUnit Jupiter)

• @EnabledIf (only supported on JUnit Jupiter)

• @DisabledIf (only supported on JUnit Jupiter)

Consider the following example:

@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration({"/app-config.xml", "/test-data-access-config.xml"})
@ActiveProfiles("dev")
@Transactional
public class OrderRepositoryTests { }
@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration({"/app-config.xml", "/test-data-access-config.xml"})
@ActiveProfiles("dev")
@Transactional
public class UserRepositoryTests { }

@RunWith(SpringRunner::class)
@ContextConfiguration("/app-config.xml", "/test-data-access-config.xml")
@ActiveProfiles("dev")
@Transactional
class OrderRepositoryTests { }
@RunWith(SpringRunner::class)
@ContextConfiguration("/app-config.xml", "/test-data-access-config.xml")
@ActiveProfiles("dev")
@Transactional
class UserRepositoryTests { }

If we find that the previous configuration is repeated in our JUnit 4-based test suite, we can reduce the duplication by introducing a special compound annotation that centralizes the overall test configuration for Spring, as follows:

@Target(ElementType.TYPE)
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@ContextConfiguration({"/app-config.xml", "/test-data-access-config.xml"})
@ActiveProfiles("dev")
@Transactional
public @interface TransactionalDevTestConfig { }

@Target(AnnotationTarget.TYPE)
@Retention(AnnotationRetention.RUNTIME)
@ContextConfiguration("/app-config.xml", "/test-data-access-config.xml")
@ActiveProfiles("dev")
@Transactional
annotation class TransactionalDevTestConfig { }

You can then use our custom annotation @TransactionalDevTestConfig to simplify the configuration of individual JUnit 4 based test classes, as shown below:

@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
@TransactionalDevTestConfig
public class OrderRepositoryTests { }
@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
@TransactionalDevTestConfig
public class UserRepositoryTests { }

@RunWith(SpringRunner::class)
@TransactionalDevTestConfig
class OrderRepositoryTests
@RunWith(SpringRunner::class)
@TransactionalDevTestConfig
class UserRepositoryTests

If we write tests using JUnit Jupiter, then we can further reduce code duplication because annotations in JUnit 5 can also be used as meta annotations. Consider the following example:

@ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class)
@ContextConfiguration({"/app-config.xml", "/test-data-access-config.xml"})
@ActiveProfiles("dev")
@Transactional
class OrderRepositoryTests { }
@ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class)
@ContextConfiguration({"/app-config.xml", "/test-data-access-config.xml"})
@ActiveProfiles("dev")
@Transactional
class UserRepositoryTests { }

@ExtendWith(SpringExtension::class)
@ContextConfiguration("/app-config.xml", "/test-data-access-config.xml")
@ActiveProfiles("dev")
@Transactional
class OrderRepositoryTests { }
@ExtendWith(SpringExtension::class)
@ContextConfiguration("/app-config.xml", "/test-data-access-config.xml")
@ActiveProfiles("dev")
@Transactional
class UserRepositoryTests { }

If we find that the previous configuration is repeated in our JUnit Jupiter-based test suite, we can reduce the duplication by introducing a special compound annotation that centralizes the common test configuration for Spring and JUnit Jupiter, as follows:

@Target(ElementType.TYPE)
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class)
@ContextConfiguration({"/app-config.xml", "/test-data-access-config.xml"})
@ActiveProfiles("dev")
@Transactional
public @interface TransactionalDevTestConfig { }

@Target(AnnotationTarget.TYPE)
@Retention(AnnotationRetention.RUNTIME)
@ExtendWith(SpringExtension::class)
@ContextConfiguration("/app-config.xml", "/test-data-access-config.xml")
@ActiveProfiles("dev")
@Transactional
annotation class TransactionalDevTestConfig { }

You can then use our custom annotation @TransactionalDevTestConfig to simplify the configuration of individual test classes based on JUnit Jupite, as shown below:

@TransactionalDevTestConfig
class OrderRepositoryTests { }
@TransactionalDevTestConfig
class UserRepositoryTests { }

@TransactionalDevTestConfig
class OrderRepositoryTests { }
@TransactionalDevTestConfig
class UserRepositoryTests { }

Because JUnit Jupiter supports using @Test, @RepeatedTest, ParameterizedTest and others as meta annotations, you can also create your own compound annotations at the test method level. For example, if you want to create a compound annotation that combines the @Test and @Tag annotations from JUnit Jupiter with the @Transactional annotation from Spring, you can create an annotation @TransactionalIntegrationTest as follows:

@Target(ElementType.METHOD)
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Transactional
@Tag("integration-test") // org.junit.jupiter.api.Tag
@Test // org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
public @interface TransactionalIntegrationTest { }

@Target(AnnotationTarget.TYPE)
@Retention(AnnotationRetention.RUNTIME)
@Transactional
@Tag("integration-test") // org.junit.jupiter.api.Tag
@Test // org.junit.jupiter.api.Test
annotation class TransactionalIntegrationTest { }

You can then use our custom annotation @TransactionalIntegrationTest to simplify the configuration of individual test methods based on JUnit Jupiter as follows:

@TransactionalIntegrationTest
void saveOrder() { }
@TransactionalIntegrationTest
void deleteOrder() { }

@TransactionalIntegrationTest
fun saveOrder() { }
@TransactionalIntegrationTest
fun deleteOrder() { }

More information can be found on the wiki page Spring Annotation Programming Model.