testing methods with no return

[Matthew Phillips]

I am working on a project that includes a class that sends email. The method that does most of the work does not have a return value. I want to do some refactoring on it, but I'm not sure how to write a test for it. How would I go about testing it beyond tying it to an email server and having it send the mail?

[Ilja Preuss]

I have done something similar some years ago, though I don't remember all the details.
Basically, you need to mock the Mail API - either directly, or indirectly by putting a Facade between it and your production code. When testing the class, you would give it a Mock Mailserver, a class which would just set some flags your tests could then check for.
The solution would be very similar to the one presented at the end of this thread
Did that help?
[ May 13, 2003: Message edited by: Ilja Preuss ]

[Ilja Preuss]

BTW, http://www.mockobjects.com/ provides mock implementations of the java mail api.

[Matthew Phillips]

Thanks for the info, Ilja. I'll check out Mock Objects and post my questions afterwards.