wired

Using mocks is a clear sign of "doing it wrong". However, reality is that 10 out of 10 enterprises have a BIG BALL OF MUD architecture and heaps of mocking tests happily breaking with almost every implementation change while they simultaneously slowly degrade accumulating unneeded mocking and a lack of it that just does not fail the particular test done. NPE is forever lurking around the corner to let you know that someone missed something.

The solution, obviously: get rid of the mocking. But enterprises don't think like that or even if: there is a huge pile waiting to be rewritten. You're not gonna make it all by yourself in a reasonable time-frame. So things go as they always do in an enterprise: you'll patch it.

The wired container is such a patch that improves the situation...

• makes set-up of mocking test scenarios easier, shorter and more robust
• tells you what you missed to mock
• tells you what you unnecessarily mocked

And it will look like:

// make yourself a container
Wired container = Wired.container(config);

// wire some mocks
container.wireMock(ThingA.class);
ThingB b = container.wireMock(ThingB.class);

// wire some impl under test
TestedA a = container.wire(TestedA.class);
TestedC c = container.wireStub(new TestedC("Foo"));

// does this make sense?
container.verifyImplementationWiring();

// do the mocking madness (when/then) with a,b,c as before

At least the spagetti wiring in setup is now gone. It is more or less a list of the mocked classes and the real implementations under test. You may assign them for later useage or not. Alternativly one can get things back out of the container.

ThingA a = container.get(ThingA.class);

Finally there is a config that has 3 simple methods to implement:

void init(Wired container) {
	// run some common wiring
	// enterprises like to setup DAOs, translations etc.
}

<T> T mock(Class<T> type) {
	// make me a mock please
	return MyMadness.mockOf(type); 
}

boolean isMock(Object mayBeMock) {
	// is this a mock?
	return MyMadness.isMock(mayBeMock); 
}

So the container is independent of the mocking madness you prefer to get bitten by. If you read so far I assume you are working in one of those enterprises - let me say a last thing: Good luck, you'll need it.