Has anyone done a FitNesse TEST that queries to REAL Database? I can't make Fitnesse connect successfully

Question

I'm asking because ALL examples I find in Google, are the same from the Fitnesse tutorial: a very simple query to a list or array in memory, NOT A REAL Database.

Yes, Fixtures never have to deal with that, but how am I supposed to test my fixtures if I can't even make the connection to the DB in a simulation of an "API"?

What I'm trying to simulate is the call from a FitNesse Fixture to query in Java into a PostgreSQL database/table. In this simple example I'm trying to obtain, at least one column from one row, in one table. When I execute the code, it runs perfectly by it's own. The problem is when trying to execute from Fitnesse through the fixture. It always fails with a ClassNotFoundException, when calling the JDBC driver. This doesn't happen by running the code by it's own.

Here is the code that does the query:

package queriespackage;

import java.sql.*;

public class testQuery01 {

    public static Connection openDBConnection(){
        Connection connectionString = null;
        try {
            String dbhost = "SOMEURL";//Redacted
            String port = "SOMEPORT";//Redacted
            String dbname = "THEDBNAME";//Redacted
            String username = "SOMEUSER";//Redacted
            String password = "SOMEPASSWORD";//Redacted
            String driverJDBC = "org.postgresql.Driver";

            Class.forName(driverJDBC);
            connectionString = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:postgresql://" + dbhost + ":" + port + "/" + dbname,username,password);
            connectionString.setAutoCommit(false);
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace(System.err);
            System.exit(0);
        }  catch (Exception e) {
            System.err.println( e.getClass().getName()+": "+ e.getMessage() );
            System.exit(0);
        };
        return connectionString;
    };

    public static ResultSet executeQuery(Connection connectionString, int intAccountId) throws SQLException{

        Statement querySession = connectionString.createStatement();
        //The query string
        String queryString = "SELECT DISTINCT "
                + "account_search.account_id,"
                + "account_search.account_name"
                + " FROM account_search "
                + " WHERE"
                + " account_search.account_id = "+ intAccountId
                + "LIMIT 1";

        ResultSet queryResult = querySession.executeQuery(queryString);
        return queryResult; 
    };

    public static String processQueryResult(ResultSet queryResult) throws SQLException{
        String strQueryValueReturned = null;
        while (queryResult.next()) {
            strQueryValueReturned = queryResult.getString("account_name");
        };
        return strQueryValueReturned;       
    };

    public static boolean closeDBConnection(Connection connectionString){
        try {
            if(connectionString!=null){
                connectionString.close();
            }
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            System.err.println( e.getClass().getName()+": "+ e.getMessage() );
            System.exit(0);
        };
        return true;
    };

    public static String testQuery(int intAccountId) throws SQLException, ClassNotFoundException{
        boolean bolConnectionStatus = false;
        String strValueReturned = null;

        Connection connectionString = openDBConnection();

        if(connectionString != null){
            ResultSet qryQueryResult = executeQuery(connectionString, intAccountId);
            strValueReturned = processQueryResult(qryQueryResult);
            bolConnectionStatus = closeDBConnection(connectionString);
            if(!bolConnectionStatus){
                System.exit(0);
            }
        }else{
            System.exit(0);
        };
        return strValueReturned;
    };

};

If I add a Main method to that code, passing it the argument value for "intAccountId", it successfully returns the name of the account "account_name", just as expected.

Now here's the Fixture that should be called by the FitNesse test:

package fixturespackage;

import java.sql.SQLException;
import queriespackage.testQuery01;

public class testFixture01{

    private int Int_AccountId;

    //Fixture Constructor (setter)
    public testFixture01(int Int_AccountId){
        this.Int_AccountId = Int_AccountId;
    };  


    public String query() throws SQLException, ClassNotFoundException{
        return testQuery01.testQuery(Int_AccountId);
    };
};

Just as the FitNesse guide says, there must be a "query" method, that does the actual call to the interface in the DB. I had to add a constructor instead of the "setter", because FitNesse actually demands it: "Could not invoke constructor for fixturepackage.testFixture01"

Here's the FitNesse page:

!***> System Variables
!define TEST_SYSTEM {slim}
!path C:\FitnessTest\bin
*!

|Query: fixturespackage.testFixture01|21 |
|Str_AccountName                         |
|SomeName                                |

Here's a Screenshot of my BuildPath, so you can see I have the JDBC Library for Java 8, JDK 1.8, JRE 1.8... and the "org.postgresql.Driver.class" is included in the project.

This is the error I receive, when running from FitNesse:

This is the error I get, when debugging the line where FitNesse failed by using Inspect tool:

... and YES, I also tried by hard coding the name of the JDBC:

I have searched a lot for a REAL LIFE example, both here, the FitNesse Guide and Google.

The FitNesse Guide might be extensive, but let's be sincere, it's full of "dirty word here", unrealistic and incomplete examples and missing a lot of information.

So, asking again, has anyone done a REAL LIFE test making queries, using FitNesse, that could help me find out what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I have to admit I've only done limited database tests with FitNesse, but I have used them (to query DB2). I did not use query tables (or wrote my own fixtures to query), but instead used jdbcslim in combination with script tables and scenario's.

That fact that the driver class cannot be found suggests that although the jar is present on the classpath in your IDE it is not available when FitNesse is running your fixture code.

I notice you specify the classpath as a single directory in the wiki. In Java that means that all class files should be in that directory (as .class files, in the right subdirectory for their defined package). It will not pick up any jars (or zips) in that directory. Did you unpack your database driver's jar to that directory? If not, you need to add a !path line pointing to the jar (so the entire path including the filename) with the database driver.

Now listing every jar you need can quickly become cumbersome, so you can also use wildcards. I tend to copy all the jars I need to a single directory, that also contains my fixture .class files, and add a single !path line loading all jars in that directory. So if you also copied your database driver to the directory in you question you could ensure it, and your own fixture, to be available via

!path C:\FitnessTest\bin
!path C:\FitnessTest\bin\*.jar