Missing tests, automation and linting

[domna]

While reviewing I was not able to spot any automated tests for the software. I think it would be good to have at least some basic tests to ensure that the gui boots up under various conditions. Ideally, the tests would be setup for all supported python versions. A good way to easily run tests for multiple versions is github actions.

I think also automated software linting is a good way to ensure software quality. I like to use ruff, which a lot of people use nowadays. But there are also other tools like pylint. Additionally, mypy is a good option for typing. ruff also offers auto-formatting, which is also helpful to ensure a consistent style (and takes away any mental drain from formatting decisions :)). I don't know if you use any of these in your local development process but I think it's also helpful to enforce them via some automated build tools, i.e., github actions.

If you need some help setting these up I can give you some working examples for qt gui testing and ci/cd integration.

I think for the review you may decide the level of your integration. I very much recommend using automation trough ci/cd. However, since I understand this has some some kind of learning curve I would also be satisfied with some basic tests with, e.g., pytest, would be present for the software.

[CharlieGPA40]

Hi @domna,

Thank you so much for this input. To be honest with you, I am not very familiar with this testing process. Do you mind to provide me with some example that I can study? Thank you so much for your input.

I really apologize to reply you so late as I was very busy these days. I will try to finish up all the comment this week. Again, I really appreciate all your suggestions!

[domna]

You can find an example here: https://github.com/kstenio/libssa/tree/master/src/tests (it's some code from a paper I previously reviewed)
You might want to have a look at the test_startup.py script which just checks if the gui comes up. However, the placement of testing files is a bit odd in this case. Normally, they are placed in the root project folder and src only contains the actual python modules.

It's based on pytest and pytest-qt. Pytest is the standard testing toolkit for python and pytest-qt is a plugin for writing tests for qt applications. Their docs should get you started, you may want to have a look at the pytest qt basic tutorial

[CharlieGPA40]

Hi @domna, thanks for your example. Based on that, I quickly add a test file under the source directory to check if the gui comes up successfully. Thank you so much!

[domna]

Thank you! I think from a python module perspective it would be nice if you put your testfiles under tests/test_..... This is the standard python convention and where people typically look at when they search for tests.

I will also check if the tests run properly for me when I try to run a test experiment (i.e., I'd need some input in #4)

[CharlieGPA40]

Hi @domna,

I made some modification for the testing condition. I attached the test results below.