oliverdavies.uk/content/node.fbc1e9f3-0957-4dfb-b273-f3ed4a6c40f7.json

{
    "uuid": [
        {
            "value": "fbc1e9f3-0957-4dfb-b273-f3ed4a6c40f7"
        }
    ],
    "langcode": [
        {
            "value": "en"
        }
    ],
    "type": [
        {
            "target_id": "daily_email",
            "target_type": "node_type",
            "target_uuid": "8bde1f2f-eef9-4f2d-ae9c-96921f8193d7"
        }
    ],
    "revision_timestamp": [
        {
            "value": "2025-05-11T09:00:50+00:00"
        }
    ],
    "revision_uid": [
        {
            "target_type": "user",
            "target_uuid": "b8966985-d4b2-42a7-a319-2e94ccfbb849"
        }
    ],
    "revision_log": [],
    "status": [
        {
            "value": true
        }
    ],
    "uid": [
        {
            "target_type": "user",
            "target_uuid": "b8966985-d4b2-42a7-a319-2e94ccfbb849"
        }
    ],
    "title": [
        {
            "value": "Tests are living documentation\n"
        }
    ],
    "created": [
        {
            "value": "2022-12-30T00:00:00+00:00"
        }
    ],
    "changed": [
        {
            "value": "2025-05-11T09:00:50+00:00"
        }
    ],
    "promote": [
        {
            "value": false
        }
    ],
    "sticky": [
        {
            "value": false
        }
    ],
    "default_langcode": [
        {
            "value": true
        }
    ],
    "revision_translation_affected": [
        {
            "value": true
        }
    ],
    "path": [
        {
            "alias": "\/daily\/2022\/12\/30\/tests-are-living-documentation",
            "langcode": "en"
        }
    ],
    "body": [
        {
            "value": "\n          <p>Today I was working on a project and made a one-line change that updated a single value within an API response.<\/p>\n\n<p>Unexpectedly, it caused a test to fail. The API response returned a 500 status code instead of the expected 201 code.<\/p>\n\n<p>I reverted the change locally and ensured that the test passed again, so I knew it was causing the failure.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"fixing-the-failure\">Fixing the failure<\/h2>\n\n<p>The change was removing a hard-coded part of a URL to a dynamic one, using Drupal's <code>Settings<\/code> class.<\/p>\n\n<p>I was retrieving a value from it, but as there was no value being set within the test, it was returning a null value and causing the 500 error code.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"how-does-the-settings-class-work%3F\">How does the Settings class work?<\/h2>\n\n<p>To fix the test failure, I needed to learn how to set a Settings value within a test.<\/p>\n\n<p>To do this, I looked for and found the test for the Settings class itself. I saw how it was being set there, did the same in my test, fixed the failure and got my test passing again.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"tests-are-living-documentation\">Tests are living documentation<\/h2>\n\n<p>As well as verifying things work when they are written, tests also act as long-term documentation. They can be run at any point to ensure that they still pass and are a reference to other developers on how the code should work.<\/p>\n\n<p>Rather than a Confluence page, a README file or code comments which can become out of date, if a test becomes outdated, it will fail and make developers aware, as well as break any CI pipeline that it runs in.<\/p>\n\n<p>By writing tests, you're ensuring that your code works as expected and documenting it at the same time.<\/p>\n\n        ",
            "format": "full_html",
            "processed": "\n          <p>Today I was working on a project and made a one-line change that updated a single value within an API response.<\/p>\n\n<p>Unexpectedly, it caused a test to fail. The API response returned a 500 status code instead of the expected 201 code.<\/p>\n\n<p>I reverted the change locally and ensured that the test passed again, so I knew it was causing the failure.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"fixing-the-failure\">Fixing the failure<\/h2>\n\n<p>The change was removing a hard-coded part of a URL to a dynamic one, using Drupal's <code>Settings<\/code> class.<\/p>\n\n<p>I was retrieving a value from it, but as there was no value being set within the test, it was returning a null value and causing the 500 error code.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"how-does-the-settings-class-work%3F\">How does the Settings class work?<\/h2>\n\n<p>To fix the test failure, I needed to learn how to set a Settings value within a test.<\/p>\n\n<p>To do this, I looked for and found the test for the Settings class itself. I saw how it was being set there, did the same in my test, fixed the failure and got my test passing again.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"tests-are-living-documentation\">Tests are living documentation<\/h2>\n\n<p>As well as verifying things work when they are written, tests also act as long-term documentation. They can be run at any point to ensure that they still pass and are a reference to other developers on how the code should work.<\/p>\n\n<p>Rather than a Confluence page, a README file or code comments which can become out of date, if a test becomes outdated, it will fail and make developers aware, as well as break any CI pipeline that it runs in.<\/p>\n\n<p>By writing tests, you're ensuring that your code works as expected and documenting it at the same time.<\/p>\n\n        ",
            "summary": null
        }
    ]
}