{ "uuid": [ { "value": "526f1b74-c255-4dd3-ba7a-5d529545d01d" } ], "langcode": [ { "value": "en" } ], "type": [ { "target_id": "daily_email", "target_type": "node_type", "target_uuid": "8bde1f2f-eef9-4f2d-ae9c-96921f8193d7" } ], "revision_timestamp": [ { "value": "2025-05-11T08:59:58+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": "Automated tests reduce debugging time" } ], "created": [ { "value": "2025-04-01T00:00:00+00:00" } ], "changed": [ { "value": "2025-05-11T08:59:58+00:00" } ], "promote": [ { "value": false } ], "sticky": [ { "value": false } ], "default_langcode": [ { "value": true } ], "revision_translation_affected": [ { "value": true } ], "path": [ { "alias": "\/daily\/2025\/04\/01\/debugging", "langcode": "en" } ], "body": [ { "value": "\n

In my talk about automated testing and test-driven development<\/a>, I speak about a custom module I wrote for a client's Drupal project.<\/p>\n\n

It was to integrate with a third-party job application system that they would log into and enter information via a form (similar to Drupal's node forms) that they wanted to appear on the Drupal website.<\/p>\n\n

Once submitted, the system would send a POST request to an endpoint provided by the custom module. The module would process it and create the job node with the appropriate field values.<\/p>\n\n

I wrote automated tests and did test-driven development.<\/p>\n\n

Everything worked great for a few weeks or months.<\/p>\n\n

Later, we had a message from the client saying the integration was broken and we needed to fix it.<\/p>\n\n

I don't think I'd worked on this module for a while, but I was concerned that a Drupal core update or another change could have caused a regression.<\/p>\n\n

The first thing I did was run the tests I'd written and verify they still passed, which they did.<\/p>\n\n

This confirmed that as long as the data was being sent in the expected format, the node would be created and the integration would work.<\/p>\n\n

Due to an upstream issue, the data was no longer in the expected format, which meant the node could not be created.<\/p>\n\n

Once it was fixed, everything started working again.<\/p>\n\n

My debugging time was practically zero as I was able to rely on my tests and that they were still passing.<\/p>\n\n

I could confidently tell the client that the issue wasn't with our code and must've been an third-party issue.<\/p>\n\n

Writing tests takes some time, but having tests saves time.<\/p>\n\n ", "format": "full_html", "processed": "\n

In my talk about automated testing and test-driven development<\/a>, I speak about a custom module I wrote for a client's Drupal project.<\/p>\n\n

It was to integrate with a third-party job application system that they would log into and enter information via a form (similar to Drupal's node forms) that they wanted to appear on the Drupal website.<\/p>\n\n

Once submitted, the system would send a POST request to an endpoint provided by the custom module. The module would process it and create the job node with the appropriate field values.<\/p>\n\n

I wrote automated tests and did test-driven development.<\/p>\n\n

Everything worked great for a few weeks or months.<\/p>\n\n

Later, we had a message from the client saying the integration was broken and we needed to fix it.<\/p>\n\n

I don't think I'd worked on this module for a while, but I was concerned that a Drupal core update or another change could have caused a regression.<\/p>\n\n

The first thing I did was run the tests I'd written and verify they still passed, which they did.<\/p>\n\n

This confirmed that as long as the data was being sent in the expected format, the node would be created and the integration would work.<\/p>\n\n

Due to an upstream issue, the data was no longer in the expected format, which meant the node could not be created.<\/p>\n\n

Once it was fixed, everything started working again.<\/p>\n\n

My debugging time was practically zero as I was able to rely on my tests and that they were still passing.<\/p>\n\n

I could confidently tell the client that the issue wasn't with our code and must've been an third-party issue.<\/p>\n\n

Writing tests takes some time, but having tests saves time.<\/p>\n\n ", "summary": null } ] }