Description

The DummyCreator is a library, which provides a possibility to automatically create dummy-objects. Those dummy objects are created with all of their attributes set. So you can use them as a helper while testing your application.

For example, if you want to test a class, which processes data from a database, you might want to use random instances instead of data from the real database (which might not be ready yet or something like that). Now you could write a method for each class to create such a dummy instance.

How to use

If you want to use the DummyCreator, you just have to integrate the jar-file to your project. Afterwards you can call it by: DummyCreator.createDummyOfClass(The class you need)

There are several possibilities to take influence on the creation-process

Register Interfaces

Normally you would often use a interface instead of the real class if you define an attribute of a class. For example, you would write private List myList; instead of private ArrayList myList;

Now, there is a problem, when we try to create a dummy instance of myList. To solve this, you need to bind an implementation of the interface to the interface with the ClassBinder:

This can be done by: ClassBinder.bind(List.class, ArrayList.class);

By doing this, you can bind every implementation to an interface you want.

Select a Constructor

In the normal creation process of a dummy object, the creator tries to use all constructors of the class until one worked. If you want to preselect the constructor that should be used, you can bind it to the ClassBinder: ClassBinder.bind(Class clazz, Constructor c); To get the constructor, you normally would use reflection and then choose the needed. Constructor[] constructors = clazz.getConstructors();

Preselect which object to use

If you want to use a specific object for a certain class, you can register it at the ClassBinder: ClassBinder.bind(Class clazz, Object o);

Every time the DummyCreator is called with this class, it will return the given object.

Use a creation-method for classes

You can also register a method which returns a certain class. If you now want to create an object of this class with the DummyCreator, it uses the given class: ClassBinder.bind(Class clazz, Method m);

Setup default bindings

There are some default bindings which can be used by calling Classbinder.setDefaultBindings()

This will set the bindings for List, Set and Map.