Assertion in Helper Class Ignored

Question

I have a test case and a helper class. In the helper class I want to use asserts too like here:

MainTests.h

#import <SenTestingKit/SenTestingKit.h>

@interface MainTests : SenTestCase

@end

MainTests.m

#import "MainTests.h"
#import "HelperClass.h"

@implementation MainTests

- (void)testExample {
    HelperClass *helperClass = [[HelperClass alloc] init];
    [helperClass fail];
}

@end

HelperClass.h

#import <SenTestingKit/SenTestingKit.h>

@interface HelperClass : SenTestCase

- (void)fail;

@end

HelperClass.m

#import "HelperClass.h"

@implementation HelperClass

- (void)fail {
    STFail(@"This should fail");
}

@end

Sidenote: I had to make the helper class a subclass from SenTestCase to being able to access the assertion macros.

The assertion from the helper class is ignored. Any ideas why? How can I use assertions in helper classes?

Answer 1

I had this same problem today and came up with a hack that worked for my purposes. Poking into the SenTestCase macros, I noticed that they call [self ...] on the helper but didn't trigger the asserts. So, wiring up the source class to the helper got it working for me. Changes to your question classes would look like:

MainTests.h

#import <SenTestingKit/SenTestingKit.h>

@interface MainTests : SenTestCase

@end

MainTests.m

#import "MainTests.h"
#import "HelperClass.h"

@implementation MainTests

- (void)testExample {
    // Changed init call to pass self to helper
    HelperClass *helperClass = [[HelperClass alloc] initFrom:self];
    [helperClass fail];
}

@end

HelperClass.h

#import <SenTestingKit/SenTestingKit.h>

@interface HelperClass : SenTestCase

- (id)initFrom:(SenTestCase *)elsewhere;
- (void)fail;

@property (nonatomic, strong) SenTestCase* from;

@end

HelperClass.m

#import "HelperClass.h"

@implementation HelperClass

@synthesize from;

- (id)initFrom:(SenTestCase *)elsewhere
{
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {
        self.from = elsewhere;
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)fail {
    STFail(@"This should fail");
}

// Override failWithException: to use the source test and not self
- (void) failWithException:(NSException *) anException {
    [self.from failWithException:anException];
}

@end

It is entirely possible that additional overrides are needed for more advanced functionality, but this did the trick for me.