Problems using dbunit with Spring (without spring-test-dbunit)

Question

I'm trying to use dbunit to test my DAOs. We use Spring in a version that is not compatible with spring-test-dbunit. I can't autowire my dao beans into my test class, because then I would have to use @RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class) which regards one parameterless constructor. My class looks like following:

public class DbUnitExample extends DBTestCase {

    @Autowired
    public MyDAO myDAO;


    public DbUnitExample(String name) {
        super(name);
        System.setProperty(PropertiesBasedJdbcDatabaseTester.DBUNIT_DRIVER_CLASS, "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
        System.setProperty(PropertiesBasedJdbcDatabaseTester.DBUNIT_CONNECTION_URL, "...");
        System.setProperty(PropertiesBasedJdbcDatabaseTester.DBUNIT_USERNAME, "...");
        System.setProperty(PropertiesBasedJdbcDatabaseTester.DBUNIT_PASSWORD, "...");
    }

    @Override
    protected IDataSet getDataSet() throws Exception {
        return new FlatXmlDataSetBuilder().build(new FileInputStream("target/partial.xml"));
    }

    @Override
    protected DatabaseOperation getSetUpOperation() throws Exception {
        return DatabaseOperation.REFRESH;
    }

    @Override
    protected DatabaseOperation getTearDownOperation() throws Exception {
        return DatabaseOperation.NONE;
    }

    @Test
    public void testSometing() throws Exception {
        myDAO.deleteById(12662);
    }
}

Of course I get an NPE because my dao bean can't be found. When I use @RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class) I need to provide one parameterless constructor and have to delete my "dbunit"-constructor. Is there a standard way or workaround to use dbunit with spring without the use of spring-test-dbunit

EDIT

My class now looks like following:

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration("/test-application.xml")
@DirtiesContext
@TestExecutionListeners({ DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.class, DirtiesContextTestExecutionListener.class })
public class DbUnitExample extends DBTestCase {

    @Autowired
    public MyDAO myDAO;

    public DbUnitExample() {
        super("target/partial.xml");
        System.setProperty(PropertiesBasedJdbcDatabaseTester.DBUNIT_DRIVER_CLASS, "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
        System.setProperty(PropertiesBasedJdbcDatabaseTester.DBUNIT_CONNECTION_URL, "...");
        System.setProperty(PropertiesBasedJdbcDatabaseTester.DBUNIT_USERNAME, "...");
        System.setProperty(PropertiesBasedJdbcDatabaseTester.DBUNIT_PASSWORD, "...");
    }

    @Override
    protected IDataSet getDataSet() throws Exception {
        return new FlatXmlDataSetBuilder().build(new FileInputStream("target/partial.xml"));
    }

    @Override
    protected DatabaseOperation getSetUpOperation() throws Exception {
        return DatabaseOperation.REFRESH;
    }

    @Override
    protected DatabaseOperation getTearDownOperation() throws Exception {
//      return DatabaseOperation.NONE;
//      return DatabaseOperation.REFRESH;
        return DatabaseOperation.CLEAN_INSERT;
    }

    @Test
    public void testSometing() throws Exception {
        myDAO.deleteById(12662);
    }
}

It compiles now, but has no dbunt-functionality, which means if I delete a row it doesn't get restored to it's previous state (inserted again).

Answer 1

Since you are using Spring, I suggest autowiring the dbUnit instances into the test. The dbUnit Test Cases page has "Configuration Example Using Spring" for the PrepAndExpectedTestCase, but just copy the code and change it to DBTestCase and adjust accordingly.