ColdFusion and Various Code Coverage Tools for Testing Applications

While testing an application, testing professionals have to test the amount of code that is actually tested by the test suite. So code coverage is used as an effective instrument to determine the completeness of the testing done. Also, code coverage can be used as a diagnostic tool to check the code executed for a specific functionality or transaction. Code coverage makes it easier for testers check the objects, modules and functions running while a transaction is being executed. The testers also have option to choose from a variety of code coverage tools while testing an application.

Some of the Widely Used Code Coverage Tools

Rancho for ColdFusion Applications: Rancho is designed as an experimental tool to check code coverage while testing any ColdFusion application. The testers have option to use Rancho either as an application or a ColdFusion Builder extension. As the tool is written in CFML, it provides only line coverage of CFML application. The testers need to use Rancho to instrument the CFML application before running the test suite. After running the test suite, they can use Rancho to generate a code coverage report.

JetBrains dotCover: Along with being a code coverage tool, dotCover can also be used as a .NET unit test runner. The tool comes being integrated with Visual Studio. It highlights the covered and uncovered code in Visual Studio. The tool generates the code coverage report as HTML, XML or JSON. The testers can further use dotCover along with multiple unit testing frameworks including xUnit, NUnit, MSTest and Mspec.

OpenCover: As an open source code coverage tool, OpenCover is designed for both .NET frameworks and Silverlight. OpenCover is also effective in handling both 32 and 64 bit processes without any hassle. The test professionals can install OpenCover in the Package Manager Console by running a simple command. However, they have to use ReportGenerator 1.9 to view the code coverage report in a more precise format.

PHPCoverage: As an open source tool, PHPCoverage is used widely by PHP developers to measure and report the code coverage provided by the test suite. While running the code, PHPCoverage can effectively instrument and record the line coverage information for PHP scripts. It uses Xdebug Extension collect code coverage data. PHPCoverage is also designed with features to generate extensive reports through standard HTML report implementation. However, the tool is compatible with PHP 5.0 and newer versions.

NoUnit: The open source code coverage tool enables testers to determine the quality of their JUnit tests. After the testing, it generates reports directly from the code, and presents the information graphically. Along with highlighting the number of project's methods tested by the test suite, the report also conveys the extent of code coverage.

InsECT: Instrumentation Execution Coverage Tool (InsECT) is a tool written in Java to get code coverage information for Java programs. It aims to provide detailed code coverage information about Java programs. InsECT also fully considers the language features and object-oriented behavior of Java while testing the code coverage. Also, the open source test coverage tool for Java can be used in an extensible way to carry out a variety of dynamic analyses.

GroboCodeCoverage: It is a code coverage tool that implements pure Java 100%. GroboCodeCoverage tracks the code coverage by using adding logging statements to Java classes after their compilation. However, it relies on Jakarta's BCEL platform to track code coverage by adding logging statements to Java classes after their compilation.

Despite being effective in reflecting the code covered during testing, no code coverage tool can guarantee enhanced testing quality. Also, the testers need to understand the major differences between code coverage and white box testing. It is also important for testers to choose the code coverage tool based on the programming language and development framework. To get maximum benefits of ColdFusion, you may consider hiring services of a custom ColdFusion development company.

We provide ColdFusion application development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified ColdFusion programmers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.