Test mocks for low-code applications built with OutSystems

Abstract

Unit testing is a core component of continuous integration and delivery, which in turn is key to faster and more frequent delivery of solutions to customers. Testing at the unit level allows program components to be tested in complete isolation, therefore these tests can be carried out quicker thus reducing troubleshoot time. But to test at this level, dependencies between application components (e.g. a web service connection) need to be removed. There have been advances in mocking and stubbing techniques that remove these dependencies. However, these advances have been made for high-level programming languages, while low-code development technology has yet to take full advantage of these techniques. This paper presents a mocking solution prototype for the OutSystems low-code development platform. The proposed mocking mechanism removes dependencies to components that the developer wants to abstract a test from, as for instance web services or other pieces of logic of an application.