1. Use High-Level Designs [LO-HighLevelDesign]

Note how the Developer Guide describes the high-level design using an Architecture Diagrams and high-level sequence diagrams.

Resources


2. Use Event-Driven Programming [LO-EventDriven]

Note how the Developer Guide uses events to communicate with components without needing a direct coupling. Also note how the EventsCenter.java acts as an event dispatcher to facilitate communication between event creators and event consumers.

Resources


3. Use API Design [LO-ApiDesign]

Note how components of AddressBook have well-defined APIs. For example, the API of the Logic component is given in the Logic.java LogicClassDiagram

Resources


4. Use Assertions [LO-Assertions]

Note how the AddressBook app uses Java asserts to verify assumptions.

Resources

Exercise: Add more assertions

  • Make sure assertions are enabled in your IDE by forcing an assertion failure (e.g. add assert false; somewhere in the code and run the code to ensure the runtime reports an assertion failure).

  • Add more assertions to AddressBook as you see fit.


5. Use Logging [LO-Logging]

6. Use Defensive Coding [LO-DefensiveCoding]

Note how AddressBook uses the ReadOnly* interfaces to prevent objects being modified by clients who are not supposed to modify them.

Resources

Exercise: identify more places for defensive coding

Analyze the AddressBook code/design to identify,

  • where defensive coding is used

  • where the code can be more defensive


7. Use Build Automation [LO-BuildAutomation]

Resources

Exercise: Use gradle to run tasks

  • Use gradle to do these tasks: Run all tests in headless mode, build the jar file.

Exercise: Use gradle to manage dependencies

  • Note how the build script build.gradle file manages third party dependencies such as ControlsFx. Update that file to manage a third-party library dependency.


8. Use Continuous Integration [LO-ContinuousIntegration]

9. Use Code Coverage [LO-CodeCoverage]

Note how our CI server Travis uses Coveralls to report code coverage. (Coverage Status) After setting up Coveralls for your project, you can visit Coveralls website to find details about the coverage of code pushed to your repo. Here is an example.

Resources

Exercise: Use the IDE to measure coverage locally

  • Use the IDE to measure code coverage of your tests.


10. Apply Test Case Design Heuristics [LO-TestCaseDesignHeuristics]

The StringUtilTest.java class gives some examples of how to use Equivalence Partitions, Boundary Value Analysis, and Test Input Combination Heuristics to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of test cases testing the StringUtil.java class.

Resources

Exercise: Apply Test Case Design Heuristics to other places

  • Use the test case design heuristics mentioned above to improve test cases in other places.


11. Write Integration Tests [LO-IntegrationTests]

Consider the StorageManagerTest.java class.

  • Test methods prefsReadSave() and addressBookReadSave() are integration tests. Note how they simply test if The StorageManager class is correctly wired to its dependencies.

  • Test method handleAddressBookChangedEvent_exceptionThrown_eventRaised() is a unit test because it uses dependency injection to isolate the SUT StorageManager#handleAddressBookChangedEvent(…​) from its dependencies.

Compare the above with LogicManagerTest. Some of the tests in that class (e.g. execute_* methods) are neither integration nor unit tests. They are integration + unit tests because they not only check if the LogicManager is correctly wired to its dependencies, but also checks the working of its dependencies. For example, the following two lines test the LogicManager but also the Parser.

@Test
public void execute_invalidCommandFormat_throwsParseException() {
    ...
    assertParseException(invalidCommand, MESSAGE_UNKNOWN_COMMAND);
    assertHistoryCorrect(invalidCommand);
}

Resources

Exercise: Write unit and integration tests for the same method.

  • Write a unit test for a high-level method somewhere in the code base (or a new method you wrote).

  • Write an integration test for the same method.


12. Write System Tests [LO-SystemTesting]

Note how tests below src/test/java/systemtests package (e.g AddCommandSystemTest.java) are system tests because they test the entire system end-to-end.

Resources

Exercise: Write more system tests

  • Write system tests for the new features you add.


13. Automate GUI Testing [LO-AutomateGuiTesting]

Note how this project uses TextFX library to automate GUI testing, including headless GUI testing.

Exercise: Write more automated GUI tests

  • Covered by [LO-SystemTesting]


14. Apply Design Patterns [LO-DesignPatterns]

Here are some example design patterns used in the code base.

  • Singleton Pattern : EventsCenter.java is Singleton class. Its single instance can be accessed using the EventsCenter.getInstance() method.

  • Facade Pattern : StorageManager.java is not only shielding the internals of the Storage component from outsiders, it is mostly redirecting method calls to its internal components (i.e. minimal logic in the class itself). Therefore, StorageManager can be considered a Facade class.

  • Command Pattern : The Command.java and its sub classes implement the Command Pattern.

  • Observer Pattern : The event driven mechanism used by this code base employs the Observer pattern. For example, objects that are interested in events need to have the @Subscribe annotation in the class (this is similar to implementing an <<Observer>> interface) and register with the EventsCenter. When something noteworthy happens, an event is raised and the EventsCenter notifies all relevant subscribers. Unlike in the Observer pattern in which the <<Observable>> class is notifying all <<Observer>> objects, here the <<Observable>> classes simply raises an event and the EventsCenter takes care of the notifications.

  • MVC Pattern :

    • The 'View' part of the application is mostly in the .fxml files in the src/main/resources/view folder.

    • Model component contains the 'Model'. However, note that it is possible to view the Logic as the addressBookModel because it hides the Model behind it and the view has to go through the Logic to access the Model.

    • Sub classes of UiPart (e.g. PersonListPanel ) act as 'Controllers', each controlling some part of the UI and communicating with the 'Model' (via the Logic component which sits between the 'Controller' and the 'Model').

  • Abstraction Occurrence Pattern : Not currently used in the app.

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Exercise: Discover other possible applications of the patterns

  • Find other possible applications of the patterns to improve the current design. e.g. where else in the design can you apply the Singleton pattern?

  • Discuss pros and cons of applying the pattern in each of the situations you found in the previous step.

Exercise: Find more applicable patterns

  • Learn other Gang of Four Design patterns to see if they are applicable to the app.


15. Use Static Analysis [LO-StaticAnalysis]

Note how this project uses the CheckStyle static analysis tool to confirm compliance with the coding standard.

Resources

Exercise: Use CheckStyle locally to check style compliance

  • Install the CheckStyle plugin for your IDE and use it to check compliance of your code with our style rules (given in /config/checkstyle/checkstyle.xml).


16. Do Code Reviews [LO-CodeReview]

  • Note how some PRs in this project have been reviewed by other developers. Here is an example.

  • Also note how we have used Codacy to do automate some part of the code review workload (Codacy Badge)

Exercise: Review a PR

  • Review PRs created by team members.