[DB-SIG] ANN: acute-dbapi 0.1dev

[Ken Kuhlman]

I'm pleased to announce the kick-off of acute-dbapi, a DB-API compliance
test suite.  Acute is still in it's infancy, but it's reached the level of
maturity that it would benefit from community input.  It currently contains
71 tests, and many more will be added soon.

Comments, suggestions, and patches are all warmly welcome.  Harsh criticism
can wait until the 1.0 release, however.  There are several TODOs listed in
the TODO file, and many more generously sprinkled throughout the code; if
you'd like to help out but don't know where to begin, feel free to take a
crack at one of them!


>From the README:

== Introduction ==
acute-dbapi is a testsuite for Python database drivers to check their
compliance against the DB-API 2.0 standard (PEP 249).  It is also intended
to test common implementation features that haven't yet found their way into
DB-API specification.  Acute was was originally derived from Stuart Bishop's
DBAPI20TestSuite `[1]`, and it's name stands for "Anal Compliance Unit Test
Environment," which is a tip-of-the-hat to Stuart, who described his
testsuite in those terms `[2]`.

Acute-dbapi is very much a work in progress.   Feel free to contribute
patches for anything you see that's out of place!


== Usage ==
To use, first checkout the current trunk:
svn co https://acute-dbapi.googlecode.com/svn/trunk acute-dbabpi

Then cd to acute-dbapi/acute and update config.py to match your database
driver, the database name to use & your credentials for that database.

You're then ready to run the testsuite with:
python test-dbapi.py

== Adding Support for Drivers ==
acute-dbapi currently supports pysqlite2, MySQLdb, and psycopg2.  There are
reports on driver functionality at the project's "wiki" as DriverFeatures
`[3]` and TestResults `[4]`.

There is a list of driver-supported features in "features.py".   A set of
class attributes on the `SupportedFeatures` class define the default,
expected, behavior for each feature.   These are overridden for each driver
in the initialization method of the class to specify any quirks of the
driver's implementation.

== Architecture ==
The testsuite is designed such that all tests are expected to pass when the
driver's features are setup correctly in "features.py".  There are two
mechanisms to support this:  first, if a feature under test isn't supported
by a driver, then that test will still be run but will be converted to an
'Unsupported' status upon failure; if the test succeeds despite the fact
that the driver is declared to not support the feature, then the second
mechanism kicks in and the testsuite raises an `UnexpectedSuccess` error.
The only tests that will be skipped are those that are under active
development (these are the tests that are declared with
@require('amiracle')).   This setup makes it simpler to track which tests
are truly in error versus the known failings of the driver.

Tests that are under active development will be skipped.  These tests are
declared with a @require('amiracle') decorator.


== Philosophy ==
  * Extensive unit tests improve code quality, allow developers to be more
courageous in making aggressive changes, and improve user's ability to
provide bug feedback.
  * Sharing applicable tests between projects strengthens standards and
saves time when developing new compliant modules.
  * The "least common denominator" approach of the DB-API 2.0 standard was
necessary in Python's infancy, but technologies have matured to the point
where further possibilities for standardization exist.  Common features that
haven't reached ubiquity should be made optional, not simply ignored or too
lightly left as an "implementation extension."  The same process has
occurred with SQL -- SQL 89 was very light, SQL 92 introduced conformance
levels, and SQL 1999 greatly expanded on them. `[5]`


== Finally ==

The project's homepage is at: http://code.google.com/p/acute-dbapi/.

acute-dbapi is licensed under the MIT license (see LICENSE).

enjoy!



==== Footnotes ====
 *1 Stuart Bishop's DB-API test suite is available at
http://stuartbishop.net/Software/DBAPI20TestSuite/
.

 *2 The initial thread on Stuart Bishop's tests is at
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/db-sig/2003-February/003116.html.  There
were several separate threads on the topic, so be sure to review all of
February, March, and April 2003's archives as well (
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/db-sig/2003-February).     Here's a bit of
humor taken from one of the earlier threads:

  "Now we have booze and barflies entering the discussion,  plus rumours of
  DBAs on drugs... and I won't tell you what flashes through my mind each
  time I read the subject line with 'Anal Compliance' in it.  All around
  this is turning out to be a thoroughly unwholesome unit test." -- Ian
Bicking

 *3 http://code.google.com/p/acute-dbapi/wiki/DriverFeatures

 *4 http://code.google.com/p/acute-dbapi/wiki/TestResults

 *5 http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/static/features.html



Thanks!
-Ken
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