"Oh my gosh, what? Another section? Harry, I’m exhausted, it’s already been three hundred pages, I don’t think I can handle a whole ’nother section of the book. Particularly not if it’s called 'Advanced’…maybe I can get away with just skipping it?"
Oh no, you can’t! This may be called the advanced section, but it’s full of really important topics for TDD and web development. No way can you skip it. If anything, it’s even more important than the first two sections.
We’ll be talking about how to integrate third-party systems, and how to test them. Modern web development is all about reusing existing components. We’ll cover mocking and test isolation, which is really a core part of TDD, and a technique you’re going to need for all but the simplest of codebases. We’ll talk about server-side debugging, and test fixtures, and how to set up a Continuous Integration environment. None of these things are take-it-or-leave-it optional luxury extras for your project—they’re all vital!
Inevitably, the learning curve does get a little steeper in this section. You may find yourself having to read things a couple of times before they sink in, or you may find that things don’t work on the first go, and that you need to do a bit of debugging on your own. But persist with it! The harder it is, the more rewarding it is. And I’m always happy to help if you’re stuck; just drop me an email at [email protected].
Come on; I promise the best is yet to come!
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