NAME

       Test::Unit::TestSuite - unit testing framework base class

SYNOPSIS

           package MySuite;

           use base qw(Test::Unit::TestSuite);

           sub name { 'My very own test suite' }
           sub include_tests { qw(MySuite1 MySuite2 MyTestCase1 ...) }

       This is the easiest way of building suites; there are many more.  Read on ...

DESCRIPTION

       This class provides the functionality for building test suites in several different ways.

       Any module can be a test suite runnable by the framework if it provides a "suite()" method
       which returns a "Test::Unit::TestSuite" object, e.g.

           use Test::Unit::TestSuite;

           # more code here ...

           sub suite {
               my $class = shift;

               # Create an empty suite.
               my $suite = Test::Unit::TestSuite->empty_new("A Test Suite");
               # Add some tests to it via $suite->add_test() here

               return $suite;
           }

       This is useful if you want your test suite to be contained in the module it tests, for
       example.

       Alternatively, you can have "standalone" test suites, which inherit directly from
       "Test::Unit::TestSuite", e.g.:

           package MySuite;

           use base qw(Test::Unit::TestSuite);

           sub new {
               my $class = shift;
               my $self = $class->SUPER::empty_new();
               # Build your suite here
               return $self;
           }

           sub name { 'My very own test suite' }

       or if your "new()" is going to do nothing more interesting than add tests from other
       suites and testcases via "add_test()", you can use the "include_tests()" method as
       shorthand:

           package MySuite;

           use base qw(Test::Unit::TestSuite);

           sub name { 'My very own test suite' }
           sub include_tests { qw(MySuite1 MySuite2 MyTestCase1 ...) }

       This is the easiest way of building suites.

CONSTRUCTORS

   empty_new ([NAME])
           my $suite = Test::Unit::TestSuite->empty_new('my suite name');

       Creates a fresh suite with no tests.

   new ([ CLASSNAME | TEST ])
       If a test suite is provided as the argument, it merely returns that suite.  If a test case
       is provided, it extracts all test case methods from the test case (see "list_tests" in
       Test::Unit::TestCase) into a new test suite.

       If the class this method is being run in has an "include_tests" method which returns an
       array of class names, it will also automatically add the tests from those classes into the
       newly constructed suite object.

METHODS

   name()
       Returns the suite's human-readable name.

   names()
       Returns an arrayref of the names of all tests in the suite.

   list (SHOW_TESTCASES)
       Produces a human-readable indented lists of the suite and the subsuites it contains.  If
       the first parameter is true, also lists any testcases contained in the suite and its
       subsuites.

   add_test (TEST_CLASSNAME | TEST_OBJECT)
       You can add a test object to a suite with this method, by passing either its classname, or
       the object itself as the argument.

       Of course, there are many ways of getting the object too ...

           # Get and add an existing suite.
           $suite->add_test('MySuite1');

           # This is exactly equivalent:
           $suite->add_test(Test::Unit::TestSuite->new('MySuite1'));

           # So is this, provided MySuite1 inherits from Test::Unit::TestSuite.
           use MySuite1;
           $suite->add_test(MySuite1->new());

           # Extract yet another suite by way of suite() method and add it to
           # $suite.
           use MySuite2;
           $suite->add_test(MySuite2->suite());

           # Extract test case methods from MyModule::TestCase into a
           # new suite and add it to $suite.
           $suite->add_test(Test::Unit::TestSuite->new('MyModule::TestCase'));

AUTHOR

       Copyright (c) 2000-2002, 2005 the PerlUnit Development Team (see Test::Unit or the AUTHORS
       file included in this distribution).

       All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
       it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

       •   Test::Unit::TestRunner

       •   Test::Unit::TkTestRunner

       •   For further examples, take a look at the framework self test collection
           (t::tlib::AllTests).