Setting up a full database environment for every round of integration testing can be time-consuming and complex. This post walks through how to use the Testcontainers library to spin up lightweight, throwaway ScyllaDB instances for testing purposes. We’ll explore a practical example that covers initializing the database and running tests against it.
Testcontainers: A Tool for Integration Testing
You automatically unit test your code and (hopefully) integration test your system…but what about your database? To ensure that the application works as expected, you need to extend beyond unit testing. You also need to automatically test how the units interact with one another and how they interact with external services and systems (message brokers, data stores, and so on). But running those integration tests requires the infrastructure to be configured correctly, with all the components set to the proper state. You also need to confirm that the tests are isolated and don’t produce any side effects or “test pollution.” How do you reduce the pain…and get it all running in your CI/CD process?