Is there a way to automate junit bean property tests?

Question

Let's face it, writing bean property tests is possibly the worst use of time. But they need to be done.

For example. If testing a String property for propName a call such as the following:

testProperty(target, "propName", String.class);
testProperty(target, "propName", String.class, "expected initial");

Would validate that:

• get and set methods exist.
• If using expected value a test to get calls assertEquals for the given value.
• (get,is)/set methods behave as expected.

I could go an start writing these implementations, but I want to know if there is something available to facilitate this. Other optional attributes could be used to validate that null is allowed or use JSR-303 bean validation to validate the field.

Solution

There are quite a few existing code libraries/snippets that make this easier. In doing a quick search I found a few that have potential:

• https://github.com/codebox/javabean-tester
• http://code.google.com/p/junit-javabean-runner/
• http://javabeantester.sourceforge.net/

I have seen someone take the first example I listed (nice and simple because it's just a single class) and modify it to better fit their needs.