Simulate real servlet container in unit test

Question

Hi, java experts,
I have to make unit test of servlet which acted as the same as in real container. The requirements are:
1. Setup a test servlet container working as real one (e.g. Jboss).
2. Make multithreaded unit test servlet calls to this test container.
3. Anyway, simulate everything as the real ones.
It would be appreciated if you could share your idea. Thank you.

Answer 1

I haven'y worked with those tools. But I imagine this is where a clean separation between the JSP page and the business logic/database logic will make your simulation easier.
In summary:
A JSP page should get all the data it needs to populate itself from the request scope (or session scope). It shouldn't have any business logic or database logic in it (no embedded java scriptlets performing business logic or sql queries). The JSP page shouldn't even instansiate any objects, but instead get them from request scope. The objects should be simple java beans that contain data with get/set methods in them. That way, you can remove the JSP page from yoru tests and simulate data being written to/from some type of mock object instead, using the tools. Not sure this is the correct approach, but it might give you some ideas.
Also note that Cactus (based on Junit) for example is for testing at one level whereas Junit is for testing at a lower level (individual components in isolation). Looks like your requirement should concentrate at the higher level testing (the devleopers should have used Junit while developing the application. It probably isn't a good idea to apply it after the application is complete at this point since you have limited time).