From 91b4b229aa82711c3ee4eaa8159fe5face1bbcfb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Raphael Pierzina <raphael@hackebrot.de>
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2017 16:48:02 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Update documentation for testing plugin code

---
 doc/en/writing_plugins.rst | 81 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 60 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/en/writing_plugins.rst b/doc/en/writing_plugins.rst
index 25097db6d..85c9e6b71 100644
--- a/doc/en/writing_plugins.rst
+++ b/doc/en/writing_plugins.rst
@@ -286,34 +286,73 @@ the ``--trace-config`` option.
 Testing plugins
 ---------------
 
-pytest comes with some facilities that you can enable for testing your
-plugin.  Given that you have an installed plugin you can enable the
-:py:class:`testdir <_pytest.pytester.Testdir>` fixture via specifying a
-command line option to include the pytester plugin (``-p pytester``) or
-by putting ``pytest_plugins = "pytester"`` into your test or
-``conftest.py`` file.  You then will have a ``testdir`` fixture which you
-can use like this::
+pytest comes with a plugin named ``pytester`` that helps you write tests for
+your plugin code. The plugin is disabled by default, so you will have to enable
+it before you can use it.
 
-    # content of test_myplugin.py
+You can do so by adding the following line to a ``conftest.py`` file in your
+testing directory:
 
-    pytest_plugins = "pytester"  # to get testdir fixture
+.. code-block:: python
 
-    def test_myplugin(testdir):
+    # content of conftest.py
+
+    pytest_plugins = ["pytester"]
+
+Alternatively you can invoke pytest with the ``-p pytester`` command line
+option.
+
+This will allow you to use the :py:class:`testdir <_pytest.pytester.Testdir>`
+fixture for testing your plugin code.
+
+Let's demonstrate what you can do with the plugin with an example. Imagine we
+developed a plugin that provides a fixture ``hello`` which yields a function
+and we can invoke this function with one optional parameter. It will return a
+string value of ``Hello World!`` if we do not supply a value or ``Hello
+{value}!`` if we do supply a string value.
+
+Now the ``testdir`` fixture provides a convenient API for creating temporary
+``conftest.py`` files and test files. It also allows us to run the tests and
+return a result object, with which we can assert the tests' outcomes.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    def test_hello(testdir):
+        """Make sure that our plugin works."""
+
+        # create a temporary conftest.py file
+        testdir.makeconftest("""
+            import pytest
+
+            @pytest.fixture(params=[
+                "Brianna",
+                "Andreas",
+                "Floris",
+            ])
+            def name(request):
+                return request.param
+        """)
+
+        # create a temporary pytest test file
         testdir.makepyfile("""
-            def test_example():
-                pass
-        """)
-        result = testdir.runpytest("--verbose")
-        result.stdout.fnmatch_lines("""
-            test_example*
+            def test_hello_default(hello):
+                assert hello() == "Hello World!"
+
+            def test_hello_name(hello, name):
+                assert hello(name) == "Hello {0}!".format(name)
         """)
 
-Note that by default ``testdir.runpytest()`` will perform a pytest
-in-process.  You can pass the command line option ``--runpytest=subprocess``
-to have it happen in a subprocess.
+        # run all tests with pytest
+        result = testdir.runpytest()
+
+        # check that all 4 tests passed
+        result.assert_outcomes(passed=4)
+
+
+For more information about the result object, that ``runpytest()`` returns, and
+the methods that it provides please check out the :py:class:`RunResult
+<_pytest.pytester.RunResult>` documentation.
 
-Also see the :py:class:`RunResult <_pytest.pytester.RunResult>` for more
-methods of the result object that you get from a call to ``runpytest``.
 
 .. _`writinghooks`: