Mastering Application Development with Force.com

Tips and tricks for efficient testing

Following the general pattern for creating your own test data outlined here: executing the tested code between startTest() and stopTest() calls and always including asserts in the tests will set you on a good path for useful, robust tests. This doesn't, however, mean that the tests are fast. To help keep tests fast and your test-code feedback loop tight, keep these tips and tricks in mind:

• If you don't need to, don't insert and query data to and from the database. Starting with winter '13, you can set a value for the Id field, so long as you don't try to insert it. This allows you to create an object, set its ID, and create other objects that reference it. The slowest part of any web-based application is historically ...