Rationale

The testing framework should provide the infrastructure to develop thorough tests, to identify issues with DataSHIELD functionalities and maintain the accuracy and correctness of DataSHIELD functions. It has been designed to be used again across the whole DataSHIELD community, so that it can be integrated and fit with the continuous integration. Test should be developed on the developer local machine, before uploading the whole functions onto the DataSHIELD Github. The tests will then be automatically executed remotely on by Github to verify the quality of the new functions.

The testing framework should verify DataSHIELD functions provide accurate and expected results. However, it should also verify the mathematical correctness of the outcomes of any functions.

Who should be using this testing framework?

This testing framework has been developed with many types of users in mind. Because of the nature of DataSHIELD, we would recommend anybody who wishes to write some tests to develop the following knowledge:

• Introduction to testthat and unit testing in R

• Completed the Introduction to R

• Developed an advanced understanding of mathematics and statistics

• Understand the test-driven programming paradigm

Structure of the documentation