Skip all testthat tests when the condition is not met

Question

What is the correct way to skip all tests in the test directory of package R when using the testthat / devtools framework? For example, if there is no connection to the database, and all the tests rely on this connection, do I need to write skip in all files separately or write one skip somewhere?

I have a standard package setting that looks like

MyPackage /

• ... # another package.
• Tests /
  • testthat.R
  • testthat /
    • test thing1.R
    • test thing2.R

At first it seemed to me that I could put the test in the testthat.R file, for example

 ## in testthat.R library(testthat) library(mypackage) fail_test <- function() FALSE if (fail_test()) test_check("package") 

but this did not work, and it seems that the call to devtools::test() simply ignores this file. I guess the alternative would be to keep all the tests in a different directory, but is there a better solution?

Answer 1

The Skip Test section of R Packages covers this use case. Essentially, you are writing a custom function that checks all the conditions that you need to check - regardless of whether you can connect to your database - and then call this function from all tests that require this condition to be met.

Example calculated from the book:

 skip_if_no_db <- function() { if (db_conn()) { skip("API not available") } } test_that("foo api returns bar when given baz", { skip_if_no_db() ... }) 

I found this approach more useful than a single switch to disable all tests, since I usually combine a test that does and does not rely on all the conditions that I check, and I want to always run as many tests as possible.

Answer 2

Perhaps you can organize the tests in subdirectories by inserting the conditional inclusion of the directory into the test of the parent folder:

Consider the “tests” in the testthat package. In particular, it looks interesting:

• test-test_dir.r , which includes a subdirectory test_dir

I do not see anything here that repeats subdirectories in the test scan:

• test_dir