Get started - Cover Reports

Get started with Diffblue Cover Reports - in short, check the prerequisites, download and install Cover Reports, create and upload a reports bundle, and finally, visualize your coverage data.

Cover Reports is a server-side tool accessed via a web browser - Chrome, Edge, Safari, or Firefox. Cover CLI and/or Cover Pipeline are used to create and upload coverage data - Cover Reports is used to visualize that data. This getting started topic focuses on Cover CLI - for information on using Cover Reports with Cover Pipeline see Cover Pipeline.

This topic covers Docker install only. As an alternative, Cover Reports can be installed from a zip archive or exe installer. These provide for running Cover Reports as a Windows Service, Linux Service, Windows .bat, or macOS/Linux .sh, and removes the need to use Docker. These also provide various database configuration options to provide further flexibility. See Install and update Cover Reports for details.

eLearning

Prefer video? No problem. Check out our overview video.

1. Check the prerequisites

A summary of Cover Reports prerequisites are listed below - see Specs & Reqs for full details.

Client workstation - Cover Reports Contributor:

• Diffblue Cover CLI

• JaCoCo 0.8.3+

• Network connectivity between the user's workstation and the Cover Reports server.

Client workstation - Cover Reports User:

• The latest version of Chrome, Edge, Safari, or Firefox with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 or higher.

• Network connectivity between the user's workstation and the Cover Reports server.

Server hosting Cover Reports - Cover Reports Administrator::

• Docker Engine 20.10.17

• 4GB RAM (8GB recommended), 2GB* minimum available disk space, 4 CPU cores.

• 2GB Java heap allocation, 4GB recommended.

• Docker Compose v2.10.2

• Network connectivity between the server and client workstations.

• Internet connection if using Docker Hub for install.

2. Install Diffblue Cover Reports

Docker Archive

1. Using the link provided by Diffblue, download the Cover Reports .tar.gz file (e.g. diffblue-cover-reports-2023.07.02.tar.gz) to the server you plan to use to host Cover Reports. Contact Diffblue Support if you don't have the download link.

2. From the directory containing the Cover Reports .tar.gz file, load the Docker bundle:

docker load -i /path/diffblue-cover-reports-<version>.tar.gz

3. In your shell, navigate to your preferred install directory (we'll now refer to this as $COVER_REPORTS_HOME). Using the link provided by Diffblue, download the Cover Reports Docker Compose file docker-compose.yml to $COVER_REPORTS_HOME. Contact Diffblue Support if you don't have the download link.

4. From the $COVER_REPORTS_HOME directory, start Cover Reports:

docker compose up -d

5. Finally, open a browser on a client PC that has access to the Cover Reports server and navigate to the Cover Reports Home Page (<HOSTURL>:8080).

Docker Hub

1. To access the repository please sign up to Docker Hub and provide Diffblue Support with your username. Diffblue Support will grant access according to your subscription terms.

2. In your shell (from the server you plan to use to host Cover Reports), log in to Docker Hub using the docker login command with either your username and password or username and Docker Hub Access Token, for example:

docker login -u <username> <password_or_token>

3. In your shell, navigate to your preferred install directory (we'll now refer to this as $COVER_REPORTS_HOME). Using the link provided by Diffblue, download the Cover Reports Docker Compose file docker-compose.yml to $COVER_REPORTS_HOME. Contact Diffblue Support if you don't have the download link.

4. From the $COVER_REPORTS_HOME directory, start Cover Reports:

docker compose up -d

5. Finally, open your browser and navigate to the Cover Reports Home Page (<HOSTURL>:8080).

3. Create and upload a reports bundle

Use Cover CLI to create a coverage data file for your project - this is referred to as a "reports bundle". You can do this on your own project, or you can use the example PetClinic Spring project that's used as part of the Get started - Cover CLI topic.

Note that, to save you a little time, there's a demo project provided as part of Cover Reports so you can click Open Demo Project from the Reports splash screen and skip this Cover CLI step. If you or your organization have already used Cover Reports, this option won't be available.

cd demo-spring-petclinic
dcover create --coverage-reports
    --upload=http://my-cover-reports-service:8080

The optional arguments used with dcover create perform the following:

• --coverage-reports is used create the coverage data files using Cover and JaCoCo.

• --upload is used to define the URL to upload the reports bundle to - i.e. the URL for your Cover Reports server install. Note that HTTPS direct is currently not supported.

4. Visualize your data

Now the fun bit - taking a look at your coverage data. We won't cover the whole UI here, but here are a few basics to get you started:

Home Page

• Home page - list view: Click the Cover Reports logo (or the Home icon in the project path) to view your project list. Click a line item (project, sub-project, package, etc) to view the coverage data. Click the Delete icon to delete a project and all associated data (runs). Click the Overview and Map tabs from the home page to view data for your entire set of projects.

• Menu - structure view: As you'd expect, your projects are organised and displayed in a standard tree structure and you can navigate through your projects, sub-projects, packages, classes, and methods as needed. The coverage data visible from the dashboards reflects the current selected component.

• Dashboards - data view: Three main dashboards/tabs are available for data visualization (Overview, Map, and Coverage Detail). The Overview and Map tabs are available from the home page, and all three tabs are available as you navigate down into the structure of your individual projects.

• Runs - versions: As you create and upload coverage data over time, use the Latest Run drop-down to select what data to view. Click the Delete icon for a run to delete the individual run and associated data.

• Search: Use the search to find a project, package, or class across all of your projects.

Your project names are automatically calculated based on the Java project configuration. Report bundles are uploaded to a default Projects folder.

Overview Tab

Overview Tab - an overview/summary of coverage data for your project/project component. Here's a quick breakdown of the panels and the terminology used for the data.

• Project Overview - the four key data stats.

  • Diffblue Coverage - coverage (percentage) provided by all Diffblue Cover Tests.

  • Total Coverage - total coverage (percentage) provided by Diffblue Cover Tests and/or Manual Tests (existing developer written tests).

  • Lines of Code - total lines of code for the selected project component.

  • Number of Tests - total number of tests created by Diffblue Cover.

• Coverage Sources & Coverage Over Time - a more detailed breakdown.

  • By Diffblue tests only - percentage / LOC (Lines of Code) covered exclusively by Diffblue Cover Tests only.

  • By manual tests only - percentage / LOC (Lines of Code) covered exclusively by Manual Tests only (existing developer written tests).

  • By Diffblue and manual tests - percentage / LOC (Lines of Code) covered by Diffblue Cover Tests and Manual Tests (existing developer written tests) - i.e. this is the overlap of the two types of test.

  • Trivial, Untestable, Not tested - percentage / LOC (Lines of Code) that Diffblue Cover was unable to write tests for. In many cases this is due to issues such as private methods, empty methods, trivial setters and getters, etc. You can use the Coverage Detail tab to get more detailed information (output codes) but that's a topic for later - see Output Codes.

  • Excluded - percentage / LOC (Lines of Code) which do not have coverage and were excluded (by the user) from Diffblue Cover test creation.

  • Unknown - percentage / LOC (Lines of Code) where the testability could not be determined by Diffblue Cover.

Map Tab

Map Tab - a coverage heat map for your project/project component.

• Click an item to drill down further through your project structure.

• Use the toggles to change coloring and sizing option.

Coverage Detail Tab

Coverage Detail Tab - a detailed coverage breakdown. Here's a quick breakdown of the panels and the terminology used for the data.

• Total Output codes - total number of output codes (see note below) generated by this run of Diffblue Cover.

• Total Not covered lines - total lines of code not covered by any tests.

• Stats list table - a full breakdown for each project component:

  • Lines of Code - total lines of source code.

  • Not Covered Lines - total lines of source code that are not covered by any tests.

  • Diffblue Coverage - percentage coverage provided by all Diffblue Cover Tests.

  • Total Coverage - total coverage (percentage) provided by Diffblue Cover Tests and/or Manual Tests (existing developer written tests).

  • Manual Coverage - percentage coverage provided by all Manual Tests (existing developer written tests).

  • Diffblue Test Count - total number of Diffblue Cover Tests.

  • Advisories - output code details (see note below).

Note - Output Codes - Diffblue Cover performs a number of checks before, during, and after creating unit tests. Cover can generate a range of output codes during these checks to provide general information and highlight any potential issues. See Output Codes for more details.

Next steps

Now you're up and running with Cover Reports, use Cover CLI to create reports bundles for your own projects and start to build your data sets over time. In general, Cover Reports is pretty straightforward to use, especially from a UI perspective, but check out the Cover Reports topic for more details on using Cover Reports.