add option to configure JGiven by a simple properties file

[janschaefer]

there should be a way to configure JGiven by just providing a single jgiven.properties file.

[jsalinaspolo]

@janschaefer what would you like to configure ?

[l-1squared]

@janschaefer is this still an issue? Because I don't know what you possibly would want to configure either?

[janschaefer]

For example, the report directory where the JSONs are generated when running a JGiven test (jgiven.report.dir). For other potential configuration values see com.tngtech.jgiven.impl.Config. Typically, these settings are configured in the Maven or Gradle plugin, however, when you execute the tests from the IDE, these settings are ignored. Having a properties file would allow JGiven to read these settings even if executed from the IDE.

[ninj]

👍
Upvoting this, as it is somewhat annoying to have to tell people about this particular quirk as we use maven a lot.
I spent a while trying to see if I could configure jgiven.report.dir via a junit extension to no avail.
The workaround of least-resistance is to accept that the default report directory jgiven-reports/json will be created if tests are run from the IDE and add /jgiven-reports to .gitignore.

[l-1squared]

Hi @ninj thanks for your input. Comments like this help me figure out which of the issues are important. I received a couple of such request in recent times, hence I need to prioritize them. As such some patience on your side will be appreciated :)

[ninj]

I created an initial implementation for this to help kick things off.

[ninj]

Hi, sorry I've not been in touch for a while!

Just had an interesting thought - what should happen if the maven or gradle plugins are configured differently than the config file?

At the moment there isn't any warning/error, but perhaps a warning could be emitted when the plugin runs?

Would be helpful in avoiding support issues where users encounter unexpected behaviour (but did configure the behaviour in the first place.)

edit: I guess the same conflict is there with the plugins and system property config too.

[l-1squared]

@ninj,

Hi, excellent question, and one I've been pondering for a while as well. In the end, I opted to just keep the behavior as is, because, as you said, the same problem, that you may have deactivated JGiven via system properties, while requesting a report via the plugins, already existed. As you may see in PR #679, I've added a note to the user guide to help prevent that surprise.

However, I am quite fond of having a warning in the plugins that test for deactivation. I hope I can get this done & tested in a reasonable amount of time :)