How to load DBUnit test data once per case with Spring Test

Question

Spring Test helpfully rolls back any changes made to the database within a test method. This means that it is not necessary to take the time to delete/reload the test data

Answer 1

We use DBUnit in conjunction with Spring Test extensively. But we do not use the DBUnit functionality to delete data at the end of the test.

We put a bunch of DBUnit inserts for our test data in the @Before method to initialise the test. Then when the test is complete we let the spring rollback functionality bring the database back to its original state.

The biggest problem we have with this is that the DBUnit data has to be loaded before each test, which can be a major performance hit. Most of our tests using DBUnit are read only, testing the behaviour of the application based on certain predefined behaviour. So we have a habit of creating master tests that then run all the fine grain tests in a batch within the same transaction.