[Feature]: Test without consolidate metadata

[mavaylon1]

What would you like to see added to HDMF-ZARR?

Currently all the tests consolidate metadata into a single file, a part for a few select tests that directly opt out. We should expand the tests to repeat but now without consolidating metadata.

Is your feature request related to a problem?

No response

What solution would you like?

Above.

Do you have any interest in helping implement the feature?

Yes.

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct
• Have you checked the Contributing document?
• Have you ensured this change was not already requested?

[mavaylon1]

Note: I will tackle this in January 2024

[oruebel]

Option 1 We could do this on the level of the individual test cases. In that case we can focus on the main unit tests:

• https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf-zarr/blob/dev/tests/unit/test_zarrio.py
• https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf-zarr/blob/dev/tests/unit/test_fsspec_streaming.py

This may also require changes in the base test classes:

• https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf-zarr/blob/dev/tests/unit/base_tests_zarrio.py

I think for the tests related to export and parallel write, this may not be necessary, since the main cases should be covered in the main unit tests. I.e., these may not need this:

• https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf-zarr/blob/dev/tests/unit/test_io_convert.py
• https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf-zarr/blob/dev/tests/unit/test_parallel_write.py

Option 2 An alternative approach would be to have a global way to configure whether to consolidate metadata or not and then run the full test suite twice on GitHub. I.e., basically have a way to change what the default is for consolidating metadata.

Option 1 is a bit more explicit and provides more fine-grained control, but also may require more effort/code and may not easily include all tests. Option 2 may not provide as fine-grained control but could potentially be simpler to implement and would simply run all tests twice. I think if Option 2 is easy, then we could try to do that first and move to Option 1 if that doesn't work.