liveBook · Manning

Apache Commons Text

As explained in Software Testing with Generative AI

A Java library providing utilities for text processing, comparison, escaping, and related operations.

Apache Commons Text is a Java library used here to compare text and identify documentation relevant to a user query in a retrieval-augmented generation workflow. section 11.2.1

The demonstrated relevance workflow:

  • Loads a corpus of documents, then compares each document with the query using CosineDistance. section 11.2.1
  • Returns the document with the lowest distance score, treating that document as the closest match for prompt context. section 11.2.1
  • Supports experimentation with alternative relevance measures, including Levenshtein distance and Jaccard similarity. section 11.2.1

Selecting relevant testing guidance

A Java method iterates through user-story documents, applies CosineDistance to each document and query, tracks the smallest score, and returns the associated document for insertion into a testing-risk prompt. section 11.2.1

<dependencies>
 
    <dependency>                                     #1
        <groupId>commons-io</groupId>                #1
        <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>          #1
        <version>2.16.1</version>                    #1
    </dependency>
 
    <dependency>                                     #2
        <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>        #2
        <artifactId>commons-text</artifactId>        #2
        <version>1.12.0</version>                    #2
    </dependency>                                    #2
 
<dependency>                                         #3
    <groupId>dev.langchain4j</groupId>               #3
    <artifactId>langchain4j-open-ai</artifactId>     #3
    <version>0.31.0</version>                        #3
</dependency>                                        #3

Shows the Maven dependency declaration for Apache Commons Text alongside the Java RAG demonstration's other dependencies. section 11.2.1

How Software Testing with Generative AI covers it

How deep it goes
Demonstrates cosine-distance matching and alternatives, but defers similarity mathematics and production-level algorithm complexity.
Examples
Uses user-story documents, a query, CosineDistance, and a Maven dependency in a Java matching method.
What it assumes
Assumes Java development and basic retrieval workflows while leaving similarity algorithms unexplained.
What you can do after
Apply via Apache Commons Text to select the closest document for inclusion in a generated testing prompt.
How it connects
Connects text similarity with retrieval-augmented generation, prompt generation, and software testing risk analysis.

Related concepts

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Software Testing with Generative AI. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.