PHPUnit - Unit & Selenium Testing For PHP Developers

Install PHPUnit

How to use PHPUnit command line - run one test or all from a test folder. Generate configuration file

Follow naming conventions and basic steps when creating tests in PHPUnit - create our first test!

PHPUnit command-line test runner shows us different statuses of our tests - success, failure and others

Write Agile test results to file & show on the console

Write most common assertions in PHPUnit and test it

Write most common annotations in PHPUnit and test it

Delegate testing set of data to another method - data provider

If we want to use data changed in previous tests - use test dependencies

Test errors and exceptions in PHPUnit. Use trigger_error built in PHP function

Apply coloring console test output and testdox Agile format automatically without specifing options in command line

You can make shorter console command when running tests thanks to PHPUnit XML configuration file

In order to write less code and not make code duplication, we can create constants and other stuff in XML configuration file to later use in tests

Setup initial state before testing and reset it after testing. Use traits

Use closures and anonymous classes to test private and protected attributes

Use anonymous classes to mock objects without setter method - in poorly designed or legacy code

Use closures and anonymous classes to test private and protected methods

Use the power of interfaces to write tests easily

Instead of mocking objects you can utilize PHP 7 anonymous classes

Use PHP callable to make untestable code testable! (in isolation)

If you have no time to implement a test to the end you can mark it as incomplete in order not to forget about it. You can also skip tests if there are no custom extension for PHP. Also about risky tests

If you have some complex data structure to be tested a lot -  write custom assertion for it

Code coverage report helps us to find part of our code that was not tested yet. Ignore code that you do not want to be included in code coverage report

If you want to replace real object methods for testing use stubs

If you want to not only replace real object methods for testing but also check (test) how many times real method should be called, which arguments should be passed in etc. - use mock objects

How to mock traits and abstract classes without dealing with its child classes

If your class calls external web service you usually do not want to use it when testing internal class functionalities - so mock the web service!

About unit, integration, functional and acceptance testing

We use Selenium Web Driver to automate clicking on links, buttons on a website, etc.

You can read values of different types of html elements using css selectors, by tag name, id, etc.

Click links (two methods using Selenium). Use commands for back, forward and refresh the page

Provide values for html input text, textarea, select item in a list, checkboxes etc. Then send the form using Selenium

Other useful PHPUnit Selenium WebDriver stuff

Explicit waiting for data to be asserted

Using TDD approach, first we write a test, then the code that makes the test pass as soon as possible, at the end refactor the code

We will build example TDD (not TODO :) app with Slim PHP micro framework. But this is not mandatory, you can build the app using just plain PHP or framework of your choice

Use Zurb Foundation to build html, css and js packed layout for our sample app

Install and configure PHPUnit & Selenium Web Driver. Fire up Selenium server

Let's start with frontend stuff. Our first test - make it pass by moving the template to the Slim app

Test confirmation box when trying to delete a category and see message after deleting a category

Assert existing links to edit and delete a category after we click the category link

Click edit link and see proper stuff for this on the website. Fill inputs with edited category data. Mark test as incomplete

Test validation of the html form and see if correct messages are displayed

Test visibility of categories in the menu. Locate nested elements using Xpath method

In order to display nested categories on the website, first convert database result into nested PHP array

Refactor the code from the previous step. Use recursion to create final solution for multilevel nested array

Use setUp method and data provider

Let's build ul li html list based on converted database result

Produce data for html option list

Install Laravel Eloquent ORM to manage database operations for categories. Make first acceptance test involving database operation

Using Laravel models makes it easier to interact with the database especially when it comes to relationships between models

Create global variable to show categories on all web pages

And make integration test to test creating html string based on database result

Convert categories array from database to html nested ul li list. Display it dynamically on the website

We have to improve some of the tests because after changing code they no longer pass

Delete parent category and check if also child categories were deleted

Show chosen category dynamically. Make integration test for this purpose. Use mocking environment in Slim to avoid acceptance test if necessary

Make input values dynamic when a category is edited. Create an acceptance test for this

After that we have to change rest of the code to make all tests pass

Make browser acceptance test for that

Make it possible to change not only name and description but also parent category for edited one

And refactor our code a bit

Add redirection after deleting a category for example

There were some code duplications while building this app. Refactor it.

If you want you can build this app again with your framework or in plain PHP

And configure PHPUnit

Make GET and POST requests to test live public api

Create ApiClient class to test rest api

If we still test live api, we can mock responses in order to not actually hit live api

With Json Server we can easily setup environment for testing our api

Test POST and DELETE requests using Json Server

Use patch request to update record, put request to replace entire record in the database