How to share user data in laravel dusk tests - php

Question

I'm very new to Laravel Dusk (like less than 24 hours) and I'm experimenting with creating some tests but I can't wrap my head around getting past the initial test.
So I have UserCanRegisterTest.php and UserCanSeeDashboardTest.php, In UserCanRegisterTest.php I register a user, how can I access that user info in UserCanSeeDashboardTest.php without having to recreate another user? I have tried researching but I've fallen down a rabbit hole, I've looked at memory, cookies, DatabaseTransactions but nothing seems to make sense or show an example.
Is it possible for me to use the $faker->safeEmail and $password from UserCanRegisterTest.php in UserCanSeeDashboardTest.php and all other tests I make?
UserCanRegisterTest.php:
<?php
namespace Tests\Browser;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\DatabaseMigrations;
use Laravel\Dusk\Browser;
use Tests\DuskTestCase;
class UserCanRegisterTest extends DuskTestCase
{
use DatabaseMigrations;
/*public function setUp()
{
parent::setUp();
$this->artisan('db:seed');
}*/
/** #test */
public function user_passes_registration_form()
{
$faker = \Faker\Factory::create();
/*$roleSeeder = new RoleTableSeeder();
$roleSeeder->run();
$permissionSeeder = new PermissionTableSeeder();
$permissionSeeder->run();*/
$this->browse(function($browser) use ($faker) {
$password = $faker->password(9);
$browser->visit('/register')
//->assertSee('Welcome Back!')
->type('company_name', $faker->company)
->type('name', $faker->name)
->type('email', $faker->safeEmail)
->type('password', $password)
->type('password_confirmation', $password)
->press('REGISTER')
->assertPathIs('/register');
});
}
}
Here is UserCanSeeDashboardTest.php (note how I'd like to use $faker->safeEmail and $password from the above test so I don't need to create new user every time).
<?php
namespace Tests\Browser;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\DatabaseMigrations;
use Laravel\Dusk\Browser;
use Tests\DuskTestCase;
use App\User;
class UserCanSeeDashboardTest extends DuskTestCase
{
use DatabaseMigrations;
/*public function setUp()
{
parent::setUp();
//$this->artisan('db:seed');
}*/
/** #test */
public function test_I_can_login_successfully()
{
$this->browse(function ($browser) {
//$user->roles()->attach(1); //Attach user admin role
$browser->visit('/login')
->type('email', $faker->safeEmail)
->type('password', $password)
->press('SIGN IN')
->assertSee('Dashboard');
});
}
}
Ideally, I have a test that registers a user, then I have other tests that use that registered user's data to log in and test other parts of my app.

Answer 1

PHPUnit doesn't have great support for tests that depend on each other. Tests in PHPUnit should mostly be considered independent. The framework does provide the #depends annotation that you might have been able to use for you tests that depend on the registration method, but it only works for tests that are in the same class.
Also, you don't need to worry about creating multiple users because you're using the DatabaseMigrations trait that refreshes your test database for you after every test.
The way I see it, you have two options. Either you:
Move your registration code (the part starting from $browser->visit('/register')) to a new method and then call that method in both your user_passes_registration_form test and in your other tests where you want to have a registered user, or
Write a new method that you can call from your other tests that registers a user directly in your database (e.g. using User::create).
The benefit of the second option is that you'll have less HTTP calls which will result in a faster test run and only your registration test would fail (instead of all your tests) when your registration endpoint is broken.
So what I'd suggest is that you keep your registration test as is and use either a trait or inheritance to add a few methods that you can reuse to register or login a test user from other test methods.
You could create a class MyDuskTestCase that inherits from DuskTestCase and that contains a method to register a test user:
<?php
namespace Tests;
use Tests\DuskTestCase;
use App\User;
use Hash;
abstract class MyDuskTestCase extends DuskTestCase
{
private $email = 'test#example.com';
private $password = 'password';
public function setup(): void
{
parent::setUp();
// If you want to run registerTestUser for every test:
// registerTestUser();
}
public function registerTestUser()
{
User::create([
'email' => $this->email,
'name' => 'My name',
'password' => Hash::make($this->password)
]);
// assign a role, etc.
}
public function getTestUser()
{
return User::where('email', $this->email)->first();
}
}
Then you can either run the registerTestUser method in the setup method to create the test user for every test, or you can call the method from only the tests where you'll need the user. For example:
<?php
namespace Tests\Browser;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\DatabaseMigrations;
use Laravel\Dusk\Browser;
use Tests\MyDuskTestCase;
class UserCanRegisterTest extends MyDuskTestCase
{
use DatabaseMigrations;
public function test_I_can_login_successfully()
{
$this->registerTestUser();
$this->browse(function ($browser) use ($user) {
$browser->visit('/login')
->type('email', $this->email)
->type('password', $this->password)
->press('SIGN IN')
->assertSee('Dashboard');
});
}
}
For logins, you can either add another method to your base test class to log the test user in, or you could use the loginAs method that Dusk provides:
$user = this->getTestUser();
$this->browse(function ($browser) {
$browser->loginAs($user)
->visit('/home');
});