Can't test the PHP package using PHPUnit, once I publish it - php

Question

I've created a simple PHP library using PHP 5.6.
It includes PHPUnit test cases and I succeeded in creating the package.
Then I found that I can install these packages directly from GitHub, using composer, in other projects also. I can run tests independently at the development stage. But once I publish the package I can't run the tests, as it is not properly finding the autoloader files.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<phpunit bootstrap="vendor/autoload.php"
colors="true"
processIsolation="false"
stopOnFailure="false"
syntaxCheck="false"
convertErrorsToExceptions="true"
convertNoticesToExceptions="true"
convertWarningsToExceptions="true"
testSuiteLoaderClass="PHPUnit_Runner_StandardTestSuiteLoader">
<testsuites>
<testsuite>
<directory>tests</directory>
</testsuite>
</testsuites>
I've added the xml files in root directory. The path of the autoload file is correct when it is independent. But the directory structure will be a different one once it is installed.
The problem still persist if we use require_once the autoloader file, as the directory structure change after installation.
Questions:
Can we test our package after installing it into any frameworks (laravel/Symfony) or in any other projects?
What is the best practice? Is the test needed for the developers who is using the package?
If yes, then any solution to solve this? Is there any other method to autoload problem in both environments?
Repo in Github

Answer 1

I would say you're best to look at the other repositories and see if it works or not.
For me
cd vendor/phpunit/phpunit && composer install && phpunit => worked
cd doctrine/collections/ && composer install && phpunit => worked
So it seems that it should be working for you.
If you look at the phpunit.xml.dist for the other vendors they use:
bootstrap="./tests/Doctrine/Tests/TestInit.php" (doctrine)
bootstrap="tests/bootstrap.php" (phpunit)
It looks like your file isn't so different. Are you sure you ran composer install from inside your packages directory inside the vendor folder?
Update:
I added your repository as a dependency to a default Symfony installation.
"repositories": [
{
"url": "https://github.com/jerintk/Validator.git",
"type": "git"
}
],
And in the require block:
"Jthedev/Validators": "dev-master"
I then ran
composer update
It ran fine. You need to run composer update and check in the new composer.lock because it's out of date.
From there I cd'ed into the directory for your repo.
cd vendor/Jthedev/Validators
I then ran
composer install
and
vendor/phpunit/phpunit/phpunit
and got
OK (2 tests, 2 assertions)
Update Two
(since this was too long for a comment)
#JTheDev composer update adds your dependencies for the laravel project, but it doesn't create the vendor folder inside your vendor/your-project directory. If composer installed all dependencies separately for each project, like:
vendor/
my-project/
vendor/
dependency-A
dependency-C
another-library/
vendor/
dependency-A
dependency-B
it would waste a lot of space and bandwidth. Instead composer gets all the dependencies and installs them in separate folders and they work with each other because composer loads them all using vendor/autoload.php for that project. What you're talking about is creating the vendor folder inside vendor/your-project. This is not normal - usually you only have to run tests when developing yourself, but anyway your question is about how to run your tests for your project when it's added as a dependency for another project.
To do this you need to run composer install inside the vendor/your-project directory, that means:
cd vendor/Jthedev/Validators && composer install && vendor/phpunit/phpunit/phpunit
Final update (hopefully)
From chat:
The autoloader is only generated when you run composer install inside your project directory. You are correct, the vendor folder should not be there usually but you need it if you want to do what you are trying to do. It is not conventional. Normally developers run their tests inside their project root folder, not on the dependencies, but your questions was "how can I run my tests when it is a dependency". The answer is you need to create the vendor and autoload files inside your project folder
The tests only run if you run composer install inside the project folder. But it's not a problem if the tests don't run without doing that.