UnitTest a PHP CodeIgniter Controller that calls a model - php

Question

I'm testing my CodeIgniter project with PHPUnit Testing framework (CITest.php). When the function test_model(), calls the model directly to get the details of an user, it works perfectly. But when I do the same via a controller by calling the function test_controller(), it does not output anything (When I debugged, the model itself doesn't gets called). I even verfied if the post data is passed correctly by creating a function test_post_data(). Am I missing something?
I could only find online resources to test the mdoel directly or a controller separately. But I couldn't find any useful link which calls a controller that triggers the model.
CITest.php
class CITest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
private $CI;
public function setUp()
{
$this->CI = &get_instance();
$this->CI->load->model('Test_model');
$this->model = $this->CI->My_model; // load the model
$this->auth = new Test_controller; // load the controller
}
public test_model() {
$user_id = 6;
print_r($this->model->getUserData($user_id));
}
public test_post_data() {
$_POST['useR_id'] = 22;
print_r($this->model->check_post_data());
}
public test_controller() {
$_POST['useR_id'] = 22;
print_r($this->model->get_user_data());
}
}
Test_controller.php
class Test_controller extends CI_Controller {
public function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
$this->load->model('Test_model');
}
public function check_post_data() {
return $this->input->post();
}
public function get_user_data() {
$user_id = $this->input->post('user_id');
return $this->Test_model->getUserData($user_id);
}
}
Test_model.php
class Test_model extends CI_Model {
public function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
}
public function getUserData($user_id) {
return $this->db->select("*")
->from("users")
->where("user_id", $user_id)
->get()->result_array();
}
}

Answer 1

The code in CITest.php
public test_controller() {
$_POST['useR_id'] = 22;
print_r($this->model->get_user_data());
}
should be like the following?
public test_controller() {
$_POST['useR_id'] = 22;
print_r($this->auth->get_user_data());
}