Which unit testing framework do you use for Symfony?
Lime or PHPUnit? What are the pros and cons of using them?
In my opinion, here are a few things that come to my mind :
PHPUnit is more integrated with other tools, like, for instance,
Selenium (PHPUnit can use it to open true real browsers to test your site)
phpUnderControl for continuous-integration
PHPUnit works well with Xdebug, to generate code-coverage reports
PHPUnit is more widely used ; which probably means more support
But note I don't work with symfony, nor lime...
Still, I've never heards anyone speak about it, except for those working with symfony -- that not a good thing, for the day you'll have to work with another framework (yes, this happens ^^ )
One thing that's not in PHPUnit :
"false" browser (being able to do HTTP Requests to the application, without using Selenium to open a real browser)
But some frameworks (Zend Framework does, with it's Zend_Test component) integrate with PHPUnit (or use it), while allowing injection of data into the MVC and fetching of the response, without having to issue any HTTP Request.
I don't know if symfony allows that, but that's a nice thing with ZF/PHPUnit ^^
(Yes, not a symfony-specific answer ; but of the things I said must still be valid with that framework)
Lime is a much more simple testing framework, which can be a good or a bad thing depending on how you want to use it.
The symfony library itself uses its own testing framework, Lime, to test its code base. From the symfony book:
It is based on the Test::More Perl
library, and is TAP compliant, which
means that the result of tests is
displayed as specified in the Test
Anything Protocol, designed for better
readability of test output.
I cannot vouch for the statement that the lime framework is "more lightweight" than other PHP testing frameworks as the symfony docs claim, but I do really like that it's built right into your symfony project and works well with the symfony command line tools without any additional configuration. One thing that is especially cool is that the lime tests within symfony are set to run within your "test" environment which has it's own database, symfony cache (which gets cleared out during each test session), and environment variables. This comes in handy when you want to do functional testing (checking server response and your html output in your modules/actions, versus basic unit testing). I also like that lime is super easy to pick up and understand since it's so simple. You also have the ability to put your tests into YAML configuration file rather than write the tests by hand.
Pascal is entirely right that PHPUnit is much more widely used and you'd be able to use it in non-symfony projects. There is even a plugin for it, PHPUnit symfony plugin. My best advice would be to use lime if you just wanted to jump right into writing simple tests while you develop your symfony app. But, if you have the time and hope to use these testing skills outside of the symfony world, or bring in pre-existing PHPUnit tests into your symfony code, it'd be worth your time to check out the plugin and give it a spin.
Related
We have two CodeIgniter instances in production which I've just finished migrating to CodeIgniter 3. A large gap has been left in our code base since it was not designed with testability in mind. As the applications have evolved over 4 years throwing a test harness around it is not so simple.
There is code in controllers that just render views and code in views that just post to controllers and getting between the two is maddening.
I've tried to use PHPUnit to achieve testing as well as the CodeIgniter Unit Test class, but I always wind up back at this conundrum. Is there any advice people in similar situations can offer?
Well, it's quite hard to achieve testing in a legacy application in Codeigniter... What I ended up doing is:
Libraries and classes that can be isolated, are tested via PHPUnit
Controllers and rendering are tested via BDD. I use Codeception and Selenium (with Mozilla browser) to perform Acceptance tests, that at least makes sure that all is working alright (rendering, placing of elements and so on).
I would also like hearing from others experience. I personally use Codeception all the time even for Unit test (at the end, is built over PHPUnit). Main page: http://codeception.com/
I would like to implement some basic acceptance tests for my company's legacy PHP app. Selenium WebDriver looks like the best fit, but I need advice on what testing framework to use.
Option 1
Our unit tests are written in Peridot PHP, and I know WebDriver can be run from PHP via php-webdriver. So, it looks like I should be able to write a suite of Peridot tests that use the php-webdriver API to interact with the site. It's been done for PHPUnit, and at a glance I don't see why Peridot can't do the same (gulp).
Option 2
Alternatively, I also know the Codeception framework integrates well with WebDriver. The nice thing about this is that Codeception takes care of setting up the WebDriver server and loading a test database. It also allows for a very nice, readable set of English-language tests, although it would mean maintaining two separate testing frameworks.
Considerations
How completely does Codeception cover the WebDriver set of commands? (i.e. can I do anything I might try in the Selenium IDE through Codeception?)
Does Codeception allow me to use the PageObject design pattern?
What kind of learning curve would I be facing without Codeception in terms of setting up my WebDriver server and test database? Does Codeception even make it that much easier?
There are Firefox plugins to convert 'Selenese' (html) test cases into PHPUnit or Codeception format. The PHPUnit test cases would need to be adapted to Peridot, but the Codeception converter is still in alpha and doesn't convert everything. I would rather not use these a great deal, but they would definitely help with the learning curve. How reliable are either one of these?
An official WebDriver plugin is definitely on the way for Peridot, but in the meantime, it's pretty easy to mix in WebDriver support using scopes.
We actually use WebDriver to demonstrate scopes here:
https://github.com/peridot-php/peridot-scope-example
I am new to testing. All i knew was we PHPunit for testing various functions within class and then i know selenium for browser testing.
I know we can write php to link with selenium web driver to do headless testing of browser.
I am not able to get how does behat and mink come in there. Are these seperate from selenium and they are the alternatives of selenium.
Can i do aweb application tetsing without beaht, mink and only with selenium and php
PHPUnit and Behat are similar, both being testing frameworks. They allow you to test your code, by using different approaches:
PHPUnit tests are based on code you write to check how your classes behave under the required circunstances. A lot of people use this type of framework to practice TDD, but you can of course write tests after the code, or for code written a long time ago.
Behat tests are written in a human readable way, and they are supposed to allow everyone involved in the project to read them. This type of testing is called BDD. You can write tests that explain in (nearly) plain english how your system is supposed to behave.
IMO PHPUnit is more general and is the preferred way of writing most tests. I use Behat for testing my systems general behavior, and PHPUnit for unit testing every class and method independently of others.
On the other side, Mink is a library that allows you to browse programatically, using PHP, and access the contents. It can be used to control in a unified way a lot of browsing systems like Selenium, Zombie, etc. each of them based on different technologies.
You can use Mink outside Behat, but they are usually used together because this way you can write tests that show how a website behaves: Given I enter my credentials in the login form, And press the submit button, I should see my profile page...
And yes, you can use PHPUnit and Selenium together as explained in the docs...
I do some PHP with Kohana 3 (IDE:Netbeans), and got excited about idea of writing tests for code. It sounds pretty cool thing to do, but i have few complications and worries.
Why using Kohana unittest module in browser is like 5 times faster then running tests in Netbeans or command Line ?
How could i exclude all kohana internal tests? In the PHPUnit .xml configuration file ?
Why when run any test i've got in Netbeans panel two entries for it - one with yellow triangle (it says 'file x skipped'), and entry with normal test result. I do get that double entries for every test, also those native from Kohana. I don't mind but it's strange.
All over the Web i see examples, tutorials and screencasts of PHPUnit with sample classes and methods that add two numbers or displays name or do some other trivial things. I've learnt to do those kind of assertions, but how could i test my code in Kohana? My Models are 90% ORM stuff. Controllers? How? Any 'How-tos' and examples are welcome.
I've seen in Ruby tutorial about Rspec a way to test DB by using testing enviroment Databse and rollbacks after finisning tests. Also user actions like clicking links were simulated. Is it possible with PHPUnit ?
There always has been a lot of discussion on what has to be tested and what has not to be tested. Generally my opinion is that you shouldn't test things that should work, like the database driver and connection, this has little to do with your code. Some then argue that you should be able to test it anyway, but in most environment this isn't an easy thing to do and usually a big hassle.
Generally controller actions should be tested as well as any helpers or modules you've written. Usually one uses the paradigm of a mocking framework to get around the database. The good thing about this is a gigantic speed increase in your testing. There are several PHP mocking frameworks as well I suppose.
Another great thing to keep in mind is that you also have user testing. This cannot be simulated with the kind of tests you write in kohana. For this it is interesting to look at http://seleniumhq.org/
It's probably better to split such a rambling question into multiple SO questions.
No idea. Perhaps there's an invocation overhead for NetBeans to invoke phpunit, compared to apache passing the request to PHP.
That might be possible, or you could find a way to set the following option: --exclude-group kohana
No idea sorry.
AFAIK PHPUnit can't do client-interaction tests. How to do system behaviour testing could be a question on its own.
EDIT: to clarify - I am asking for advice on both unit testing and user interface testing.
Currently, I don't use TDD. While I am developing an application I am constantly testing what I am working on. Testing iteration could be anything from minor function changes to entire models. I try not to code too much before I test. I like instant feedback.
Of course, with experience I can see potential problems or bugs occurring as I'm coding.
BUT, after an application is complete I will usually go through the entire app on the frontend and ensure all functions are working as expected. This means literally everything. Every add/edit/delete, sort, filter, even broken links and such.
This can take a lot of time sometimes but it does ensure my work hardly ever contains bugs after deployment.
However, I'm looking for a more standard solution. What do experienced developers do? Assume for a moment I am a single developer and so do not have a testing department etc
Do you hire beta testers (no good if app is sensitive to public use)?
Is it viable to build a series of 'general' unit tests which can for example test ALL sorting, filter functions. One for testing ALL add/edit/delete functions.
Love to hear your feedback. Will be changing the way I develop based on suggestions.
Of course as David said : Unit-testing for models and helpers, of course.
and I need to add Selenium
Selenium is a robust set of tools that supports rapid development of
test automation for web-based
applications. Selenium provides a rich
set of testing functions specifically
geared to the needs of testing of a
web application. These operations are
highly flexible, allowing many options
for locating UI elements and comparing
expected test results against actual
application behavior.
which is amazing :
watch the 2 min intro
http://seleniumhq.org/movies/intro.mov
How Selenium Works
Testing with PHPUnit and Selenium
Unit-testing for models and helpers, of course.
But you can do unit-testing on "page-requests", as well. See, for example:
Content with Style - Unit testing controllers with Zend Framework
That's a step towards integration testing. But for issues of layout and visual aesthetics, you're pretty much stuck with walking-through each request with your browser.
Usually what you code works is not that the problem, very nice if you also write tests for it. The problem is that you need to test the integration of your changes every time you make commit.
If you like instant feedback,as I do, probably you should have a look at Continuous Integration.
I've started using Hudson as CI server and I am not regretting it!