Moodle PHPUnit integration was created to simplify using of PHPUnit framework in Moodle. It consists of specialised bootstrap script, utility scripts that initialise testing environment and highly optimised custom test case classes that handle automatic global state resetting after test that includes global variables, database rollback and purging of dataroot. We also try to bridge the gap between the design and coding style of Moodle and PHPUnit.

Most of the documentation at http://www.phpunit.de/manual/3.6/en/index.html is relevant to Moodle PHPUnit integration, exceptions and additions are described bellow.

Definitions

These definitions may differ in each testing framework or programming language. The definitions here should be valid for PHPUnit framework with our Moodle tweaks.

Test suite: is a collection of test cases or other suites usually related to one area of the product. It is defined in PHPUnit configuration files (phpunit.xml by default).

Test file: is a file with *_test.php name which contains test cases. (*_Test.php in PHPUnit)

Test case: is a class with test methods. Moodle tests extend basic_testcase or advanced_testcase. (PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase in PHPUnit)

Test: is a public method starting with "test_" prefix defined in test case class. It is the implementation of the test procedure.

Assertion: is the actual comparison of expected and actual behaviour of the tested code.

Organisation of test files

All testing related files are stored in /tests/ subdirectories:

.../tests/*_test.php are PHPUnit test files
.../tests/fixtures/ contains auxiliary files used in tests
.../tests/performance/ is reserved for performance testing scripts
.../tests/other/ is used for everything else that does not fit

basic_testcase

basic_testcase is useful for simple tests that do not modify database or global variables. If something accidentally changes global state the test fails. This test case class is nearly identical to PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase used in PHPUnit documentation.

class sample_basic_testcase extends basic_testcase {

   public function test_equals() {
       $a = 1 + 2;
       $this->assertEquals(3, $a);
   }

}

There are no extra methods that could be used in tests

advanced_testcase

By default each test starts with fresh new moodle installation. Test may modify database content, files or global variables.

Extra methods:

resetAfterTest(bool): true means reset automatically after test, false means keep changes to next test method, default null means detect changes
resetAllData(): reset global state in the middle of a test
setUser(): set current $USER
getDataGenerator(): returns data generator instance - use if you need to add new courses, users, etc.
preventResetByRollback(): terminates active transactions, useful only when test contains own database transaction handling
createXXXDataSet(): creates in memory structure of database table contents, used in loadDataSet()
loadDataSet(): bulk loading of table contents

Restrictions:

it is not possible to modify database structure such as create new table, drop columns, etc.

Extra features

detection of global state changes
global state reset
transaction rollbacks
dataset loading
automatic generation of phpunit.xml
database driver testing class
SimpleTest emulation class

Limitations

no Selenium support
no support for PHPUnit_Extensions_Database_TestCase

Documentation

PHPUnit integration

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