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phpunit

  • Data providers run before setUp, every time

    Note1 min read

    A provider that builds its cases from something created in setUp() fails with a null, because every provider in the class runs before any test does — including…

  • Analysing the tests as well as the source

    Note1 min read

    Test code is usually excluded from static analysis on the grounds that it is not production code, which is where a good proportion of the useful findings are…

  • Test doubles for an interface you do not own

    Note1 min read

    Mocking a third-party class binds the test to that class’s current signature, so an upgrade changing a method leaves the test passing against a shape that no longer…

  • phpunit.xml groups let CI split the suite

    Note2 min read

    A suite that takes twenty minutes gets run less often, which is the opposite of what it is for. Groups let the fast tests gate every push and…

  • Argument order decides how readable the failure is

    Note1 min read

    PHPUnit takes the expected value first and the actual second, and getting them the wrong way round produces a test that passes and fails identically — but reports…

  • A deployment pipeline that runs the tests first

    Deep dive15 min read

    Deploying by rsync on a Friday afternoon, and what replaced it: lint, test, build, stage, promote — with a rollback that is the same mechanism rather than a…

  • expectException replaced the annotation

    Note2 min read

    The @expectedException annotation and setExpectedException() are both deprecated in favour of methods, which is more than a rename — the annotation asserted only that the exception was thrown…

  • Fixtures that build objects, not rows

    Note2 min read

    A fixture written as SQL or as an array of columns encodes the schema into every test, so a column rename breaks two hundred tests that have nothing…

  • PHPUnit data providers turn six tests into one

    Note2 min read

    Testing the same behaviour across several inputs usually produces six near-identical methods, and when the assertion needs changing it has to change six times. A data provider separates…

  • A mock asserts an interaction; a stub only answers

    Note2 min read

    PHPUnit builds both with the same method, which is why the distinction gets lost. A stub exists to let the test proceed — it returns a value. A…