SimpleTester 1.0 - CI-library for unit testing

[eluser]ciscoheat[/eluser]
Merry Christmas! Here's a little gift for those who likes Unit Testing, especially the Simpletest framework. It's a very easy-to-use testing library for CI that wraps the Simpletest framework. The default installation should work immediately for most of you.

Installation instructions:
1. Download SimpleTester 1.0 here: http://codeigniter.com/wiki/SimpleTester...g_library/
2. Unzip file to the application folder.
3. Download the SimpleTest framework here: http://simpletest.org/en/download.html
4. Gunzip that file to application/libraries (a folder called "simpletest" should be created in application/libraries)
5. Add "simpletester" to autoloading libraries in config/autoload.php
6. Done! Run your application. If nothing happens, it works.
7. Now you can check out the template test files in application/tests, and the SimpleTester configuration file in config. Try to change a test in a template test file to see if the installation really works. By failing a test, a big red bar should appear on the top of the page. All test files goes into "application/tests", use the template files for a quicker start. Good luck!

If you develop on a machine where PHP doesn't see the server IP as 127.0.0.1, you must change the configuration file to allow the IP your development machine has. That is about the only issue I can see right now.

Comments, improvements, anything is welcome. And remember, test before you code!

[eluser]ciscoheat[/eluser]
By the way, I'm a bit curious how widespread the Unit Testing concept is. I feel very unsecure without a unit test harness protecting the rules I've set up for how my code is working. What about you guys?

/Andreas

[eluser]sikkle[/eluser]
i'll be more then please to see a tutorial about this implementation and also a basic use. let's say a damn old HOW-TO

thanks.

[eluser]ciscoheat[/eluser]
No need for a howto, this isn't sendmail. (Haven't got much time to write one either.) All you need is to follow the installation instructions above, then open the file TEMPLATE_simple_test.php in the application/tests directory. That file is designed to help you start testing your code.

If you're not into unit testing, there are many tutorials out there. The one from simpletest is pretty good:

http://www.lastcraft.com/first_test_tutorial.php

/Andreas

[eluser]esra[/eluser]
I believe that Jason Sweat, one of the SimpleTest maintainers, also wrote a book on PHP design patterns which incorporates SimpleTest's approach to testing in the examples:

PHP|Architect's Guide to Design Patterns, ISBN 0-9735898-2-5

[eluser]ciscoheat[/eluser]
Just a notification that I've added this library to the wiki, with updated instructions. Download it here:

http://codeigniter.com/wiki/SimpleTester...g_library/

[eluser]John Fuller[/eluser]
By the way, thanks for the work you did on this. I am using it for the app I am currently working on.

[eluser]ciscoheat[/eluser]
No problem, I'm glad it's used by someone. Is it working fine? Do you miss any features?

[eluser]John Fuller[/eluser]
Yeah, it is working fine. I have just started getting into unit testing though, so I am not so advanced with it that I am running into missing features.

At one point I was building my app and totally got myself lost. I was probably looking at the screen way too long and was way too tired. I couldn't get a certain section to work. So I busted out the CI unit tester and fixed a ton of problems and it worked! I then sprung for the SimpleTester and have been setting up tests ever since.

I guess that is what unit testing is for.

[eluser]ciscoheat[/eluser]
I know just what you mean! When you start defining how the app should work, and the tests are enforcing that afterwards... it's a great feeling.

Maybe you haven't gotten into Mock objects yet, but I think they are the best part of testing. I had a hard time to understand them in the beginning (I'll gladly explain if you like), but nowadays I mock everything to really narrow down the testing to only one class at a time. SimpleTest even has a "Partial mock" feature that enables you to replace only certain methods in a class. It's very useful, but doing that often might be a signal of a design problem.