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   5          Overview and feature list for the SimpleTest PHP unit tester and web tester
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  17  <span class="chosen">Overview</span>
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  41  <a href="form_testing_documentation.html">Testing forms</a>
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  52  <h1>Overview of SimpleTest</h1>
  53  <div class="content">
  54          <p>
  55  <a class="target" name="summary">
  56  <h2>What is SimpleTest?</h2>
  57  </a>
  58  </p>
  59              <p>
  60                  The heart of SimpleTest is a testing framework built around
  61                  test case classes.
  62                  These are written as extensions of base test case classes,
  63                  each extended with methods that actually contain test code.
  64                  Top level test scripts then invoke the <span class="new_code">run()</span>
  65                  methods on every one of these test cases in order.
  66                  Each test method is written to invoke various assertions that
  67                  the developer expects to be true such as
  68                  <span class="new_code">assertEqual()</span>.
  69                  If the expectation is correct, then a successful result is dispatched to the
  70                  observing test reporter, but any failure triggers an alert
  71                  and a description of the mismatch.
  72              </p>
  73              <p>
  74                  A <a href="unit_test_documentation.html">test case</a> looks like this...
  75  <pre>
  76  &lt;?php
  77  class <strong>MyTestCase</strong> extends UnitTestCase {
  78      <strong>
  79      function testLog() {
  80          $log = &amp;new Log('my.log');
  81          $log-&gt;message('Hello');
  82          $this-&gt;assertTrue(file_exists('my.log'));
  83      }</strong>
  84  }
  85  ?&gt;
  86  </pre>
  87              </p>
  88              <p>
  89                  These tools are designed for the developer.
  90                  Tests are written in the PHP language itself more or less
  91                  as the application itself is built.
  92                  The advantage of using PHP itself as the testing language is that
  93                  there are no new languages to learn, testing can start straight away,
  94                  and the developer can test any part of the code.
  95                  Basically, all parts that can be accessed by the application code can also be
  96                  accessed by the test code if they are in the same language.
  97              </p>
  98              <p>
  99                  The simplest type of test case is the
 100                  <a href="unit_tester_documentation.html">UnitTestCase</a>.
 101                  This class of test case includes standard tests for equality,
 102                  references and pattern matching.
 103                  All these test the typical expectations of what you would
 104                  expect the result of a function or method to be.
 105                  This is by far the most common type of test in the daily
 106                  routine of development, making up about 95% of test cases.
 107              </p>
 108              <p>
 109                  The top level task of a web application though is not to
 110                  produce correct output from its methods and objects, but
 111                  to generate web pages.
 112                  The <a href="web_tester_documentation.html">WebTestCase</a> class tests web
 113                  pages.
 114                  It simulates a web browser requesting a page, complete with
 115                  cookies, proxies, secure connections, authentication, forms, frames and most
 116                  navigation elements.
 117                  With this type of test case, the developer can assert that
 118                  information is present in the page and that forms and
 119                  sessions are handled correctly.
 120              </p>
 121              <p>
 122                  A <a href="web_tester_documentation.html">WebTestCase</a> looks like this...
 123  <pre>
 124  &lt;?php
 125  class <strong>MySiteTest</strong> extends WebTestCase {
 126      <strong>
 127      function testHomePage() {
 128          $this-&gt;get('http://www.my-site.com/index.php');
 129          $this-&gt;assertTitle('My Home Page');
 130          $this-&gt;clickLink('Contact');
 131          $this-&gt;assertTitle('Contact me');
 132          $this-&gt;assertWantedPattern('/Email me at/');
 133      }</strong>
 134  }
 135  ?&gt;
 136  </pre>
 137              </p>
 138          
 139          <p>
 140  <a class="target" name="features">
 141  <h2>Feature list</h2>
 142  </a>
 143  </p>
 144              <p>
 145                  The following is a very rough outline of past and future features
 146                  and their expected point of release.
 147                  I am afraid it is liable to change without warning as meeting the
 148                  milestones rather depends on time available.
 149                  Green stuff has been coded, but not necessarily released yet.
 150                  If you have a pressing need for a green but unreleased feature
 151                  then you should check-out the code from Sourceforge CVS directly.
 152                  <table>
 153  <thead>
 154                      <tr>
 155  <th>Feature</th><th>Description</th><th>Release</th>
 156  </tr>
 157                      </thead>
 158  <tbody>
 159  <tr>
 160                          <td>Unit test case</td>
 161                          <td>Core test case class and assertions</td>
 162                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 163                      </tr>
 164                      <tr>
 165                          <td>Html display</td>
 166                          <td>Simplest possible display</td>
 167                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 168                      </tr>
 169                      <tr>
 170                          <td>Autoloading of test cases</td>
 171                          <td>
 172                              Reading a file with test cases and loading them into a
 173                              group test automatically
 174                          </td>
 175                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 176                      </tr>
 177                      <tr>
 178                          <td>Mock objects</td>
 179                          <td>
 180                              Objects capable of simulating other objects removing
 181                              test dependencies
 182                          </td>
 183                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 184                      </tr>
 185                      <tr>
 186                          <td>Web test case</td>
 187                          <td>Allows link following and title tag matching</td>
 188                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 189                      </tr>
 190                      <tr>
 191                          <td>Partial mocks</td>
 192                          <td>
 193                              Mocking parts of a class for testing less than a class
 194                              or for complex simulations
 195                          </td>
 196                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 197                      </tr>
 198                      <tr>
 199                          <td>Web cookie handling</td>
 200                          <td>Correct handling of cookies when fetching pages</td>
 201                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 202                      </tr>
 203                      <tr>
 204                          <td>Following redirects</td>
 205                          <td>Page fetching automatically follows 300 redirects</td>
 206                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 207                      </tr>
 208                      <tr>
 209                          <td>Form parsing</td>
 210                          <td>Ability to submit simple forms and read default form values</td>
 211                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 212                      </tr>
 213                      <tr>
 214                          <td>Command line interface</td>
 215                          <td>Test display without the need of a web browser</td>
 216                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 217                      </tr>
 218                      <tr>
 219                          <td>Exposure of expectation classes</td>
 220                          <td>Can create precise tests with mocks as well as test cases</td>
 221                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 222                      </tr>
 223                      <tr>
 224                          <td>XML output and parsing</td>
 225                          <td>
 226                              Allows multi host testing and the integration of acceptance
 227                              testing extensions
 228                          </td>
 229                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 230                      </tr>
 231                      <tr>
 232                          <td>Browser component</td>
 233                          <td>
 234                              Exposure of lower level web browser interface for more
 235                              detailed test cases
 236                          </td>
 237                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 238                      </tr>
 239                      <tr>
 240                          <td>HTTP authentication</td>
 241                          <td>
 242                              Fetching protected web pages with basic authentication
 243                              only
 244                          </td>
 245                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 246                      </tr>
 247                      <tr>
 248                          <td>SSL support</td>
 249                          <td>Can connect to https: pages</td>
 250                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 251                      </tr>
 252                      <tr>
 253                          <td>Proxy support</td>
 254                          <td>Can connect via. common proxies</td>
 255                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 256                      </tr>
 257                      <tr>
 258                          <td>Frames support</td>
 259                          <td>Handling of frames in web test cases</td>
 260                          <td style="color: green;">1.0</td>
 261                      </tr>
 262                      <tr>
 263                          <td>File upload testing</td>
 264                          <td>Can simulate the input type file tag</td>
 265                          <td style="color: green;">1.0.1</td>
 266                      </tr>
 267                      <tr>
 268                          <td>Mocking interfaces</td>
 269                          <td>
 270                              Can generate mock objects to interfaces as well as classes
 271                              and class interfaces are carried for type hints
 272                          </td>
 273                          <td style="color: green;">1.0.1</td>
 274                      </tr>
 275                      <tr>
 276                          <td>Reporting machinery enhancements</td>
 277                          <td>Improved message passing for better cooperation with IDEs</td>
 278                          <td style="color: red;">1.1</td>
 279                      </tr>
 280                      <tr>
 281                          <td>Localisation</td>
 282                          <td>Messages abstracted and code generated from XML</td>
 283                          <td style="color: red;">1.1</td>
 284                      </tr>
 285                      <tr>
 286                          <td>Testing exceptions</td>
 287                          <td>Similar to testing PHP errors</td>
 288                          <td style="color: red;">1.1</td>
 289                      </tr>
 290                      <tr>
 291                          <td>IFrame support</td>
 292                          <td>Reads IFrame content that can be refreshed</td>
 293                          <td style="color: red;">1.1</td>
 294                      </tr>
 295                      <tr>
 296                          <td>Improved mock interface</td>
 297                          <td>More compact way of expressing mocks</td>
 298                          <td style="color: red;">2.0</td>
 299                      </tr>
 300                      <tr>
 301                          <td>HTML table assertions</td>
 302                          <td>Can match table elements to numerical assertions</td>
 303                          <td style="color: red;">2.0</td>
 304                      </tr>
 305                      <tr>
 306                          <td>XPath searching of HTML elements</td>
 307                          <td>More flexible content matching</td>
 308                          <td style="color: red;">2.0</td>
 309                      </tr>
 310                      <tr>
 311                          <td>Alternate HTML parsers</td>
 312                          <td>Can detect compiled parsers for performance improvements</td>
 313                          <td style="color: red;">2.0</td>
 314                      </tr>
 315                      <tr>
 316                          <td>Javascript suport</td>
 317                          <td>Use of PECL module to add Javascript</td>
 318                          <td style="color: red;">3.0</td>
 319                      </tr>
 320                  </tbody>
 321  </table>
 322                  PHP5 migraton will start straight after the version 1.0.1 series,
 323                  whereupon PHP4 will no longer be supported.
 324                  SimpleTest is currently compatible with PHP5, but will not
 325                  make use of all of the new features until version 2.
 326              </p>
 327          
 328          <p>
 329  <a class="target" name="resources">
 330  <h2>Web resources for testing</h2>
 331  </a>
 332  </p>
 333              <p>
 334                  Process is at least as important as tools.
 335                  The type of process that makes the heaviest use of a developer's
 336                  testing tool is of course
 337                  <a href="http://www.extremeprogramming.org/">Extreme Programming</a>.
 338                  This is one of the
 339                  <a href="http://www.agilealliance.com/articles/index">Agile Methodologies</a>
 340                  which combine various practices to "flatten the cost curve" of software development.
 341                  More extreme still is <a href="http://www.testdriven.com/modules/news/">Test Driven Development</a>,
 342                  where you very strictly adhere to the rule of no coding until you have a test.
 343                  If you're more of a planner or believe that experience trumps evolution,
 344                  you may prefer the
 345                  <a href="http://www.therationaledge.com/content/dec_01/f_spiritOfTheRUP_pk.html">RUP</a> approach.
 346                  I haven't tried it, but even I can see that you will need test tools (see figure 9).
 347              </p>
 348              <p>
 349                  Most unit testers clone <a href="http://www.junit.org/">JUnit</a> to some degree,
 350                  as far as the interface at least. There is a wealth of information on the
 351                  JUnit site including the
 352                  <a href="http://junit.sourceforge.net/doc/faq/faq.htm">FAQ</a>
 353                  which contains plenty of general advice on testing.
 354                  Once you get bitten by the bug you will certainly appreciate the phrase
 355                  <a href="http://junit.sourceforge.net/doc/testinfected/testing.htm">test infected</a>
 356                  coined by Eric Gamma.
 357                  If you are still reviewing which unit tester to use the main choices
 358                  are <a href="http://phpunit.sourceforge.net/">PHPUnit</a>
 359                  and <a href="http://pear.php.net/manual/en/package.php.phpunit.php">Pear PHP::PHPUnit</a>.
 360                  They currently lack a lot of features found in
 361                  <a href="http://www.lastcraft.com/simple_test.php">SimpleTest</a>, but the PEAR
 362                  version at least has been upgraded for PHP5 and is recommended if you are porting
 363                  existing <a href="http://www.junit.org/">JUnit</a> test cases.
 364              </p>
 365              <p>
 366                  There is currently a sad lack of material on mock objects, which is a shame
 367                  as unit testing without them is a lot more work.
 368                  The <a href="http://www.sidewize.com/company/mockobjects.pdf">original mock objects paper</a>
 369                  is very Java focused, but still worth a read.
 370                  As a new technology there are plenty of discussions and debate on how to use mocks,
 371                  often on Wikis such as
 372                  <a href="http://xpdeveloper.com/cgi-bin/oldwiki.cgi?MockObjects">Extreme Tuesday</a>
 373                  or <a href="http://www.mockobjects.com/MocksObjectsPaper.html">www.mockobjects.com</a>
 374                  or <a href="http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?MockObject">the original C2 Wiki</a>.
 375                  Injecting mocks into a class is the main area of debate for which this
 376                  <a href="http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-mocktest.html">paper on IBM</a>
 377                  makes a good starting point.
 378              </p>
 379              <p>
 380                  There are plenty of web testing tools, but the scriptable ones
 381                  are mostly are written in Java and
 382                  tutorials and advice are rather thin on the ground.
 383                  The only hope is to look at the documentation for
 384                  <a href="http://httpunit.sourceforge.net/">HTTPUnit</a>,
 385                  <a href="http://htmlunit.sourceforge.net/">HTMLUnit</a>
 386                  or <a href="http://jwebunit.sourceforge.net/">JWebUnit</a> and hope for clues.
 387                  There are some XML driven test frameworks, but again most
 388                  require Java to run.
 389              </p>
 390              <p>
 391                  A new generation of tools that run directly in the web browser
 392                  are now available.
 393                  These include
 394                  <a href="http://www.openqa.org/selenium/">Selenium</a> and
 395                  <a href="http://wtr.rubyforge.org/">Watir</a>.
 396                  As SimpleTest does not support JavaScript you would probably
 397                  have to look at these tools anyway if you have highly dynamic
 398                  pages.
 399              </p>
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 402  <div class="copyright">
 403              Copyright<br>Marcus Baker, Jason Sweat, Perrick Penet 2004
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