Laravel development: How to use Laravel Testing for efficient unit testing?

Laravel development: How to use Laravel Testing for efficient unit testing?

Laravel is a leading framework for PHP development. It is loved by the majority of PHP developers because it is easy to learn, easy to use and has complete functions. During the development process, testing is crucial because good testing improves the quality and stability of the application.

The Laravel framework has built-in Laravel Testing tool, which can help developers quickly write efficient unit tests. This article will introduce how to use Laravel Testing for efficient unit testing.

Why unit testing?

In the development process, unit testing is a very important link. They can help developers:

• Ensure code quality: Tests can catch code errors and problems, allowing developers to solve problems in a timely manner and ensure code quality.
• Improve code coverage: Testing can help developers improve code coverage to ensure that tests cover all aspects of the application.
• Confirm code behavior: Testing can help developers confirm the behavior of the code and ensure that the code logic is correct.

Using unit testing can greatly reduce the risk of problems in code development and improve the quality and stability of the code.

Benefits of using Laravel Testing for unit testing

In order to perform unit testing, developers need to use a testing framework to ensure the normal operation of test cases and quickly catch problems and errors. Laravel Testing is a very popular testing framework in the Laravel framework. The framework has the following benefits:

• Easy to use: Laravel Testing has a simple and intuitive API interface, allowing developers to quickly write and execute test cases.
• Laravel framework built-in: Laravel Testing is integrated with the testing framework built into the Laravel framework, so that developers can take advantage of its powerful features. It uses the core methods of the Laravel framework, making them highly interactive. .
• Widely used: Laravel is a widely used framework with a large user group and community that provides many valuable resources such as documentation and information.

The basic structure of Laravel Testing

Before writing test cases, you need to understand the basic structure of Laravel Testing. Laravel test cases, like other Laravel components, are also a class. This class should inherit the PHPUnitFrameworkTestCase class and have access to various services in the Laravel framework. For example, if you need to access console commands during testing, you can use the Artisan::call method.

The basic structure of Laravel Testing is as follows:

<?php

namespace TestsUnit;

use PHPUnitFrameworkTestCase;

class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
    /**
     * A basic test example.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function testBasicTest()
    {
        $this->assertTrue(true);
    }
}

This class contains a test case example method testBasicTest(). Since a test method should be treated as a separate single test, it is best to name the test method according to the purpose of the test.

Writing test cases

The process of writing test cases is usually divided into the following steps:

• Prepare the test environment: Start the Laravel application and set up the test environment.
• Define tests: Users define one or more tests to ensure the correctness of application logic.
• Run the test: Run the test and collect the results, classify them according to the results, and record the test results for later comparison.

Define Test

The process of defining test cases usually involves the following aspects.

Set up the test environment

Before starting the test, you need to set up the test environment. By creating a .env.testing file, set the test environment variables in it. The Laravel framework automatically detects this file when loading the application and uses the settings in this file by default.

.env.testing example:

APP_NAME=Laravel
APP_ENV=testing
APP_KEY=
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://localhost

LOG_CHANNEL=stack

DB_CONNECTION=sqlite
DB_DATABASE=:memory:

Other settings can also be added or modified in the .env.testing file. Here we will use sqlite database, a lightweight and easy to test database engine.

When using a sqlite database, Laravel will automatically complete data migration, so manual migration is not required. When accessing the database in a test method, Laravel will automatically use migrations that place data in the database. Therefore, there is no need to manually define the schema during the test run.

Write a simple example test:

tests/Unit/ExampleTest.php

<?php

namespace TestsUnit;

use PHPUnitFrameworkTestCase;

class ExampleTest extends TestCase
{
    /**
     * A basic test example.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function testBasicTest()
    {
        $this->assertTrue(true);
    }
}

To run this test in the console, use the following command:

phpunit tests/Unit/ExampleTest.php

After running this test, the test results will be output in the console:

PHPUnit 8.5.1 by Sebastian Bergmann and contributors.

.                                                                   1 / 1 (100%)

Time: 00:00.010, Memory: 6.00 MB

OK (1 test, 1 assertion)

You can see that the test passed successfully.

Using Laravel Database

Sometimes, we need to access the actual database defined inside the Laravel application. When using Laravel's DB facade in an application, Laravel automatically selects the current application environment.

Testing can be performed through the following methods:

$this->assertDatabaseHas('users', [
    'email' => 'test@example.com'
]);

This test method tests user storage and retrieval. Here we add an assertion to test whether the data exists using assertDatabaseHas().

If you want to insert records into the database, you can use the following method:

$user = factory(User::class)->create();

$this->assertDatabaseHas('users', [
    'email' => $user->email
]);

Use fake objects

You can use the Mockery object library provided by Laravel to generate mock objects and Transitive dependencies. Use the Mockery mocking framework instead of expensive, hard-coded objects, and then leverage these mock services along with other dependencies, test objects, or larger components.

Mockery can greatly simplify your code, thereby improving the quality and maintainability of your application.

$string = Mockery::mock('IlluminateHttpRequest');
$string->shouldReceive('input')

    ->once()
    ->andReturn('Welcome to Laravel Testing');

$this->assertTrue(strlen($string->input()) === 23);

在上面的代码示例中，我们首先创建了一个伪造对象$string，它是IlluminateHttpRequest的模拟实例。然后我们编写测试用例来测试模拟实例$input方法的返回值。

完成这些步骤后，我们便可以快速编写测试用例，取得高效、可维护、高质量的程序。

总结

直接就知道程序的运行结果是不能保证代码完美运作，甚至有可能出现严重的错误。而单元测试能够较全面地检测应用程序的每个组成部分，从而确保应用程序的质量与稳定性。

在Laravel框架中，Laravel Testing是一种流行的测试框架。Laravel Testing是受欢迎的，因为它易于使用，与Laravel框架深度结合，并且具有广泛的使用情况与应用。

在编写测试用例时，应确保测试方法的名称明确地描述了测试的功能。在测试方法中，使用assert()和其他相关断言操作来测试方法。完成测试后，可以使用PHPUnit来运行测试。

因为Laravel Testing已经在Laravel框架中集成，所以它使得开发人员可以轻松地测试他们的应用程序。Laravel Testing使开发人员能够更自信地修改和更新代码，并确保不会对任何现有功能产生负面影响。

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