This tutorial has a new version, check it out!
> PHPUnit (Legacy): Testing with a Bite
Login to bookmark this video
Buy Access to Course
16.

Full Mock Example

Share this awesome video!

|

Keep on Learning!

Start your All-Access Pass

With a Subscription, click any sentence in the script to jump to that part of the video!

Login Subscribe

Mocking is so important... and honestly... pretty fun. I think we should code through another example. In some ways... an even better and more common example.

Here's the setup: we're going to need a lot of dinosaurs, a lot of enclosures and even more security. Instead of creating these by hand each time a new batch of adorable dinosaurs arrives, let's create a service that can do it all for us.

If you downloaded the source code, then in the tutorial/ directory, you should have an EnclosureBuilderService class. Copy that and paste it into our Service directory. This has just one public function: you pass that number of security systems and the number of dinosaurs, and it takes care of creating those security systems, creating the dinosaurs and putting everything together inside a new Enclosure.

71 lines | src/AppBundle/Service/EnclosureBuilderService.php
// ... lines 1 - 2
namespace AppBundle\Service;
// ... lines 4 - 9
class EnclosureBuilderService
{
/**
* @var EntityManagerInterface
*/
private $entityManager;
/**
* @var DinosaurFactory
*/
private $dinosaurFactory;
public function __construct(
EntityManagerInterface $entityManager,
DinosaurFactory $dinosaurFactory
)
{
$this->entityManager = $entityManager;
$this->dinosaurFactory = $dinosaurFactory;
}
public function buildEnclosure(
int $numberOfSecuritySystems = 1,
int $numberOfDinosaurs = 3
): Enclosure
{
$enclosure = new Enclosure();
$this->addSecuritySystems($numberOfSecuritySystems, $enclosure);
$this->addDinosaurs($numberOfDinosaurs, $enclosure);
return $enclosure;
}
private function addSecuritySystems(int $numberOfSecuritySystems, Enclosure $enclosure)
{
$securityNames = ['Fence', 'Electric fence', 'Guard tower'];
for ($i = 0; $i < $numberOfSecuritySystems; $i++) {
$securityName = $securityNames[array_rand($securityNames)];
$security = new Security($securityName, true, $enclosure);
$enclosure->addSecurity($security);
}
}
private function addDinosaurs(int $numberOfDinosaurs, Enclosure $enclosure)
{
$lengths = ['small', 'large', 'huge'];
$diets = ['herbivore', 'carnivorous'];
// We should not mix herbivore and carnivorous together,
// so use the same diet for every dinosaur.
$diet = $diets[array_rand($diets)];
$length = $lengths[array_rand($lengths)];
$specification = "{$length} {$diet} dinosaur";
$dinosaur = $this->dinosaurFactory->growFromSpecification($specification);
$enclosure->addDinosaur($dinosaur);
}
}

For this... we're going to cheat and not do TDD because... well... I just gave you the code. So let's add the test: in the Service directory, create a new EnclosureBuilderServiceTest. And inside, public function testItBuildsAndPersistsEnclosure().

19 lines | tests/AppBundle/Service/EnclosureBuilderServiceTest.php
// ... lines 1 - 7
class EnclosureBuilderServiceTest extends TestCase
{
public function testItBuildsAndPersistsEnclosure()
{
// ... lines 12 - 16
}
}

And this time, let's make sure it extends TestCase from PHPUnit. At first, the test is pretty simple: create a new EnclosureBuilderService(). This has two required constructor arguments... but let's ignore those at first and finish the test. Add $enclosure = $builder->buildEnclosure() with, how about, 1 security system and 2 dinosaurs.

19 lines | tests/AppBundle/Service/EnclosureBuilderServiceTest.php
// ... lines 1 - 7
class EnclosureBuilderServiceTest extends TestCase
{
public function testItBuildsAndPersistsEnclosure()
{
$builder = new EnclosureBuilderService();
$enclosure = $builder->buildEnclosure(1, 2);
// ... lines 14 - 16
}
}

Below this, just assert that this has the right stuff: $this->assertCount() that 1 matches the count of $enclosure->getSecurities(). That method does not exist yet. And then assertCount() that 2 matches the count of $enclosure->getDinosaurs().

19 lines | tests/AppBundle/Service/EnclosureBuilderServiceTest.php
// ... lines 1 - 9
public function testItBuildsAndPersistsEnclosure()
{
// ... lines 12 - 13
$this->assertCount(1, $enclosure->getSecurities());
$this->assertCount(2, $enclosure->getDinosaurs());
}
// ... lines 18 - 19

We could test more, but this is pretty good! It tests that the core functionality works correctly. Later, if we think of some edge-case that could happen, we can add more.

Ok, find the Enclosure class, scroll to the bottom, and add the missing public function getSecurities(), which should return a Collection. Return $this->securities.

84 lines | src/AppBundle/Entity/Enclosure.php
// ... lines 1 - 14
class Enclosure
{
// ... lines 17 - 78
public function getSecurities(): Collection
{
return $this->securities;
}
}

Adding the Basic Mocks

Other than the missing constructor arguments, the test looks happy! But somehow, we need to pass the builder an EntityManagerInterface and a DinosaurFactory. These are both services, so they should be mocked, instead of created manually. That becomes even more obvious if you think about trying to create these objects. The EntityManager requires a database connection... and we definitely do not want to instantiate all of that. And even DinosaurFactory itself requires a DinosaurLengthDeterminator... so creating a new factory would take some work... too much work.

You can start to see why mocking makes life so much easier.

Back in the test, add $em = $this->createMock(). The argument expects an EntityManagerInterface. So that's what we'll use here: EntityManagerInterface::class. Yep, you can totally mock an interface. Then add $dinosaurFactory = $this->createMock(DinosaurFactory::class).

24 lines | tests/AppBundle/Service/EnclosureBuilderServiceTest.php
// ... lines 1 - 9
class EnclosureBuilderServiceTest extends TestCase
{
public function testItBuildsAndPersistsEnclosure()
{
$em = $this->createMock(EntityManagerInterface::class);
$dinoFactory = $this->createMock(DinosaurFactory::class);
// ... lines 16 - 21
}
}

Pass both arguments into new EnclosureBuilderService().

24 lines | tests/AppBundle/Service/EnclosureBuilderServiceTest.php
// ... lines 1 - 11
public function testItBuildsAndPersistsEnclosure()
{
// ... lines 14 - 16
$builder = new EnclosureBuilderService($em, $dinoFactory);
// ... lines 18 - 21
}
// ... lines 23 - 24

I'm not worried about controlling the return values: I'm trying to do as little work as possible so that the test will run and the asserts at the bottom can do their job. It may turn out that we do need to control some return values so that the function can run... but... let's find out! Run the tests:

./vendor/bin/phpunit

The test fails! We're expecting some actual size 1 to match 2, on line 20. For some reason, we're only getting back one Dinosaur... even though we passed 2 as the argument.

Open EnlosureBuilder and scroll down to addDinosaur(). Ah! There's a bug in my code already! The $numberOfDinosaurs argument is not used: we always add just one dinosaur.

That's great! The simple test caught the bug and the fix is easy.

Asserting growFromSpecification is Called Twice

But! If we want, we could also make the test a bit tougher before fixing this. In the test, add $dinoFactory->expects($this->exactly(2)) and then ->method('growFromSpecification').

28 lines | tests/AppBundle/Service/EnclosureBuilderServiceTest.php
// ... lines 1 - 11
public function testItBuildsAndPersistsEnclosure()
{
// ... lines 14 - 16
$dinoFactory->expects($this->exactly(2))
->method('growFromSpecification')
->with($this->isType('string'));
// ... lines 20 - 25
}
// ... lines 27 - 28

We could stop here: we don't need to also call ->with(). But if you do want to assert that the correct argument is passed, you can. Well actually, the exact argument is random. So the best we can do is use $this->isType('string').

In practice, I think adding with() in this situation is a bit overkill. But it always depends.

Ok, I want to see these errors! Comment out the assert at the bottom. Any test failures from mocking will come after the test finishes running successfully. Try the tests!

./vendor/bin/phpunit

Awesome! Translating from robot-speech, this says:

Expectation failed for method growFromSpecification(): we expected it to be called two times, but was actually called 1 time.

That's cool! Uncomment the "assert" in the test. Now, go into the service and fix my bug! Add a for loop where $i = 0; $i < $numberOfDinosaurs; $i++. Move all that dino code inside.

73 lines | src/AppBundle/Service/EnclosureBuilderService.php
// ... lines 1 - 9
class EnclosureBuilderService
{
// ... lines 12 - 55
private function addDinosaurs(int $numberOfDinosaurs, Enclosure $enclosure)
{
$lengths = ['small', 'large', 'huge'];
$diets = ['herbivore', 'carnivorous'];
// We should not mix herbivore and carnivorous together,
// so use the same diet for every dinosaur.
$diet = $diets[array_rand($diets)];
for ($i = 0; $i < $numberOfDinosaurs; $i++) {
$length = $lengths[array_rand($lengths)];
$specification = "{$length} {$diet} dinosaur";
$dinosaur = $this->dinosaurFactory->growFromSpecification($specification);
$enclosure->addDinosaur($dinosaur);
}
}
}

Move back to your terminal and, test!

./vendor/bin/phpunit

We're green! But... there's something interesting going on. And, our test is weak in one important way... there's still a bug in EnclosureBuilderService! And our tests are missing it!