Federico Cargnelutti

Testing Zend Framework Controllers

with 29 comments

application/
    config/
    controllers/
        ExampleController.php
    models/
    views/
library/
    Custom/
    Zend/
public/
tests/
    application/
        controllers/
            ExampleControllerTest.php
        ControllerTestCase.php
    library/
    log/
        coverage/
    bootstrap.php
    phpunit.xml

error_reporting( E_ALL | E_STRICT );
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/London');

define('APPLICATION_PATH', realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../application'));
define('APPLICATION_ENV', 'loc');
define('LIBRARY_PATH', realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../library'));
define('TESTS_PATH', realpath(dirname(__FILE__)));

$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] = 'http://localhost';

$includePaths = array(LIBRARY_PATH, get_include_path());
set_include_path(implode(PATH_SEPARATOR, $includePaths));

require_once "Zend/Loader.php";
Zend_Loader::registerAutoload();

Zend_Session::$_unitTestEnabled = true;
Zend_Session::start();

<phpunit bootstrap="./bootstrap.php" colors="false">
    <testsuite name="ApplicationTestSuite">
        <directory>./application/</directory>
        <directory>./library/</directory>
    </testsuite>
    <filter>
        <whitelist>
            <directory suffix=".php">../application</directory>
            <directory suffix=".php">../library/Custom</directory>
            <exclude>
                <directory suffix=".phtml">../application/views</directory>
                <file>../application/Bootstrap.php</file>
            </exclude>
        </whitelist>
    </filter>
    <logging>
        <log type="coverage-html" target="./log/coverage" charset="UTF-8"
             yui="true" highlight="false" lowUpperBound="35" highLowerBound="70"/>
    </logging>
</phpunit>

class ControllerTestCase extends Zend_Test_PHPUnit_ControllerTestCase
{
    public $application;

    public function setUp()
    {
        $this->application = new Zend_Application(
            APPLICATION_ENV,
            APPLICATION_PATH . '/config/settings.ini'
        );

        $this->bootstrap = array($this, 'bootstrap');
        parent::setUp();
    }

    public function tearDown()
    {
        Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()->resetInstance();
        $this->resetRequest();
        $this->resetResponse();

        $this->request->setPost(array());
        $this->request->setQuery(array());
    }

    public function bootstrap()
    {
        $this->application->bootstrap();
    }
}

class ControllerTestCase extends Zend_Test_PHPUnit_ControllerTestCase
{
    ...

    public function dispatch($url = null)
    {
        // redirector should not exit
        $redirector = Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::getStaticHelper('redirector');
        $redirector->setExit(false);

        // json helper should not exit
        $json = Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::getStaticHelper('json');
        $json->suppressExit = true;

        $request = $this->getRequest();
        if (null !== $url) {
            $request->setRequestUri($url);
        }
        $request->setPathInfo(null);

        $this->getFrontController()
             ->setRequest($request)
             ->setResponse($this->getResponse())
             ->throwExceptions(true)
             ->returnResponse(false);

        $this->getFrontController()->dispatch();
    }

    ...
}

<?php
require_once TESTS_PATH . '/application/ControllerTestCase.php';
require_once APPLICATION_PATH . '/controllers/ExampleController.php';

class ExampleControllerTest extends ControllerTestCase
{
    public function testDefaultShouldInvokeIndexAction()
    {
        $this->dispatch('/');
        $this->assertController('index');
        $this->assertAction('index');
    }

    public function testViewObjectContainsStringProperty()
    {
        $this->dispatch('/');

        $controller = new ExampleController(
            $this->request,
            $this->response,
            $this->request->getParams()
        );
        $controller->indexAction();

        $this->assertTrue(isset($controller->view->string));
    }
}

require_once TESTS_PATH . '/app/ControllerTestCase.php';
require_once APPLICATION_PATH . '/controllers/ErrorController.php';

class ErrorControllerTest extends ControllerTestCase
{
    public function testExceptionIsAnInstanceOfZendControllerException()
    {
        $e = new stdClass();
        $e->type = Zend_Controller_Plugin_ErrorHandler::EXCEPTION_NO_CONTROLLER;
        $e->exception = new Zend_Controller_Exception('Invalid controller');
        $e->request = $this->request;

        $this->request->setParam('error_handler', $e);
        $this->request->setParam('controller', 'error');
        $this->request->setParam('action', 'error');

        $controller = new ErrorController(
            $this->request,
            $this->response,
            $this->request->getParams()
        );
        $controller->errorAction();
        $isInstanceOf = $controller->view->exception instanceof Zend_Controller_Exception;

        $this->assertTrue($isInstanceOf);
    }
}

$ cd /path/to/tests
$ phpunit
PHPUnit 3.3.8 by Sebastian Bergmann.
...
Time: 0 seconds
OK (3 tests, 4 assertions)

29 Responses

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1. I’m confused. Why are you extending the action? Couldn’t you simply dispatch through the front controller? That’s what I’ve done in my controller tests – as per the docs.

   

   Jani Hartikainen

   December 27, 2008 at 3:36 pm
2. Well, I’m not dispatching the request, that’s why. It’s the only way to create an instance of the action controller without dispatching the request. Getting an instance of the action controller gives me more control and flexibility, specially when creating web services and using sendJson(). Keep in mind that sendJson(), for example, does not render a view and terminates the execution of the script after sending the response.

   

   Federico

   December 28, 2008 at 1:39 am
3. Great post! I just got started with PHPUnit myself.

   

   Ben

   December 29, 2008 at 3:20 am
4. The doc for Zend_Controller_Action says:
   void __construct (Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract $request, Zend_Controller_Response_Abstract $response, [ $invokeArgs = array()])
   how is:
   $url = ‘http://localhost/example/first/fed’;
   $controller = new ExampleControllerTest($url);
   supposed to work?
   How can the url parameters be parsed without dispatching a request (the routes do not exist in this example)?

   

   Piccolo Principe

   December 29, 2008 at 7:48 pm
5. Hi,

   From the manual: “In order to run a parent constructor, a call to parent::__construct() within the child constructor is required.”

   ExampleControllerTest::__contruct() runs Zend_Controller_Action::__construct(), passes the URI to Zend_Controller_Request_Http and to Zend_Uri. That’s how the Zend_Uri object populates itself.

   Routes are added in the bootstrapper, however I’m not testing the routing process. For that I use Zend_Test.

   

   Federico

   December 29, 2008 at 10:19 pm
6. [...] the PHP::Impact blog there’s a recent post looking at using the popular unit testing PHP framework PHPUnit to test Zend Framework controllers. [...]

   How2Pc

   December 30, 2008 at 3:06 am
7. Frederico,
   this came at just the right time! I’ve been setting up netbeans with unit testing, and I was going to add Zend_Test into the mix this week.

   Thanks!

   j

   

   Jon Lebensold

   January 2, 2009 at 9:21 pm
8. Hi Federico,

   Very nice article!

   I translated it to Russian, if you don’t mind. You can see the translation on my blog – http://lobach.info/develop/zf/phpunit-testing-zend-framework-controllers/

   

   Oleg Lobach

   February 6, 2009 at 11:15 am
9. Great, thanks Oleg :)

   

   Federico

   February 6, 2009 at 3:37 pm
10. Hi Federico

    In bootstrap.php, you mentioned the following command:

    include APPLICATION_PATH . ‘/config/routes.php’;
    $router->addRoutes($routes);

    Does the variable $routes come from routes.php? Could you give some tips how to build the routes.php file?

    Good article, thank you for your work.

    

    Henry Lu

    February 26, 2009 at 5:02 pm
11. That’s right, the variable $routes is defined inside the routes.php file. Not the best way of doing it, I know, but it’s just an example.

    

    Federico

    February 27, 2009 at 12:58 am
12. Hallo!
    My name is Maria and I am an php-developer who from now want to use Zend Framework and use PHPUnit.
    A very nice article!! But I stuck my head into problems. I can run the phpunit test via command line:

    C:\projects\Prova\php\phpunit2>php stringtest.php

    TestCase ArrTest->testNewArrayIsEmpty() passed
    TestCase ArrTest->testArrayContainsAnElement() passed

    BUT
    when I follow your exemple, I got the errormessage:
    Could not open input file: .\pear\PHPUnit2\TextUI\TestRunner.php

    Seems to be som config-problem but I cannot find it.
    I’ll be so happy if you could help me.
    Best regards,
    Maria

    

    Maria Schön

    April 23, 2009 at 7:26 am
13. I want to use Zend+PHPUnit, but it’s so hard.
    My code is equal this post.
    But throw an error: action helper by name search not found

    Obs.: I don’t use ZendRoutes but .htaccess.
    Anybody have a light?

    

    Rafael

    June 1, 2009 at 9:16 pm
14. [...] PHPUnit: Testing Zend Framework Controllers (перевод) [...]

    Zend Framework hacks

    June 2, 2009 at 9:14 am
15. Hi Federico,

    Thanks for the article! It was very helpful in guiding me through the setup of Zend+PHPUnit.

    I had to change the method for calling ExampleControllerTest; I couldn’t extend the constructor as indicated because it has to use the same interface as the original. Made ExampleControllerTestCase::getExampleControllerTest($url) method instead.

    I also got rid of the routes, seems to work using the auto-routing.

    

    Lauxa

    June 4, 2009 at 12:34 pm
16. @Rafael the idea of testing your code is to find errors, and “Action helper by name not found” *is* one of them :) Make sure you always check if a helper class is set before using it.

    For example, if you do this::
    $this->_helper->layout->disableLayout();

    Without checking:
    if ($this->_helper->hasHelper(‘layout’)) {
    }

    Then you get the following error message:
    “Action Helper by name Layout not found”

    

    Federico

    June 4, 2009 at 4:32 pm
17. Thanks Lauxa. You may need the routes if you decide to use an action helper or plugin that redirects or creates an URL, but I’m not 100% sure.

    Cheers

    

    Federico

    June 4, 2009 at 4:34 pm
18. Hi Federico,

    Another comment, if you are using the view in your controllers, there is an error when you set up the bootstrap with this command –

    $front->setParam('noViewRenderer', true);

    – because now $view is undefined. My solution was to write an empty class called FakeView.php, drop it into test/controllers directory, and change the getExampleControllerTest method as such:
    
public function getExampleControllerTest($url = null) {
$request = new Zend_Controller_Request_Http($url);
$response = new Zend_Controller_Response_Http();
$controller = new ScheduleController($request, $response);
$controller->view = new FakeView();
return $controller;
}

    I don’t know if it’s the best solution, but now the $view variable doesn’t break in the controllers and I still get output to the screen.

    

    Lauxa

    June 11, 2009 at 5:20 pm
19. If you disable the view rendered helper, then you have to initiate the view object first before assigning values. For example:

    
$this->initView();
$this->view->foo = 'value';
$this->render();


    

    Federico

    June 11, 2009 at 7:41 pm
20. Thanks for this post!

    

    Ben

    June 25, 2009 at 7:46 am
21. Hi, my problem is how to launch the test. In your last step, when you create the test suite. Where have to been this file?

    Thanks a lot

    

    Lois from newLine

    October 29, 2009 at 11:22 am
22. I’ll update this post later today, hopefully it will answer your question.

    

    Federico

    October 29, 2009 at 11:33 am
23. thanks Federico! =)

    

    Lois from newLine

    October 29, 2009 at 12:00 pm
24. Done. Post updated on: Oct 29, 2009

    

    Federico

    October 29, 2009 at 6:18 pm
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    November 1, 2009 at 1:40 pm
26. [...] ( false ); //Return what the amf server delivers echo($server->handle()); Many of the examples of using Zend_Test I have seen use Zend_Test_PHPUnit_ControllerTestCase If I have no controllers is [...]

    How to properly use Zend_Test and Zend_AMF - Zend Framework Forum

    January 29, 2010 at 1:58 pm
27. Very useful! Thank you. Especially creating an instance of an ErrorController (i.e. $controller = new ErrorController (…)) in a test unit. I did not know you can do that. Very, very nice:-)!

    

    W

    February 9, 2010 at 12:10 pm
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    March 11, 2010 at 6:11 pm
29. [...] Basis für mein Setup möchte ich auf den Blogeintrag von Federico Cargnelutti geholfen, auf das ich an dieser Stelle verweisen möchte. In dem Eintrag werden alle nötigen [...]

    wortzwei

    April 9, 2010 at 2:48 pm