Introduction

RabidRunner is a super-lightweight PHP5 test suite by Michelle Steigerwalt. Meant to be a companion project to RabidCore http://rabidcore.com, RabidRunner follows the same principles, namely accomplishing the task at hand in the most code-efficient manner possible.

The entire package consists of two classes, TestRunner and Test, along with an HTML frontend for reviewing the results and an example Test class to test the runner itself.

This allows the end user to get up and running as quickly as possible without having to dedicate an inordinate amount of time to understanding the codebase. The end result is a lightweight but powerful foundation which can be easily extened to fit specific developer needs.

Basic Usage

To use the TestRunner, create a new class which ends in 'Test' and save it in the TEST_DIR defined at the top of TestRunner.php (the default is tests/). The file name should be the same as the class name, and the class should extend the base Test class.

Test methods begin with 'should_'.

Running Tests

To run tests, create a new TestRunner (or child) object. The constructor method takes three distinct parameters:

NULL   : The TestRunner will search through the test directory for every
	     file ending in Test.php, and add each test to the test queue.

String : The name of the test to run.  Ie, TestRunner, DataModel, Alarm.
	     The name will prepended with 'Test' and the appropriate file will
	     be loaded from the tests directory.  Ie, TestRunner will invoke
	     TestRunnerTest.php, or the TestRunnerTest class.

Array  : An array of strings is the equivalent of creating multiple
         TestRunner objects.

Calling the runTests() metho of the TestRunner object will return the result of the operation. Use a print_r on the resulting data to explore its contents.

Failures and Success

By default, tests are considered failures when they raise an exception by using either a throw statement or the provided Test::assert method.

See the section on advanced handler methods for the exception to this rule.

Before and After Methods

Each Test class supports four methods: before, after, beforeEach and afterEach.

Overriding these methods will result the method being run before the entire series of tests, after the entire series of test, before each test or after each test.

Advanced Handler Methods

Special handlers can be defined by creating a method on the TestRunner class beginning with 'handle_' and followed by a set of alphanumeric characters describing the condition. Any test methods beginning with handle_should_{condition} will be delegated to the specified handler method.

The handler method will be passed the Exception object from the run of the test method invoking it, or null if no Exception was caught.

If this handler method returns a string or true value, the result it is testing will be considered a failure, and the string will be recorded as the error message. If the handler method returns a null or false value, the result will be considered a success.

For example, included with the TestRunner class is the method named 'handle_should_fail':

protected function handle_should_fail($error) {
	if (!$error) return "Failed to throw an exception.";
}

This method would result in the following test PASSING:

public function should_fail_on_bad_math() {
	$this->assert(1==2, "One is equal to two.");
}

The success or failure of any methods in a Test class beginning with 'should_fail' will be determined by the result of this method.

As another example, let's say that we were testing an alarm system. For several of our tests, we need to know whether the system is currently buzzing to alert people nearby.

We could write all our tests with an assertion at the end to ensure that the alarm is buzzing, like so:

class AlarmTest extends Test {

	//[...]

	public function should_buzz_when_wire_is_tripped() {
		$this->alarm->tripWire();
		$this->assert($this->alarm->buzzing == true);
	}

	public function should_buzz_when_noise_exceeds_100db() {
		$this->alarm->registerNoise(101);
		$this->assert($this->alarm->buzzing == true);
	}

	public function should_buzz_if_cover_opened() {
		$this->alarm->openCover();
		$this->assert($this->alarm->buzzing == true);
	}

}

Or we could create a custom handler method and place it within the TestRunner class (or a child class). It might look something like the following:

protected function handle_should_buzz($error) {
	if (!$this->testObj->alarm->buzzing) return "Alarm should buzz.";
}

Now, each method which begins with should_buzz will automatically check to see if that the alarm is buzzing. Please note that it would be a very good idea to include a call to the buzzer's reset method in the AlarmTest::afterEach method.

License

Copyright (c) 2008 Michelle Steigerwalt http://msteigerwalt.com

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Enjoy!

Have fun with the code. If you use it, feel free to drop me a line with your experience. I rely on feedback from users like you to improve this product and future products.