Expectation documentation

Extending the SimpleTest unit tester with additional expectation classes

# mock More control over mock objects

The default behaviour of the mock objects in SimpleTest is either an identical match on the argument or to allow any argument at all. For almost all tests this is sufficient. Sometimes, though, you want to weaken a test case.

One place where a test can be too tightly coupled is with text matching. Suppose we have a component that outputs a helpful error message when something goes wrong. You want to test that the correct error was sent, but the actual text may be rather long. If you test for the text exactly, then every time the exact wording of the message changes, you will have to go back and edit the test suite.

For example, suppose we have a news service that has failed to connect to its remote source. <strong>class NewsService { ... function publish(&$writer) { if (! $this->isConnected()) { $writer->write('Cannot connect to news service "' . $this->_name . '" at this time. ' . 'Please try again later.'); } ... } }</strong> Here it is sending its content to a `Writer` class. We could test this behaviour with a `MockWriter` like so... class TestOfNewsService extends UnitTestCase { ... function testConnectionFailure() {<strong> $writer = &new MockWriter(); $writer->expectOnce('write', array( 'Cannot connect to news service ' . '"BBC News" at this time. ' . 'Please try again later.')); $service = &new NewsService('BBC News'); $service->publish($writer);</strong> } } This is a good example of a brittle test. If we decide to add additional instructions, such as suggesting an alternative news source, we will break our tests even though no underlying functionality has been altered.

To get around this, we would like to do a regular expression test rather than an exact match. We can actually do this with... class TestOfNewsService extends UnitTestCase { ... function testConnectionFailure() { $writer = &new MockWriter();<strong> $writer->expectOnce( 'write', array(new PatternExpectation('/cannot connect/i')));</strong> $service = &new NewsService('BBC News'); $service->publish($writer); } } Instead of passing in the expected parameter to the `MockWriter` we pass an expectation class called `WantedPatternExpectation`. The mock object is smart enough to recognise this as special and to treat it differently. Rather than simply comparing the incoming argument to this object, it uses the expectation object itself to perform the test.

The `WantedPatternExpectation` takes the regular expression to match in its constructor. Whenever a comparison is made by the `MockWriter` against this expectation class, it will do a `preg_match()` with this pattern. With our test case above, as long as "cannot connect" appears in the text of the string, the mock will issue a pass to the unit tester. The rest of the text does not matter.

The possible expectation classes are...

`AnythingExpectation` | Will always match
`EqualExpectation` | An equality, rather than the stronger identity comparison
`NotEqualExpectation` | An inequality comparison
`IndenticalExpectation` | The default mock object check which must match exactly
`NotIndenticalExpectation` | Inverts the mock object logic
`WithinMarginExpectation` | Compares a value to within a margin
`OutsideMarginExpectation` | Checks that a value is out side the margin
`PatternExpectation` | Uses a Perl Regex to match a string
`NoPatternExpectation` | Passes only if failing a Perl Regex
`IsAExpectation` | Checks the type or class name only
`NotAExpectation` | Opposite of the `IsAExpectation`
`MethodExistsExpectation` | Checks a method is available on an object

Most take the expected value in the constructor. The exceptions are the pattern matchers, which take a regular expression, and the `IsAExpectation` and `NotAExpectation` which takes a type or class name as a string.

Some examples...

$mock->expectOnce('method', array(new IdenticalExpectation(14))); This is the same as `$mock->expectOnce('method', array(14))`. $mock->expectOnce('method', array(new EqualExpectation(14))); This is different from the previous version in that the string `"14"` as a parameter will also pass. Sometimes the additional type checks of SimpleTest are too restrictive. $mock->expectOnce('method', array(new AnythingExpectation(14))); This is the same as `$mock->expectOnce('method', array('*'))`. $mock->expectOnce('method', array(new IdenticalExpectation('*'))); This is handy if you want to assert a literal `"*"`. new NotIdenticalExpectation(14) This matches on anything other than integer 14. Even the string `"14"` would pass. new WithinMarginExpectation(14.0, 0.001) This will accept any value from 13.999 to 14.001 inclusive.

# behaviour Using expectations to control stubs

The expectation classes can be used not just for sending assertions from mock objects, but also for selecting behaviour for the mock objects. Anywhere a list of arguments is given, a list of expectation objects can be inserted instead.

Suppose we want a mock authorisation server to simulate a successful login, but only if it receives a valid session object. We can do this as follows... Mock::generate('Authorisation'); <strong> $authorisation = new MockAuthorisation(); $authorisation->setReturnValue( 'isAllowed', true, array(new IsAExpectation('Session', 'Must be a session'))); $authorisation->setReturnValue('isAllowed', false);</strong> We have set the default mock behaviour to return false when `isAllowed` is called. When we call the method with a single parameter that is a `Session` object, it will return true. We have also added a second parameter as a message. This will be displayed as part of the mock object failure message if this expectation is the cause of a failure.

This kind of sophistication is rarely useful, but is included for completeness.

# extending Creating your own expectations

The expectation classes have a very simple structure. So simple that it is easy to create your own versions for commonly used test logic.

As an example here is the creation of a class to test for valid IP addresses. In order to work correctly with the stubs and mocks the new expectation class should extend `SimpleExpectation`... <strong>class ValidIp extends SimpleExpectation { function test($ip) { return (ip2long($ip) != -1); } function testMessage($ip) { return "Address [$ip] should be a valid IP address"; } }</strong> There are only two methods to implement. The `test()` method should evaluate to true if the expectation is to pass, and false otherwise. The `testMessage()` method should simply return some helpful text explaining the test that was carried out.

This class can now be used in place of the earlier expectation classes.

# unit Under the bonnet of the unit tester

The SimpleTest unit testing framework also uses the expectation classes internally for the UnitTestCase class. We can also take advantage of these mechanisms to reuse our homebrew expectation classes within the test suites directly.

The most crude way of doing this is to use the `SimpleTest::assert()` method to test against it directly... <strong>class TestOfNetworking extends UnitTestCase { ... function testGetValidIp() { $server = &new Server(); $this->assert( new ValidIp(), $server->getIp(), 'Server IP address->%s'); } }</strong> This is a little untidy compared with our usual `assert...()` syntax.

For such a simple case we would normally create a separate assertion method on our test case rather than bother using the expectation class. If we pretend that our expectation is a little more complicated for a moment, so that we want to reuse it, we get... class TestOfNetworking extends UnitTestCase { ...<strong> function assertValidIp($ip, $message = '%s') { $this->assert(new ValidIp(), $ip, $message); }</strong> function testGetValidIp() { $server = &new Server();<strong> $this->assertValidIp( $server->getIp(), 'Server IP address->%s');</strong> } } It is unlikely we would ever need this degree of control over the testing machinery. It is rare to need the expectations for more than pattern matching. Also, complex expectation classes could make the tests harder to read and debug. These mechanisms are really of most use to authors of systems that will extend the test framework to create their own tool set.

Using expectations for more precise testing with mock objects Changing mock object behaviour with expectations Extending the expectations Underneath SimpleTest uses expectation classes
SimpleTest project page on SourceForge. SimpleTest download page on LastCraft. The expectations mimic the constraints in JMock. Full API for SimpleTest from the PHPDoc.
mock objects, test driven development, inheritance of expectations, mock object constraints, advanced PHP unit testing, test first, test framework architecture expectations in simpletest test cases server stubs