Phpunit testing with database

Question

I am trying to focus a bit on unit testing using PHPunit.

I have found a very good tutorial over here http://blog.nickbelhomme.com/php/phpunit-training-course-for-fre

Answer 1

Run tests with other copy of the database that is empty and/or cleared in setUp() or tearDown() methods, but be careful not to do what github did.

If you're using a good database (i.e. not MySQL with MyISAM tables) you can wrap test in a transaction and roll it back after the test:

 function setUp() { $this->db->exec("BEGIN"); }
 function tearDown() { $this->db->exec("ROLLBACK"); }

The downside is that you can't test code that uses transactions (unless you abstract that and emulate with savepoints, but that's iffy).

Ideally you should use dependency injection and run tests on fake database class:

$fakedb = new DatabaseThatDoesntReallySaveThings();
$user = new Model_User($fakedb, $userData);
$user->save();
$this->assertTrue($fakedb->wasAskedToSaveUser());