Comments on: Maintainable Unit Tests with PHPUnit http://carouth.com/2009/11/05/maintainable-unit-tests-with-phpunit/ Ramblings of a Web Application Developer Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:58:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: jcarouth http://carouth.com/2009/11/05/maintainable-unit-tests-with-phpunit/comment-page-1/#comment-77 jcarouth Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:38:21 +0000 http://carouth.com/?p=126#comment-77 Fair point on the constructor signature. It probably is a bad example. I'll try to come up with a new one. Regarding using setUp() to instantiate an instance of the UUT, I think the problem I was trying to solve was avoiding constructing an instance in setUp() and then for the handful of test cases that need a different configuration re-instantiating the class. How do you handle such cases? Fair point on the constructor signature. It probably is a bad example. I’ll try to come up with a new one.

Regarding using setUp() to instantiate an instance of the UUT, I think the problem I was trying to solve was avoiding constructing an instance in setUp() and then for the handful of test cases that need a different configuration re-instantiating the class. How do you handle such cases?

]]> By: Matthew Weier O'Phinney http://carouth.com/2009/11/05/maintainable-unit-tests-with-phpunit/comment-page-1/#comment-76 Matthew Weier O'Phinney Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:58:14 +0000 http://carouth.com/?p=126#comment-76 I see two issues with your examples. First, if you're changing a constructor signature, that's introducing a regression, plain and simple. You're breaking a behavior and an expectation. Second, why are you instantiating the object in each test case method? PHPUnit provides a facility for this very thing via it's setUp() method. Most test cases I write will assign an instance of the UUT in setUp(), and then the test case methods will reference this when doing their work; you can also do this with dependencies. This provides a single location to touch per UUT when making changes. I see two issues with your examples. First, if you’re changing a constructor signature, that’s introducing a regression, plain and simple. You’re breaking a behavior and an expectation.

Second, why are you instantiating the object in each test case method? PHPUnit provides a facility for this very thing via it’s setUp() method. Most test cases I write will assign an instance of the UUT in setUp(), and then the test case methods will reference this when doing their work; you can also do this with dependencies. This provides a single location to touch per UUT when making changes.

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