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+<head>
+<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
+<title>
+ Overview and feature list for the SimpleTest PHP unit tester and web tester
+ </title>
+<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="docs.css" title="Styles">
+</head>
+<body>
+<div class="menu_back">
+<div class="menu">
+<h2>
+<a href="index.html">SimpleTest</a>
+</h2>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<span class="chosen">Overview</span>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="unit_test_documentation.html">Unit tester</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="group_test_documentation.html">Group tests</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="server_stubs_documentation.html">Server stubs</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="mock_objects_documentation.html">Mock objects</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="partial_mocks_documentation.html">Partial mocks</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="reporter_documentation.html">Reporting</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="expectation_documentation.html">Expectations</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="web_tester_documentation.html">Web tester</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="form_testing_documentation.html">Testing forms</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="authentication_documentation.html">Authentication</a>
+</li>
+<li>
+<a href="browser_documentation.html">Scriptable browser</a>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+<h1>Overview of SimpleTest</h1>
+<div class="content">
+ <p>
+<a class="target" name="summary">
+<h2>What is SimpleTest?</h2>
+</a>
+</p>
+ <p>
+ The heart of SimpleTest is a testing framework built around
+ test case classes.
+ These are written as extensions of base test case classes,
+ each extended with methods that actually contain test code.
+ Top level test scripts then invoke the <span class="new_code">run()</span>
+ methods on every one of these test cases in order.
+ Each test method is written to invoke various assertions that
+ the developer expects to be true such as
+ <span class="new_code">assertEqual()</span>.
+ If the expectation is correct, then a successful result is dispatched to the
+ observing test reporter, but any failure triggers an alert
+ and a description of the mismatch.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A <a href="unit_test_documentation.html">test case</a> looks like this...
+<pre>
+<?php
+class <strong>MyTestCase</strong> extends UnitTestCase {
+ <strong>
+ function testLog() {
+ $log = &new Log('my.log');
+ $log->message('Hello');
+ $this->assertTrue(file_exists('my.log'));
+ }</strong>
+}
+?>
+</pre>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ These tools are designed for the developer.
+ Tests are written in the PHP language itself more or less
+ as the application itself is built.
+ The advantage of using PHP itself as the testing language is that
+ there are no new languages to learn, testing can start straight away,
+ and the developer can test any part of the code.
+ Basically, all parts that can be accessed by the application code can also be
+ accessed by the test code if they are in the same language.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The simplest type of test case is the
+ <a href="unit_tester_documentation.html">UnitTestCase</a>.
+ This class of test case includes standard tests for equality,
+ references and pattern matching.
+ All these test the typical expectations of what you would
+ expect the result of a function or method to be.
+ This is by far the most common type of test in the daily
+ routine of development, making up about 95% of test cases.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The top level task of a web application though is not to
+ produce correct output from its methods and objects, but
+ to generate web pages.
+ The <a href="web_tester_documentation.html">WebTestCase</a> class tests web
+ pages.
+ It simulates a web browser requesting a page, complete with
+ cookies, proxies, secure connections, authentication, forms, frames and most
+ navigation elements.
+ With this type of test case, the developer can assert that
+ information is present in the page and that forms and
+ sessions are handled correctly.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A <a href="web_tester_documentation.html">WebTestCase</a> looks like this...
+<pre>
+<?php
+class <strong>MySiteTest</strong> extends WebTestCase {
+ <strong>
+ function testHomePage() {
+ $this->get('http://www.my-site.com/index.php');
+ $this->assertTitle('My Home Page');
+ $this->clickLink('Contact');
+ $this->assertTitle('Contact me');
+ $this->assertWantedPattern('/Email me at/');
+ }</strong>
+}
+?>
+</pre>
+ </p>
+
+ <p>
+<a class="target" name="features">
+<h2>Feature list</h2>
+</a>
+</p>
+ <p>
+ The following is a very rough outline of past and future features
+ and their expected point of release.
+ I am afraid it is liable to change without warning as meeting the
+ milestones rather depends on time available.
+ Green stuff has been coded, but not necessarily released yet.
+ If you have a pressing need for a green but unreleased feature
+ then you should check-out the code from sourceforge CVS directly.
+ A released feature is marked as "Done".
+ <table>
+<thead>
+ <tr>
+<th>Feature</th><th>Description</th><th>Release</th>
+</tr>
+ </thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+ <td>Unit test case</td>
+ <td>Core test case class and assertions</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Html display</td>
+ <td>Simplest possible display</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Autoloading of test cases</td>
+ <td>
+ Reading a file with test cases and loading them into a
+ group test automatically
+ </td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Mock objects code generator</td>
+ <td>
+ Objects capable of simulating other objects removing
+ test dependencies
+ </td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Server stubs</td>
+ <td>
+ Mocks without expectations to be used outside of test cases,
+ e.g. for prototyping
+ </td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Integration of other unit testers</td>
+ <td>
+ The ability to read and simulate test cases from PHPUnit
+ and PEAR::PhpUnit
+ </td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Web test case</td>
+ <td>Basic pattern matching of fetched pages</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>HTML parsing of pages</td>
+ <td>Allows link following and title tag matching</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Partial mocks</td>
+ <td>
+ Mocking parts of a class for testing less than a class
+ or for complex simulations
+ </td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Web cookie handling</td>
+ <td>Correct handling of cookies when fetching pages</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Following redirects</td>
+ <td>Page fetching automatically follows 300 redirects</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Form parsing</td>
+ <td>Ability to submit simple forms and read default form values</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Command line interface</td>
+ <td>Test display without the need of a web browser</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Exposure of expectation classes</td>
+ <td>Can create precise tests with mocks as well as test cases</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>XML output and parsing</td>
+ <td>
+ Allows multi host testing and the integration of acceptance
+ testing extensions
+ </td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Command line test case</td>
+ <td>Allows testing of utilities and file handling</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>PHP Documentor compatibility</td>
+ <td>Fully generated class level documentation</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Browser interface</td>
+ <td>
+ Exposure of lower level web browser interface for more
+ detailed test cases
+ </td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>HTTP authentication</td>
+ <td>
+ Fetching protected web pages with basic authentication
+ only
+ </td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Browser navigation buttons</td>
+ <td>Back, forward and retry</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>SSL support</td>
+ <td>Can connect to https: pages</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Proxy support</td>
+ <td>Can connect via. common proxies</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Frames support</td>
+ <td>Handling of frames in web test cases</td>
+ <td style="color: green;">Done</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Improved display</td>
+ <td>Better web GUI with tree display of test cases</td>
+ <td style="color: red;">1.1</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Localisation</td>
+ <td>Messages abstracted and code generated from XML</td>
+ <td style="color: red;">1.1</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>File upload testing</td>
+ <td>Can simulate the input type file tag</td>
+ <td style="color: red;">1.1</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Mocking interfaces</td>
+ <td>Can generate mock objects to interfaces as well as classes</td>
+ <td style="color: red;">2.0</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Testing exceptions</td>
+ <td>Similar to testing PHP errors</td>
+ <td style="color: red;">2.0</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>XPath searching of elements</td>
+ <td>Can make use of HTML tidy for faster and more flexible content matching</td>
+ <td style="color: red;">2.0</td>
+ </tr>
+ </tbody>
+</table>
+ PHP5 migraton will start straight after the version 1.1 series,
+ whereupon PHP4 will no longer be supported.
+ SimpleTest is currently compatible with PHP5, but will not
+ make use of all of the new features until version 2.
+ </p>
+
+ <p>
+<a class="target" name="resources">
+<h2>Web resources for testing</h2>
+</a>
+</p>
+ <p>
+ Process is at least as important as tools.
+ The type of process that makes the heaviest use of a developer's
+ testing tool is of course
+ <a href="http://www.extremeprogramming.org/">Extreme Programming</a>.
+ This is one of the
+ <a href="http://www.agilealliance.com/articles/index">Agile Methodologies</a>
+ which combine various practices to "flatten the cost curve" of software development.
+ More extreme still is <a href="http://www.testdriven.com/modules/news/">Test Driven Development</a>,
+ where you very strictly adhere to the rule of no coding until you have a test.
+ If you're more of a planner or believe that experience trumps evolution,
+ you may prefer the
+ <a href="http://www.therationaledge.com/content/dec_01/f_spiritOfTheRUP_pk.html">RUP</a> approach.
+ I haven't tried it, but even I can see that you will need test tools (see figure 9).
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Most unit testers clone <a href="http://www.junit.org/">JUnit</a> to some degree,
+ as far as the interface at least. There is a wealth of information on the
+ JUnit site including the
+ <a href="http://junit.sourceforge.net/doc/faq/faq.htm">FAQ</a>
+ which contains plenty of general advice on testing.
+ Once you get bitten by the bug you will certainly appreciate the phrase
+ <a href="http://junit.sourceforge.net/doc/testinfected/testing.htm">test infected</a>
+ coined by Eric Gamma.
+ If you are still reviewing which unit tester to use the main choices
+ are <a href="http://phpunit.sourceforge.net/">PHPUnit</a>
+ and <a href="http://pear.php.net/manual/en/package.php.phpunit.php">Pear PHP::PHPUnit</a>.
+ They currently lack a lot of features found in
+ <a href="http://www.lastcraft.com/simple_test.php">SimpleTest</a>, but the PEAR
+ version at least has been upgraded for PHP5 and is recommended if you are porting
+ existing <a href="http://www.junit.org/">JUnit</a> test cases.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Library writers don't seem to ship tests with their code very often
+ which is a shame.
+ Library code that includes tests can be more safely refactored and
+ the test code can act as additional documentation in a fairly standard
+ form.
+ This can save trawling the source code for clues when problems occour,
+ especially when upgrading such a library.
+ Libraries using SimpleTest for their unit testing include
+ <a href="http://wact.sourceforge.net/">WACT</a> and
+ <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/htmlsax">PEAR::XML_HTMLSax</a>.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There is currently a sad lack of material on mock objects, which is a shame
+ as unit testing without them is a lot more work.
+ The <a href="http://www.sidewize.com/company/mockobjects.pdf">original mock objects paper</a>
+ is very Java focused, but still worth a read.
+ As a new technology there are plenty of discussions and debate on how to use mocks,
+ often on Wikis such as
+ <a href="http://xpdeveloper.com/cgi-bin/oldwiki.cgi?MockObjects">Extreme Tuesday</a>
+ or <a href="http://www.mockobjects.com/wiki/MocksObjectsPaper">www.mockobjects.com</a>
+ or <a href="http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?MockObject">the original C2 Wiki</a>.
+ Injecting mocks into a class is the main area of debate for which this
+ <a href="http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-mocktest.html">paper on IBM</a>
+ makes a good starting point.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There are plenty of web testing tools, but most are written in Java and
+ tutorials and advice are rather thin on the ground.
+ The only hope is to look at the documentation for
+ <a href="http://httpunit.sourceforge.net/">HTTPUnit</a>,
+ <a href="http://htmlunit.sourceforge.net/">HTMLUnit</a>
+ or <a href="http://jwebunit.sourceforge.net/">JWebUnit</a> and hope for clues.
+ There are some XML driven test frameworks, but again most
+ require Java to run.
+ As SimpleTest does not support JavaScript you would probably
+ have to look at these tools anyway if you have highly dynamic
+ pages.
+ </p>
+
+ </div>
+<div class="copyright">
+ Copyright<br>Marcus Baker, Jason Sweat, Perrick Penet 2004
+ </div>
+</body>
+</html>
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