PHPSpec & Behat: Two Testing Tools That Write Code For You (#phptek edition)

PHPSpec & Behat: Two Testing
Tools That Write Code For You
Presented by Joshua Warren

I heard you like to code, so
let’s write code that writes
code while you code.

PHP Developer
Working with PHP since 1999

Founder & CEO
Founded Creatuity in 2008
PHP Development Firm
Focused on the Magento
platform Tink, a Creatuity shareholder

JoshuaWarren.com
@JoshuaSWarren

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What You Need To Know
ASSUMPTIONS

Today we assume you’re a PHP developer.

That you are familiar with test driven development.

And that you’ve at least tried PHPUnit, Selenium or
another testing tool.

BDD - no, the B does not stand for beer, despite what a Brit might tell you
Behavior Driven
Development

Think of BDD as stepping up a level from TDD.

TDD generally deals with functional units.

BDD steps up a level to consider complete features.

In BDD, you write feature ﬁles in the form of user
stories that you test against.

BDD uses a ubiquitous language - basically, a
language that business stakeholders, project
managers, developers and our automated tools can
all understand.

Sample Behat Feature File
Feature: Up and Running 
In order to confirm Behat is Working 
As a developer 
I need to see a homepage 
 
 
Scenario: Homepage Exists 
When I go to "/bdd/" 
Then I should see "Welcome to the world of BDD"

BDD gets all stakeholders to agree on what “done”
looks like before you write a single line of code

We implement BDD in PHP with a tool called
Behat

Behat is a free, open source tool designed for
BDD and PHP

SpecBDD - aka, Testing Tongue Twisters
Speciﬁcation Behavior Driven
Development

Before you write a line of code, you write a
speciﬁcation for how that code should work

Focuses you on architectural decisions up-front

Open Source tool for speciﬁcation driven development
in PHP

These tools allow you to focus exclusively on
logic

Helps build functional testing coverage quickly

Guides planning and ensuring that all stakeholders are
in agreement

PHPSpec is opinionated - in every sense of the word

PHPSpec forces you to think diﬀerently and creates a
mindset that encourages usage

PHPSpec tests are much more readable

Read any of Marcello Duarte’s slides on testing

Tests that take days to run won’t be used

Behat supports parallel execution

Behat and PHPSpec will be at least as fast as the
existing testing tools, and can be much faster

Enough Theory:

Let’s Build Something!

We’ll be building a basic time-oﬀ request app.

Visitors can specify their name and a reason
for their time oﬀ request.

Time oﬀ requests can be viewed, approved
and denied.

Intentionally keeping things simple, but you
can follow this pattern to add authentication,
roles, etc.

Want to follow along or view the sample
code?

Vagrant box:
https://github.com/joshuaswarren/bdd-box
Project code:
https://github.com/joshuaswarren/bdd

Setup a folder for your project

Use composer to install Behat, phpspec & friends

composer require behat/behat —dev

composer require behat/mink-goutte-driver —dev

composer require phpspec/phpspec —dev

We now have Behat and Phpspec installed

We also have Mink - an open source browser
emulator/controller

Mink Drivers
Goutte - headless, fast, no JS
Selenium2 - requires Selenium server, slower,
supports JS
Zombie - headless, fast, does support JS

We are using Goutte today because we don’t need
Javascript support

We’ll perform some basic conﬁguration to let Behat
know to use Goutte

And we need to let phpspec know where our code
should go

Create /behat.yml
default: 
extensions: 
BehatMinkExtension: 
base_url: http://192.168.33.10/ 
default_session: goutte 
goutte: ~

features/bootstrap/FeatureContext.php
use BehatBehatContextContext; 
use BehatBehatContextSnippetAcceptingContext; 
use BehatGherkinNodePyStringNode; 
use BehatGherkinNodeTableNode; 
use BehatMinkExtensionContextMinkContext; 
 
/** 
* Defines application features from the specific context. 
*/ 
class FeatureContext extends BehatMinkExtensionContextMinkContext 
{ 
 
}

Create /phpspec.yml
suites: 
app_suites: 
namespace: App 
psr4_prefix: App 
src_path: app

features/UpAndRunning.feature
Feature: Up and Running 
In order to confirm Behat is Working 
As a developer 
I need to see a homepage 
 
 
Scenario: Homepage Exists 
When I go to "/bdd/" 
Then I should see "Welcome to the world of BDD"

features/SubmitTimeOﬀRequest.feature
Feature: Submit Time Off Request 
In order to request time off 
As a developer 
I need to be able to fill out a time off request form 
 
Scenario: Time Off Request Form Exists 
When I go to "/bdd/timeoff/new" 
Then I should see "New Time Off Request" 
 
Scenario: Time Off Request Form Works 
When I go to "/bdd/timeoff/new" 
And I fill in "name" with "Josh" 
And I fill in "reason" with "Attending a great conference" 
And I press "submit" 
Then I should see "Time Off Request Submitted"

features/ProcessTimeOﬀRequest.feature
Feature: Process Time Off Request 
In order to manage my team 
As a manager 
I need to be able to approve and deny time off requests 
 
Scenario: Time Off Request Management View Exists 
When I go to "/bdd/timeoff/manage" 
Then I should see "Manage Time Off Requests" 
 
Scenario: Time Off Request List 
And I press "View" 
Then I should see "Pending Time Off Request Details" 
 
Scenario: Approve Time Off Request 
And I press "Approve" 
Then I should see "Time Off Request Approved" 
 
Scenario: Deny Time Off Request 
And I press "Deny" 
Then I should see "Time Off Request Denied"

Feature: Process Time Off Request 
In order to manage my team 
As a manager 
I need to be able to approve and deny time off requests

Scenario: Time Off Request Management View Exists 
Then I should see "Manage Time Off Requests" 
 
Scenario: Time Off Request List 
Then I should see "Pending Time Off Request Details"

Scenario: Approve Time Off Request 
And I press "Approve" 
Then I should see "Time Off Request Approved" 
 
Scenario: Deny Time Off Request 
And I press "Deny" 
Then I should see "Time Off Request Denied"

Behat Output
--- Failed scenarios:
features/ProcessTimeOffRequest.feature:6
features/SubmitTimeOffRequest.feature:6
features/SubmitTimeOffRequest.feature:10
7 scenarios (1 passed, 6 failed)
22 steps (8 passed, 6 failed, 8 skipped)
0m0.61s (14.81Mb)

Behat Output
Scenario: Time Off Request Management View Exists
When I go to “/bdd/timeoff/manage"
Then I should see "Manage Time Off Requests"
The text "Manage Time Off Requests" was not found
anywhere in the text of the current page.

These failures show us that Behat is testing
our app properly, and now we just need to
write the application logic.

Now we write speciﬁcations for how our
application should work.

These speciﬁcations should provide the logic
to deliver the results that Behat is testing for.

bin/phpspec describe AppTimeoﬀ

PHPSpec generates a basic spec ﬁle for us

specTimeoﬀSpec.php
namespace specApp; 
 
use PhpSpecObjectBehavior; 
use ProphecyArgument; 
 
class TimeoffSpec extends ObjectBehavior 
{ 
function it_is_initializable() 
{ 
$this->shouldHaveType('AppTimeoff'); 
} 
}

This default spec tells PHPSpec to expect a
class named Timeoﬀ.

Now we add a bit more to the ﬁle so PHPSpec
will understand what this class should do.

function it_creates_timeoff_requests() { 
$this->create("Name", "reason")->shouldBeString(); 
} 
 
function it_loads_all_timeoff_requests() { 
$this->loadAll()->shouldBeArray(); 
}

function it_loads_a_timeoff_request() { 
$this->load("uuid")->shouldBeArray(); 
} 
 
function it_loads_pending_timeoff_requests() { 
$this->loadPending()->shouldBeArray(); 
}

function it_approves_timeoff_requests() { 
$this->approve("id")->shouldReturn(true); 
} 
 
function it_denies_timeoff_requests() { 
$this->deny("id")->shouldReturn(true); 
}

Now we run PHPSpec once more…

Phpspec output
10 ✔ is initializable
15 ! creates timeoff requests
method AppTimeoff::create not found.
19 ! loads all timeoff requests
method AppTimeoff::loadAll not found.
23 ! loads pending timeoff requests
method AppTimeoff::loadPending not found.
27 ! approves timeoff requests
method AppTimeoff::approve not found.
31 ! denies timeoff requests
method AppTimeoff::deny not found.

But wait a second - PHPSpec prompts us!

PHPSpec output
Do you want me to create `AppTimeoff::create()` for you?
[Y/n]

PHPSpec will create the class and the methods for
us!

This is very powerful with frameworks like Laravel and
Magento, which have PHPSpec plugins that help
PHPSpec know where class ﬁles should be located.

Implement logic in the new Timeoﬀ class in
the locations directed by PHPSpec

Implement each function one at a time, running
phpspec after each one.

public function create($name, $reason) 
{ 
$uuid1 = Uuid::uuid1(); 
$uuid = $uuid1->toString(); 
DB::table('requests')->insert([ 
'name' => $name, 
'reason' => $reason, 
'uuid' => $uuid, 
]); 
return $uuid; 
}

public function load($uuid) { 
$results = DB::select('select * from requests WHERE
uuid = ?', [$uuid]); 
return $results; 
}

public function loadAll() 
{ 
$results = DB::select('select * from requests'); 
return $results; 
}

public function loadPending() 
{ 
$results = DB::select('select * from requests WHERE
reviewed = ?', [0]); 
return $results; 
}

public function approve($uuid) 
{ 
DB::update('update requests set reviewed = 1,
approved = 1 where uuid = ?', [$uuid]); 
return true; 
}

public function deny($uuid) 
{ 
DB::update('update requests set reviewed = 1,
approved = 0 where uuid = ?', [$uuid]); 
return true; 
}

phpspec should be returning all green

Move on to implementing the front-end
behavior

Using Lumen means our view/display logic is
very simple

appHttproute.php
$app->get('/bdd/', function() use ($app) { 
return "Welcome to the world of BDD"; 
});

appHttproute.php
$app->get('/bdd/timeoff/new/', function() use ($app) { 
if(Request::has('name')) { 
$to = new AppTimeoff(); 
$name = Request::input('name'); 
$reason = Request::input('reason'); 
$to->create($name, $reason); 
return "Time off request submitted"; 
} else { 
return view('request.new'); 
} 
});

appHttproute.php
$app->get('/bdd/timeoff/manage/', function() use ($app) { 
if(Request::has('uuid')) { 
$uuid = Request::input('uuid'); 
if(Request::has('process')) { 
$process = Request::input('process'); 
if($process == 'approve') { 
$to->approve($uuid); 
return "Time Off Request Approved"; 
} else { 
if($process == 'deny') { 
$to->deny($uuid); 
return "Time Off Request Denied"; 
} 
} 
} else { 
$request = $to->load($uuid); 
return view('request.manageSpecific', ['request' => $request]); 
} 
} else { 
$requests = $to->loadAll(); 
return view('request.manage', ['requests' => $requests]); 
}

appHttproute.php
$app->get('/bdd/timeoff/manage/', function() use ($app) { 
if(Request::has('uuid')) { 
$uuid = Request::input('uuid'); 
if(Request::has('process')) { 
$process = Request::input('process'); 
if($process == 'approve') { 
$to->approve($uuid); 
return "Time Off Request Approved"; 
} else { 
if($process == 'deny') { 
$to->deny($uuid); 
return "Time Off Request Denied"; 
} 
}
…

appHttproute.php
… 
} else { 
$request = $to->load($uuid); 
return view('request.manageSpecific',
['request' => $request]); 
}
…

appHttproute.php
… 
} else { 
$requests = $to->loadAll(); 
return view('request.manage', ['requests' =>
$requests]); 
}

Our views are located in resourcesviewsrequest and
are simple HTML forms

Once we’re done with the implementation, we
move on to…

Once we’re done, running phpspec run should
return green

Once phpspec returns green, run behat, which
should return green as well

We now know that our new feature is working
correctly without needing to open a web
browser

PHPSpec gives us conﬁdence that the
application logic was implemented correctly.

Behat gives us conﬁdence that the feature is
being displayed properly to users.

Running both as we refactor and add new
features will give us conﬁdence we haven’t
broken an existing feature

Our purpose today was to get you hooked on
Behat & PHPSpec and show you how easy it is
to get started.

Behat and PHPSpec are both powerful tools

PHPSpec can be used at a very granular level
to ensure your application logic works
correctly

I encourage you to learn more about Behat &
phpspec. Here’s a few areas to consider…

A few approaches to running Behat in parallel
to improve it’s performance. Start with:
shvetsgroup/ParallelRunner

“I should see”, “I go to” are just steps - you can
write your own steps.

Mock objects are simulated objects that
mimic the behavior of real objects

Helpful to mock very complex objects, or
objects that you don’t want to call while
testing - i.e., APIs

Prophecy is a highly opinionated PHP mocking
framework by the Phpspec team

Take a look at the sample code on Github - I
mocked a Human Resource Management
System API

Mocking with Prophecy
$this->prophet = new ProphecyProphet;
$prophecy = $this->prophet->prophesize('AppHrmsApi');
$prophecy->getUser(Argument::type('string'))-
>willReturn('name');
$prophecy->decrement('name', Argument::type('integer'))-
>willReturn(true);
$dummyApi = $prophecy->reveal();

Stick around - Michelle Sanver is up next at
3:30PM in this room to discuss Behat +
PhantomJS including automated screenshots
and screenshot comparision

Next week, setup Behat and PHPSpec on one
of your projects and take it for a quick test by
implementing one short feature.

Keep In Touch!
• joind.in/13744
• @JoshuaSWarren
• JoshuaWarren.com

PHPSpec & Behat: Two Testing Tools That Write Code For You (#phptek edition)

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