Unit Testing with PHPUnit

Now that you are familiar with object-oriented programming, it’s a good idea to get a taste of unit testing. This is a method of code testing that verifies whether individual units of source code are working correctly.

Unit testing provides the following benefits:

  • It allows for automation of the testing process.

  • It reduces the difficulty of discovering errors within more complex code.

  • Testing is often enhanced because attention is given to each unit.

Install PHPUnit with the PEAR installer. To do this, go to a Command or Terminal prompt, ensure that you have Administrator or Superuser privileges, and issue the two lines of code in Table E-3, according to your operating system. (On Windows systems, ignore and close any pop-up “Invalid configuration directive” alerts that may appear.)

Table E-3. Commands for Installing PHPUnit on different systems

System

Instructions to type from an Administrator Command prompt or a Terminal window

XP/Vista

(4 instructions)

cd \Program Files\EasyPHP 3.0\php

pear channel-discover pear.phpunit.de

pear install phpunit/PHPUnit

Xcopy /E pear\*.* includes

Mac OS X

(3 instructions)

cd /Applications/MAMP/bin

pear channel-discover pear.phpunit.de

pear install phpunit/PHPUnit

Linux/Unix

(2 instructions)

pear channel-discover pear.phpunit.de

pear install phpunit/PHPUnit

The two main commands register the PEAR channel on your system, download PHPUnit, and install it. On Windows, you need the additional XCOPY command to resolve a file and path bug ...

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