I have recently read a blog post claiming that functional tests are not "true" tests. The author also claims that unit testing shows you where the problem is occurring, while functional testing simply identifies that a problem exists. This argument is deceptive and the conclusion dangerous. Different kinds of tests are not mutually exclusive. One is not superior to the other. They have different goals and can happily coexist. Let me explain the kinds of tests so that you could make enlightened decisions.

She covers each type of test in detail, noting the goal of that particular type and some examples of the kinds of things they might test. She starts with the highest level, functional testing, then jumps down to the lowest - unit testing. She finishes up the post defining "integration tests" as tests that ensure you're integrating correctly - that you're using the API provided by the tool in the right way and that it's working as expected.

I think that we are witnessing the first wave of new testing tools in the PHP community that allow developers to wrap their applications in automated tests. I am familiar with the BDD-style that is being promoted in PHPSpec, through my work with Behat to create automated user acceptance tests. I think if you want a tl;dr version of PHPSpec I would tell you "write hybrid unit/integration tests using plain language".

He notes that writing code to match a specification has similar concepts to using unit testing for TDD (with something like PHPUnit). He points out a few interesting things like the use of mock objects and the fact that you'll still need to write some code to make tests work - that's unavoidable right now.

Codeception testing framework got significant improvements during last week. The first and the major one is that you don't even need PEAR and Composer to execute tests. Only one file codecept.phar required. This might save your time and mind of your testers.

They've recently added modules for SOAP and REST support, making it easier to define your tests in a more fluid fashion. Included in the post are two examples, one REST and one SOAP. You can find more information about these new testing features over in the tool's documentation.

What does the word UNIT in unit testing stand for? Think of an answer and read on! So? Did you say "A method! Because we test methods!"? If so let me offer another perspective.

He suggests that, rather than about just the methods in the class, it's more about testing the "observable behaviors" of the class. That is, anything that you could publicly use the class for and have something happen. He gives examples of this shift in focus - calling setValue and evaluating the result versus just calling the class property itself (then calling the method). He also includes a bit about testing behaviors - what happens when my script does [this] and how does that effect the overall class.

When your tests fail but the class "still works" and you need to "fix the tests" the your tests are worth a lot less as they don't really give you that cozy safety net that they should provide you with.

Performing even relatively simple conversion calculations such as from pounds to kilograms from memory can be fairly difficult, let alone calculating more esoteric conversions such as from square meters to acres. To automate this conversion process, I used the Zend Framework to create a calculator capable of easily migrating data among the most commonly used formats.

Zend_Measure lets you define the type you want to convert from and convert to based on some constants included with the component. A simple call to the "convertTo" method and you'll get your answer. Based on this he creates a simple calculator and shows you can can integrate roman numeral support in as well.

You're probably curious to see if what we wrote in this book is really helpful and practical. So we decided to offer you a sample of the book, in PDF format, and that's precisely Chapter 15 about units and functional tests.

To check out this sample chapter from thei upcoming book (the chapter on unit testing), download it here or just grab shared how he's done it and an example of how to run the report.

I've been playing with PHPUnit a lot of late, particularly with framework development. One thing that's always hard to determine is how well your code is exercised -- basically, how much of the code is tested in the unit tests?

He gives an "executive summary" of how to get XDebug working and playing nice with PHPUnit as well as something a bit more detailed, following his experience with getting things up and running.

It would be great if the frontend for the browser-based test runner would make use of AJAX. Since I am clueless when it comes to both web design in general and AJAX in particular, I would appreciate if someone else could help me with implementing this test runner.

He's looking for the XHTML, CSS, and Javascript to put it all together as well as the Javascript that makes the magic happen. If you're interested in helping out, you can either contact him on the mailing list or in #phpunit on the Freenode IRC network.

Sebastian Bergmann and his contributors are proud to announce the immediate availability of PHPUnit 3. This release is a major improvement to the popular open source testing solution for PHP applications. It includes new features and bug fixes. Further details about this release can be found in the ChangeLog.

In his newest blog post, Sebastian lists some of the main new features this release offers - mock objects, selenium integration, and code-coverage support. There's even a brief installation howto and some on how to upgrade from the previous PHPUnit 2.3 to the latest.

The truth is, the poorest programmer of all is the ones that doesn't release. Because what good am I doing to the world when tinkering for for month on things people are in bad need for today, just to make myself look like all code I ever write is perfect the first time. None at all.

He links to the download and provides some basic install/usage instructions including a code sample (and a screenshot) to get you started.