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Fixtures for Lithium

The li3_fixtures plugin helps you to simplify your tests by removing the need for large static content arrays in the setUp() method. For the moment, json and php adapters are supported. It's easy to write adapters (xml, yaml) so send us a pull request!

Installation

The installation process is simple, just place the source code in the libraries-directory and create a fixtures directory:

$ cd /path/to/app/libraries
$ git clone git@github.com:daschl/li3_fixtures.git
$ mkdir /path/to/app/tests/fixtures

Now, in your app/config/bootstrap/libraries.php add this to the bottom (you may optionally place an environment check around this, to avoid loading the fixtures plugin in a production environment):

Libraries::add('li3_fixtures');

Don't forget to include the Fixtures with use li3_fixtures\test\Fixture; at the top of your test files.

Examples

Loading Collections

// loads app/tests/fixtures/models/posts.json
$fixtures = Fixture::load('models/Posts');

// store the first post fixture in the database
$post = Posts::create();
$post->save($fixtures->first());

By default, Fixture::load() gets array data from the source file and returns a Collection object (or a derivate of it), which provides you convenience methods like first(), next(), current(), prev(), last() and so on. For more information, see the documentation for the lithium\util\Collection class.

Saving Fixtures

use lithium\util\Inflector;

// let's assume $request exists and is a Request object
// the url is "/posts"
$file = 'requests/' . Inflector::slug(trim($request->url, '/'));
Fixtures::save($request, $file, array('type' => 'php'));

Using the php source, you can take a real Request object, save it to a fixture and then use it later in your tests. This reduces the potential for human error when creating mock classes in tests.

Loading Custom Objects

// loads app/tests/fixtures/requests/posts.php
$request = Fixture::load('requests/posts', array('type' => 'php'));

The save example above writes an exported version of the Request object to the fixture file. The load example here loads the Request object.

JSON Fixtures

The PHP-Json parser is very strict, so you will encounter an exception when your fixtures are not correct. Here is a valid example file, that you can modify and extend. Also, check out the JSON specification at http://www.json.org/.

{
    "pearl": {
        "name": "The Black Pearl",
        "captain": "Jack Sparrow",
        "type": "East Indiaman",
        "appearances": [
            "The Course of the Black Pearl",
            "Dead Man's Chest At World's End"
       ]
    }
}

PHP Fixtures

The php file should contain one var named $data that is the associative array with the fixture data. This file is simply included, so it could be possible to do some manipulation in php of the data (however, keep in mind this is a "fixture" which means the data shouldn't change). The main reason for using plain php (encoded by the Fixture::save() method via var_export()) is to give maximum flexibility to the programmer to even be able to run php code inside the fixture.

<?php

$data = array(
    "pearl" => array(
        "name" => "The Black Pearl",
        "captain" => "Jack Sparrow",
        "type" => "East Indiaman",
        "appearances" => array(
            "The Course of the Black Pearl",
            "Dead Man's Chest At World's End"
        )
        "name" => "The Black Pearl"
    )
);

?>

Custom Adapters

You can easily write your own fixture adapter. It needs to have two static methods:

• parse(): should take the contents of the fixture file and convert it to an associative array.
• encode(): converts data into the format of the fixture.

You also need to define a static var $extension which contains which file extension to use when finding fixture files.

Custom adapters should be placed in extensions/adapter/test/fixture inside your app directory.

<?php

namespace app\extensions\adapters\test\fixture;

class Yaml {

	public static $extension = "yml";

	public static function parse($file) {
		return yaml_parse($file);
	}

	public static function encode($data) {
		return yaml_emit($data);
	}

}

?>