Acceptance test with Codeception, Laravel ORM, Faker in Window

Let's say we have a website located at http://localhost:8080/

1. Install composer

Download and install composer for window https://getcomposer.org/download/.

2. Install php

If you already have php installed, go to next step.
To check if you already have php installed, open cmd and type php -v. If you have php installed, php version will show up.
Download php zip file from http://windows.php.net/download.
Unzip and put it somewhere you want, then add that folder path to system PATH like this:



Now you can check php version by type php -v in cmd.

3. Install laravel

Open cmd and go to folder that you want to put your test code to.
Tips: open folder by Window Explorer then type "cmd" in address bar, cmd will open and point to current folder.
Create project and install laravel by type: 
composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel your-project-test
And cd to your-project-test folder in cmd.

4. Config database

If you using MySQL, make sure to enable pdo_mysql by uncomment extension=pdo_mysql line in php.ini file inside your php folder.

Open .env file and config your sql infomation, example: 
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=database_name
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=123456

5. Generate models from your existing database

Install reliese/laravel via composer: 
composer require reliese/laravel --dev
Publish config file and clear cache: 
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=reliese-models
php artisan config:clear
This will avoid "mkdir(): Invalid path" error
Open app/Providers/AppServiceProvider.php and register provider: 
public function register()
{
    if ($this->app->environment() == 'local') {
        $this->app->register(\Reliese\Coders\CodersServiceProvider::class);
    }
}
Run this command to generate models: 
php artisan code:models
Models will be generated in app/Models folder.
If you still got "mkdir(): Invalid path" error, try runing these command again and check if config/models.php file exists: 
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=reliese-models  # this command will create config/models.php file
php artisan config:clear

6. Install Codeception

Download codecept.phar file from http://codeception.com/quickstart and put into your-project-test folder.

Init Codeception: 
php codecept.phar bootstrap
All Codeception files generated in your-project-test/tests/ folder.
By default laravel already has a tests folder, if you do not use laravel default test file, delete tests folder before init codeception.

7. Config Codeception

Codeception use PHPBrowser by default, it very fast but does not have wait function to wait for javascript actions. So it better to use real browser.

To run codeception with real browser, for example with chrome we need to download selenium and chrome driver.

Download selenium from http://docs.seleniumhq.org/download/ (jar file) and put inside your-project-test.

Download chrome driver from https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/downloads (exe file) and put it to anywhere then set system PATH like to do with PHP.

Open test/acceptance.suite.yml file and add config: 
actor: AcceptanceTester
modules:
    enabled:
        - WebDriver:
            url: http://localhost:8080/    # your website url
            browser: chrome
        - \Helper\Acceptance
        - Laravel5:    # this will load all laravel feature like: helper function (ex. dd()), Eloquent, factories ...
            part: ORM
            cleanup: false # can't wrap into transaction
Need to rebuild codeception after change config file: 
php codecept.phar build

8. Define factories

For example with class app/Models/User.php:
Create factory file: 
php artisan make:factory UserFactory
UserFactory.php file will be created in database/factories/ folder.
Define factory: 
<?php

use Faker\Generator as Faker;

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Model Factories
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| This directory should contain each of the model factory definitions for
| your application. Factories provide a convenient way to generate new
| model instances for testing / seeding your application's database.
|
*/

$factory->define(App\User::class, function (Faker $faker) {
    return [
        'name' => $faker->name,
        'email' => $faker->unique()->safeEmail,
        'password' => '$2y$10$TKh8H1.PfQx37YgCzwiKb.KjNyWgaHb9cbcoQgdIVFlYg7B77UdFm', // secret
        'remember_token' => str_random(10),
    ];
});
Laravel auto created UserFactory by default.

9. Create acceptance test

php codecept.phar generate:cest acceptance Login
test/acceptance/LoginCest.php file will be created.

Write test: 
<?php

use App\User;

class LoginCest
{
    public function _before(AcceptanceTester $I)
    {
    }

    public function _after(AcceptanceTester $I)
    {
    }

    // tests
    public function tryToTest(AcceptanceTester $I)
    {
        // use Eloquent example
        $user = User::first();

        // use factories example
        $user = factory(User::class)->make(); // make user object
        $user = factory(User::class)->create(); // make user object and insert to database

        // acceptance test example
        $I->amOnPage('/login');
        $I->fillField('username', 'davert');
        $I->fillField('password', 'qwerty');
        $I->click('LOGIN');
        $I->see('Welcome, Davert!');
    }
}

10. Run

Open cmd (point to your-project-test folder).
Start selenium server: 
java -jar selenium-server-standalone-3.8.1.jar
Open other cmd and run: 
php codecept.phar run

11. References