Form testing documentation
Submitting a simple form
When a page is fetched by the WebTestCase
using get() or
post() the page content is
automatically parsed.
This results in any form controls that are inside <form> tags
being available from within the test case.
For example, if we have this snippet of HTML...
]]>
Which looks like this...
We can navigate to this code, via the LastCraft site, with the following test...
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
function testDefaultValue() {
$this->get('http://www.lastcraft.com/form_testing_documentation.php');
$this->assertField('a', 'A default');
}
}
Immediately after loading the page all of the HTML controls are set at
their default values just as they would appear in the web browser.
The assertion tests that a HTML widget exists in the page with the
name "a" and that it is currently set to the value
"A default".
As usual, we could use a pattern expectation instead if a fixed
string.
We could submit the form straight away, but first we'll change the value of the text field and only then submit it...
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
function testDefaultValue() {
$this->get('http://www.my-site.com/');
$this->assertField('a', 'A default');
$this->setField('a', 'New value');
$this->click('Go');
}
}
Because we didn't specify a method attribute on the form tag, and
didn't specify an action either, the test case will follow
the usual browser behaviour of submitting the form data as a GET
request back to the same location.
SimpleTest tries to emulate typical browser behaviour as much as possible,
rather than attempting to catch missing attributes on tags.
This is because the target of the testing framework is the PHP application
logic, not syntax or other errors in the HTML code.
For HTML errors, other tools such as
HTMLTidy should be used.
If a field is not present in any form, or if an option is unavailable,
then WebTestCase::setField() will return
false.
For example, suppose we wish to verify that a "Superuser"
option is not present in this form...
Select type of user to add: ]]>Which looks like...
The following test will confirm it...
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
...
function testNoSuperuserChoiceAvailable() {
$this->get('http://www.lastcraft.com/form_testing_documentation.php');
$this->assertFalse($this->setField('type', 'Superuser'));
}
}
The selection will not be changed on a failure to set
a widget value.
Here is the full list of widgets currently supported...
- Text fields, including hidden and password fields.
- Submit buttons including the button tag, although not yet reset buttons
- Text area. This includes text wrapping behaviour.
- Checkboxes, including multiple checkboxes in the same form.
- Drop down selections, including multiple selects.
- Radio buttons.
- Images.
The browser emulation offered by SimpleTest mimics the actions which can be perform by a user on a standard HTML page. Javascript is not supported, and it's unlikely that support will be added any time soon.
Of particular note is that the Javascript idiom of passing form results by setting a hidden field cannot be performed using the normal SimpleTest commands. See below for a way to test such forms.
Fields with multiple values
SimpleTest can cope with two types of multivalue controls: Multiple selection drop downs, and multiple checkboxes with the same name within a form. The multivalue nature of these means that setting and testing are slightly different. Using checkboxes as an example...
Create privileges allowed:
Retrieve privileges allowed:
Update privileges allowed:
Destroy privileges allowed:
]]>
Which renders as...
If we wish to disable all but the retrieval privileges and submit this information we can do it like this...
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
...
function testDisableNastyPrivileges() {
$this->get('http://www.lastcraft.com/form_testing_documentation.php');
$this->assertField('crud', array('c', 'r', 'u', 'd'));
$this->setField('crud', array('r'));
$this->click('Enable Privileges');
}
}
Instead of setting the field to a single value, we give it a list
of values.
We do the same when testing expected values.
We can then write other test code to confirm the effect of this, perhaps
by logging in as that user and attempting an update.
Forms which use javascript to set a hidden field
If you want to test a form which relies on javascript to set a hidden field, you can't just call setField(). The following code will not work:
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
function testMyJavascriptForm() {
// This does *not* work
$this->setField('a_hidden_field', '123');
$this->clickSubmit('OK');
}
}
Instead, you need to pass the additional form parameters to the
clickSubmit() method:
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
function testMyJavascriptForm() {
// Pass the hidden field value as an additional POST variable
$this->clickSubmit('OK', array('a_hidden_field'=>'123'));
}
}
Bear in mind that in doing this you're effectively stubbing out a part of your software (the javascript code in the form), and perhaps you might be better off using something like Selenium to ensure a complete acceptance test.
Raw posting
If you want to test a form handler, but have not yet written or do not have access to the form itself, you can create a form submission by hand.
class SimpleFormTests extends WebTestCase {
...
function testAttemptedHack() {
$this->post(
'http://www.my-site.com/add_user.php',
array('type' => 'superuser'));
$this->assertNoText('user created');
}
}
By adding data to the WebTestCase::post()
method, we are attempting to fetch the page as a form submission.
