atk14/tester

PHPUnit wrapper that lets you run the same test suites across multiple PHPUnit and PHP versions without rewriting your tests

v0.6.3 2026-04-15 13:28 UTC

Requires

• php: >=5.6
• phpunit/phpunit: ~4.8|~5.7|~6.0|~7.5|~8.5|~9.6|~10.0|~11.0

MIT

• ATK14 Development Team

• unit test
• unit tests
• atk14
• run_unit_tests

README

Tester is a PHPUnit wrapper that abstracts PHPUnit's API changes across different PHP and PHPUnit versions. This means you can use the same test suites regardless of which PHPUnit version is installed. Tester makes it much easier to keep your tests working as you upgrade PHP or PHPUnit.

Statements:

• Testing should be easy as heck!
• Source code of test cases should be durable. No one wants to rewrite the tests for the new version of PHPUnit.

Supported versions:

• PHP 5.6, 7.x, 8.x
• PHPUnit ~4.8 | ~5.7 | ~6.0 | ~7.5 | ~8.5 | ~9.6 | ~10.0 | ~11.0

Installation

Installation only for a specific project:

composer require --dev atk14/tester

Global installation:

composer global require atk14/tester

In case of global installation, it is convenient to have the path $HOME/.config/composer/vendor/bin/ in the $PATH environment variable.

Checking that all required dependencies are met:

$ run_unit_tests --check-dependencies && echo "ok"
# or
$ run_unit_tests -c && echo "ok"

Basic usage

In the project directory, create a test directory:

$ mkdir test
$ cd test

Place a test case file tc_first_test_case.php in there:

<?php
// file: test/tc_first_test_case.php
class TcFirstTestCase extends TcBase {

  function test_sum(){
    $this->assertEquals(6, 3 + 3);
  }

  function test_multiplication(){
    $this->assertEquals(9, 3 * 3);
  }
}

The TcBase class doesn't need to be defined — Tester creates it automatically if the file tc_base.php is absent.

Run all tests in the directory:

$ run_unit_tests
--- tc_first_test_case.php


Time: 00:00.012, Memory: 4.00 MB

OK (2 tests, 2 assertions)

You can also run a specific test case or a subset of test cases:

$ run_unit_tests tc_first_test_case
$ run_unit_tests tc_first_test_case tc_strings

Or point run_unit_tests at a subdirectory:

$ run_unit_tests path/to/test/

Initialization

Usually it is necessary to load and initialize something before running tests. The file initialize.php, if it exists in the test directory, is loaded automatically before each test case.

<?php
// file: test/initialize.php
require_once(__DIR__ . "/../vendor/autoload.php");

TcBase and TcSuperBase

Tester provides the TcSuperBase class (and its alias tc_super_base), which extends PHPUnit's TestCase and adds compatibility shims described below.

Your test cases should extend TcBase. If you don't create a tc_base.php file, Tester creates a plain TcBase that simply extends TcSuperBase. When you need shared setup, teardown, or helper methods across all your test cases, define TcBase yourself:

<?php
// file: test/tc_base.php
class TcBase extends TcSuperBase {

  function _setUp(){
    // runs before each test method
  }

  function _tearDown(){
    // runs after each test method
  }
}

Note that Tester uses _setUp() and _tearDown() instead of PHPUnit's setUp() and tearDown(). This is intentional — it avoids conflicts with PHPUnit's internal lifecycle and works consistently across all supported PHPUnit versions.

Compatibility shims

Tester adds the following assertion methods to TcSuperBase when they are missing from the installed PHPUnit version:

• assertStringContains($needle, $haystack, $message = "") — asserts that $haystack contains $needle as a substring
• assertStringNotContains($needle, $haystack, $message = "") — asserts that $haystack does not contain $needle
• assertContains($needle, $haystack, $message = "") — alias for assertStringContains
• assertNotContains($needle, $haystack, $message = "") — alias for assertStringNotContains

This means you can use assertStringContains in your tests and they will work on both old and new PHPUnit versions.

Global variable $_TEST

Before each test case file is loaded, the global variable $_TEST is set. It contains the full path to the currently executed test case file, which can be useful in initialize.php:

<?php
// file: test/initialize.php

if(preg_match('/_theme_dark\.php$/', $_TEST["FILENAME"])){
  define("COLOR_BACKGROUND", "#000000");
  define("COLOR_TEXT",       "#999999");
} else {
  define("COLOR_BACKGROUND", "#FFFFFF");
  define("COLOR_TEXT",       "#333333");
}

Dangerous tests

Sometimes you don't want certain test files to run automatically — for example, tests that modify a production database or send real emails. Prefix such files with an exclamation mark:

!tc_dangerous_test_case.php

These files are ignored by a plain run_unit_tests call:

$ run_unit_tests
# !tc_dangerous_test_case.php is skipped

To run a dangerous test explicitly, name it on the command line:

$ run_unit_tests \!tc_dangerous_test_case.php
# or
$ run_unit_tests '!tc_dangerous_test_case.php'

Automation in CI

cd test && \
../vendor/bin/run_unit_tests && \
echo "TESTS ARE OK" && exit 0 || \
echo "THERE WERE ERRORS" && exit 1

For use in shell scripts or Makefile targets, run_unit_tests exits with code 0 on success and 1 on failure, making it straightforward to integrate into any CI pipeline.

License

Tester is free software distributed under the terms of the MIT license.