Writing a simple test
The primary means of testing PHP code is to use PHPUnit, which is based on a methodology called Unit Testing. The philosophy behind unit testing is quite simple: you break down your code into the smallest possible logical units. You then test each unit in isolation to confirm that it performs as expected. These expectations are codified into a series of assertions. If all assertions return TRUE, then the unit has passed the test.
Note
In the case of procedural PHP, a unit is a function. For OOP PHP, the unit is a method within a class.
How to do it...
- The first order of business is to either install PHPUnit directly onto your development server, or download the source code, which is available in the form of a single phar (PHP archive) file. A quick visit to the official website for PHPUnit (https://phpunit.de/) lets us download right from the main page.
- It is a best practice, however, to use a package manager to both install and maintain PHPUnit. For this purpose, we will...
