PHPUnit is the official testing framework chosen by the core team to test our PHP code.
Step 1: Check out the test repository.
The WordPress tests live in the core development repository, available via SVN at:
svn co https://develop.svn.wordpress.org/trunk/ wordpress-develop
cd wordpress-develop
Or Git:
git clone git://develop.git.wordpress.org/ wordpress-develop
cd wordpress-develop
Step 2: Set up a config file.
Copy wp-tests-config-sample.php
to wp-tests-config.php
, and enter your database credentials. Use a separate database.
There are several different ways of running the PHPUnit tests. It’s up to you to choose whichever workflow suits you best.
Some workflows require more set-up than others, when in doubt, we recommend you start with the Docker workflow as that will do most setup for you.
- Docker container
- Composer
- PHPUnit PHAR file with Composer available
- PHPUnit PHAR file without Composer
Pre-requisite for non-Docker workflows:
For non-Docker workflows, you need to make sure that PHP and MySQL/MariaDB are available.
For more information on setting up PHP and a database locally, please see the Installing a local server handbook pages.
Please note that both PHPUnit, as well as the WordPress test suite have requirements for certain PHP extensions to be enabled in your install to be able to run the full test suite.
Typical extensions which should be enabled are: gd
, mysql[i]
, zip
, exif
, intl
, mbstring
, xml
, xsl
.
Optionally, the PHP external extensions Xdebug, MemCache and Imagick should also be installed and enabled.
Step 1: Install and then start Docker
Step 2: Install NPM
Step 3: Make sure you are in the root directory of where you installed WordPress
Step 4: Run from the command-line:
npm install
npm run build:dev
npm run env:start
npm run env:install
Running the tests
Once the docker container is set up and provisioned, you can run the tests from the command-line: npm run test:php
.
If you want to pass additional command-line arguments to PHPUnit, you will need to add an extra double-dash separator between the NPM command and the extra PHPUnit arguments to get NPM to pass them onto PHPUnit.
Step 1: Install Composer
Step 2: Make sure you are in the root directory of where you installed WordPress
Step 3: Run from the command-line: composer update -W
Running the tests
Once the Composer dependencies are installed, you can run the tests from the command-line: vendor/bin/phpunit
.
Step 1: Install PHPUnit Phar
Install the PHAR which is appropriate for your PHP version. Installation instructions can be found in the PHPUnit manual or on the PHPUnit website.
Step 2: Install Composer
Step 3: Make sure you are in the root directory of where you installed WordPress
Step 4: Install Composer dependencies
Run from the command-line: composer update -W
Running the tests
Once the PHPUnit PHAR and the Composer dependencies are installed, you can run the tests from the command-line: [path/to/]phpunit
.
This method is most suitable if you want to install PHPUnit and the PHPUnit Polyfills globally and run tests in multiple directories.
Step 1: Install PHPUnit PHAR
Install the PHAR which is appropriate for your PHP version. Installation instructions can be found in the PHPUnit manual or on the PHPUnit website.
Step 2: Install PHPUnit Polyfills
Typically, you would clone the GitHub repository:
git clone git@github.com:Yoast/PHPUnit-Polyfills.git [target/path]
Step 3: Define path to Polyfills
Once the Polyfills are installed, tell the WordPress test bootstrap where to find them by passing the path via a WP_TESTS_PHPUNIT_POLYFILLS_PATH
constant.
This constant can be declared in the phpunit.xml[.dist]
file like this:
<php>
<const name="WP_TESTS_PHPUNIT_POLYFILLS_PATH" value="path/to/yoast/phpunit-polyfills"/>
</php>
or can be declared as a PHP constant in the wp-tests-config.php
file.
Running the tests
Once the PHPUnit PHAR and Polyfills are installed, you can run the tests from the root directory of your WordPress install via the command-line: [path/to/]phpunit
.
If you use this workflow, please ensure you keep your local clone of the PHPUnit Polyfills up to date.
Once you have chosen your preferred workflow and set up your machine according to the above instructions, you can run the tests via the command listed with your preferred workflow above.
All examples below will use phpunit
. Replace this with your workflow specific command for running these examples locally.
You should see output that looks roughly like the following:
........................................................... 59 / 12524 ( 0%)
........................................................... 118 / 12524 ( 0%)
........................................................... 177 / 12524 ( 1%)
........................................................... 236 / 12524 ( 1%)
........................................................... 295 / 12524 ( 2%)
.......SS.................................................. 354 / 12524 ( 2%)
...
........................................................... 12449 / 12524 ( 99%)
........................................................... 12508 / 12524 ( 99%)
................ 12524 / 12524 (100%)
Time: 01:46.744, Memory: 235.10 MB
OK, but incomplete or skipped tests!
Tests: 12524, Assertions: 57712, Skipped: 56.
What each symbol means:
.
– Each dot signifies one “test” that passed.S
means a test was skipped. This usually means that the test is only valid in certain configurations, such as when a test requires Multisite or a certain PHP extension.F
means a test failed. More output will be shown for what exactly failed and where.E
means a test failed due to a PHP error, warning, or notice.R
means a test is marked as “risky”. What will be marked as risky, very much depends on the configuration in thephpunit.xml.dist
file. This can be tests which are particularly slow or don’t perform assertions.I
means a test was marked as incomplete, i.e. not yet implemented.
On Windows and seeing weird codes in your command-line screen output? Try running with --colors=never
.
To run an individual class, use --filter
with the name of the class:
phpunit --filter Tests_Formatting_wpParseStr
The --filter
option in PHPUnit is very flexible and has lots of supported options. Please see the PHPUnit Manual for more examples.
To run a group of tests – defined by @group
in code comments:
phpunit --group dependencies
phpunit --group themes
You may also combine groups: (Depending on your platform you may have to wrap the groups in double quotes)
phpunit --group shortcode,17657,6562,14050
...
OK (229 tests, 417 assertions)
Many tests are marked with a @ticket
annotation, which indicates they were the result of that WordPress Trac ticket.
The @ticket
annotation is an alias for the @group
annotation, so any tests linked to any individual Trac ticket can be run by passing the Trac ticket number as the “group”.
To view all groups:
phpunit --list-groups
To see information about skipped and incomplete tests, use --verbose
:
phpunit --group wpdb --verbose
There was 1 skipped test:
1) Tests_DB::test_charset_switched_to_utf8
This test requires utf8mb4 to not be supported.
tests/phpunit/tests/db.php:1332
By default, the AJAX tests (tests written for core’s use of wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
) are not run. To run these:
phpunit --group ajax
To run the tests under multisite, you must switch to the multisite.xml
configuration file:
phpunit -c tests/phpunit/multisite.xml
Additionally, you can npm run grunt phpunit
and run PHPUnit tests, including the ajax and multisite tests.
Rather than having to switch to a terminal and manually run a test group repeatedly while working on a patch, you can keep it running continuously. Whenever you save any file, the group will run again automatically. This lets you instantly know when a change you’ve made breaks a test, or causes it to pass.
To run PHPUnit tests and all other watch tasks, use:
npm run grunt watch -- --phpunit --group={testgroup}
To run only the PHPUnit watch task, use:
npm run grunt watch:phpunit -- --group={testgroup}
Run multiple groups by comma-separating them:
npm run grunt watch:phpunit -- --group=community-events,privacy
You can speed up the suite in some cases by defining the WP_TESTS_SKIP_INSTALL
environment variable to 1
, so that the suite will skip the install step. While this shouldn’t be used for full test runs, it’s useful for saving time when running small groups of tests.
WP_TESTS_SKIP_INSTALL=1 phpunit --group=privacy
We’ve written a guide for getting started writing PHPUnit tests for WordPress.
There are three primary ways to contribute:
Write tests for a reported bug. A great way to contribute is to write tests that demonstrate an existing bug report. The core developers are reluctant to consider patches for many sensitive areas in core without test coverage. Well-written tests can help confirm that a patch fixes a problem without side effects, and can prevent any regressions from occurring in the future. When tests are particularly needed or desired for a ticket to proceed, they receive the needs-unit-tests workflow keyword. You can submit tests for existing tickets directly on the WordPress core Trac. Bonus points for submitting a bug report with a test case included.
Write new tests to improve our code coverage. Many areas of WordPress do not have adequate test coverage. Pick a function, class, or component and write tests for it. You can submit these tests on the WordPress Trac.
Fix or improve our existing test cases. There are many opportunities for improvement in the existing tests. Some of them are ancient and others are slow or fragile. Some do not tests well in multisite or under certain conditions. Some individual tests try to test too much, and could be improved by using data providers, dependencies, and more narrow assertions.
Unit tests for JavaScript code are currently much more limited in WordPress Core in comparison to PHP unit tests. For more information on JS unit tests, see the Make/Core post or the QUnit section of this Handbook.