How to use Behat with CakePHP?

CakePHP is a very popular PHP framework, and its design patterns and structure are very suitable for developing web applications. Behat, on the other hand, is a popular BDD (Behavior Driven Development) testing framework that helps us test our applications in a collaborative, readable way. In this article, I will show you how to use Behat in CakePHP to better test our code.

What is Behat?

Behat is an open source BDD framework based on a domain-specific language (DSL) to define behaviors and scenarios. The core idea of ​​Behat is "biobehavior-driven development", which means that you can use natural language (English, French, German, etc.) to describe the expected behavior of your application. Behat uses the Gherkin language to describe test cases and provides a large number of plug-ins and extensions to help you manage your tests.

Installing Behat

First, you need to install Behat and its dependencies. This can be done by running the following command in the terminal:

$ sudo apt-get install php-cgi php-mbstring
$ curl https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
$ sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
$ composer require behat/behat --dev

This process may take some time, so please be patient.

Install Mink

Mink is a tool that integrates Behat with different web browsers so that you can simulate user behavior in the browser. You can install it via the following command:

composer require behat/mink behat/mink-extension behat/mink-goutte-driver behat/mink-selenium2-driver --dev

This will allow you to interact with browsers such as Selenium or Goutte.

Configuring Behat

Next, you need to create a file named "behat.yml" to configure Behat. Create a new file in the root of your project and copy the following code into the file:

default:
  extensions:
    BehatSymfony2Extension: ~
    BehatMinkExtension:
      base_url: http://localhost
      sessions:
        default:
          symfony2: ~
          goutte: ~
          selenium2:
            wd_host: "http://127.0.0.1:4444/wd/hub"

This file will configure Behat and tell it how to use the Mink extension.

Writing Test Cases

Now that you have configured Behat for CakePHP, you can start writing test cases. You should create a directory called "features" that contains a Gherkin file called "example.feature". Your file should look something like this:

Feature: 注册用户
    为了访问Web应用程序，我想注册一个新用户

Scenario: 注册一个新用户
    Given 我在登录页面
    When 我输入我的用户名和密码
    Then 我应该看到一个欢迎消息

This file uses a specific syntax to describe the steps of a test case. You should notice that it is very natural language, which is one of the core ideas of Behat.

When you run Behat, it will read this file and perform the tests for you.

Running Tests

In order to run your tests, you can enter the following command in the terminal:

vendor/bin/behat

This will run your tests and provide you with the test results.

Conclusion

Testing your code in CakePHP is fairly simple using Behat. If you are already familiar with Behat and Mink, you should be able to start writing test cases quickly. Overall, Behat is a very useful tool that can help you better test your application and ensure that your code remains stable and correct as you continue to iterate.

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