Testing Abstract Classes

Question

How do I test the concrete methods of an abstract class with PHPUnit?

I'd expect that I'd have to create some sort of object as part of the test. Though, I've no idea the best practice for this or if PHPUnit allows for this.

• Jacob: Perhaps you should consider changing the accepted answer.
• Nigel Thorne: Maybe stackoverflow.com/a/2947823/23963 will help.

Answer 1

Unit testing of abstract classes doesn't necessary mean testing the interface, as abstract classes can have concrete methods, and this concrete methods can be tested.

It is not so uncommon, when writing some library code, to have certain base class that you expect to extend in your application layer. And if you want to make sure that library code is tested, you need means to UT the concrete methods of abstract classes.

Personally, I use PHPUnit, and it has so called stubs and mock objects to help you testing this kind of things.

Straight from PHPUnit manual:

abstract class AbstractClass
{
 public function concreteMethod()
 {
 return $this->abstractMethod();
 }
 public abstract function abstractMethod();
}
class AbstractClassTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
 public function testConcreteMethod()
 {
 $stub = $this->getMockForAbstractClass('AbstractClass');
 $stub->expects($this->any())
 ->method('abstractMethod')
 ->will($this->returnValue(TRUE));
 $this->assertTrue($stub->concreteMethod());
 }
}

Mock object give you several things:

• you are not required to have concrete implementation of abstract class, and can get away with stub instead
• you may call concrete methods and assert that they perform correctly
• if concrete method relies to unimplemented (abstract) method, you may stub the return value with will() PHPUnit method

Answer 2

It should be noted that as of PHP 7 support for anonymous classes has been added. This gives you an additional avenue for setting up a test for an abstract class, one that doesn't depend on PHPUnit-specific functionality.

class AbstractClassTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
 /**
 * @var AbstractClass
 */
 private $testedClass;
 public function setUp()
 {
 $this->testedClass = new class extends AbstractClass {
 protected function abstractMethod()
 {
 // Put a barebones implementation here
 }
 };
 }
 // Put your tests here
}

• Alice Wonder: Thank you fo this! Using an anonymous class in PHPUnit gave me a lot of flexibility in creating my various tests.

Answer 3

That's a good question. I've been looking for this too.
Luckily, PHPUnit already has getMockForAbstractClass() method for this case, e.g.

protected function setUp()
{
 $stub = $this->getMockForAbstractClass('Some_Abstract_Class');
 $this->_object = $stub;
}

Important:

Note that this requires PHPUnit> 3.5.4. There was a bug in previous versions.

To upgrade to the newest version:

sudo pear channel-update pear.phpunit.de
sudo pear upgrade phpunit/PHPUnit

• Stephane Gosselin: Sounds interesting but you would be testing against the mock? What would the tests be like? IE: extending the mock in test case and testing against the extended test class?

Answer 4

Eran, your method should work, but it goes against the tendency of writing the test before the actual code.

What I would suggest is to write your tests on the desired functionality of a non-abstract subclass of the abstract class in question, then write both the abstract class and the implementing subclass, and finally run the test.

Your tests should obviously test the defined methods of the abstract class, but always via the subclass.

• ssibal: I find as an arbitrary answer: You have an abstract class 'A' having a common 'foo()' method. This 'foo()' method is being used overall all 'B', and 'C' classes, both derive from 'A'. Which class would you choose to test 'foo()'?

Answer 5

If you do not want to subclass the abstract class just to perform a unit test on the methods which are implemented in the abstract class already, you could try to see whether your framework allows you to mock abstract classes.

Answer 6

Nelson's answer is wrong.

Abstract classes don't require all of their methods to be abstract.

The implemented methods are the ones we need to test.

What you can do is create a fake stub class on the unit test file, have it extend the abstract class and implement only what's required with no functionality at all, of course, and test that.

Cheers.