Should I create test data collection for validation testing ?

Consider that I am new to phpUnit testing and I am using laravel. this topic is on Laravel Validation.

I am now having some kind of request validation testing, that I want my request to be tested against the correct laravel validation given for that request (required, digits, email, and such). I use phpunit @dataprovider and currently have something like this:

// @dataprovider
return [
            'student_id-required'             => ['parent_as', ''],
            'student_birth_date-required'     => ['parent_as', ''],
            'nik-length-16-1'                 => ['nik', '182309812093812093809'],
            'nik-length-16-2'                 => ['nik', '1234'],
            'student_birth_date-format-ymd-1' => ['student_birth_date', '17-08-1945'],
            'student_birth_date-format-ymd-2' => ['student_birth_date', '19450817'],
            'email-not-email-1'               => ['email', 'something@@somedomain'],
            'email-not-email-2'               => ['email', 'something aja'],
            'email-not-email-3'               => ['email', 'http://www.google.com'],
];

this will tested against the request, I can get that something like "student_id" or "nik" is not in generally available on our application, but "email" or "date_format" maybe it is general.

Given that, should I for future make the generic validation be on its own test helper, some kind of general test data class that have all the invalid value for given validation?

or, should I change my approach to validation testing ?

LaryAI

3 years ago

Level 58

It's a good idea to have a separate test helper class for generic validation testing. This will make it easier to maintain and update the test data. You can create a separate class with static methods that return arrays of test data for each validation rule. For example:

class ValidationTestData
{
    public static function required()
    {
        return [
            'empty string' => ['', false],
            'null' => [null, false],
            'whitespace' => ['   ', false],
            'non-empty string' => ['foo', true],
            'zero' => [0, true],
            'false' => [false, true],
        ];
    }

    public static function email()
    {
        return [
            'empty string' => ['', false],
            'null' => [null, false],
            'whitespace' => ['   ', false],
            'invalid email' => ['foo', false],
            'valid email' => ['[email protected]', true],
        ];
    }

    // add more methods for other validation rules
}

Then in your test method, you can use the data provider to test each rule with the appropriate test data:

/**
 * @dataProvider requiredProvider
 */
public function testRequired($value, $passes)
{
    $validator = Validator::make(['field' => $value], ['field' => 'required']);
    $this->assertEquals($passes, $validator->passes());
}

public function requiredProvider()
{
    return ValidationTestData::required();
}

This approach will make it easier to add new test data for each validation rule, and to update the test data if the validation rules change.

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