You are browsing the documentation for Symfony 2.1 which is not maintained anymore.
Consider upgrading your projects to Symfony 5.2.
How to Unit Test your Forms
How to Unit Test your Forms¶
The Form Component consists of 3 core objects: a form type (implementing
Symfony\Component\Form\FormTypeInterface
), the
Symfony\Component\Form\Form
and the
Symfony\Component\Form\FormView
.
The only class that is usually manipulated by programmers is the form type class
which serves as a form blueprint. It is used to generate the Form
and the
FormView
. You could test it directly by mocking its interactions with the
factory but it would be complex. It is better to pass it to FormFactory like it
is done in a real application. It is simple to bootstrap and you can trust
the Symfony components enough to use them as a testing base.
There is already a class that you can benefit from for simple FormTypes
testing: Symfony\Component\Form\Tests\Extension\Core\Type\TypeTestCase
.
It is used to test the core types and you can use it to test your types too.
Note
Depending on the way you installed your Symfony or Symfony Form Component the tests may not be downloaded. Use the –prefer-source option with composer if this is the case.
The Basics¶
The simplest TypeTestCase
implementation looks like the following:
// src/Acme/TestBundle/Tests/Form/Type/TestedTypeTests.php
namespace Acme\TestBundle\Tests\Form\Type;
use Acme\TestBundle\Form\Type\TestedType;
use Acme\TestBundle\Model\TestObject;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Tests\Extension\Core\Type\TypeTestCase;
class TestedTypeTest extends TypeTestCase
{
public function testBindValidData()
{
$formData = array(
'test' => 'test',
'test2' => 'test2',
);
$type = new TestedType();
$form = $this->factory->create($type);
$object = new TestObject();
$object->fromArray($formData);
$form->bind($formData);
$this->assertTrue($form->isSynchronized());
$this->assertEquals($object, $form->getData());
$view = $form->createView();
$children = $view->children;
foreach (array_keys($formData) as $key) {
$this->assertArrayHasKey($key, $children);
}
}
}
So, what does it test? Let’s explain it line by line.
First you verify if the FormType
compiles. This includes basic class
inheritance, the buildForm
function and options resolution. This should
be the first test you write:
$type = new TestedType();
$form = $this->factory->create($type);
This test checks that none of your data transformers used by the form
failed. The isSynchronized`()
method is only set to false
if a data transformer throws an exception:
$form->bind($formData);
$this->assertTrue($form->isSynchronized());
Note
Don’t test the validation: it is applied by a listener that is not active in the test case and it relies on validation configuration. Instead, unit test your custom constraints directly.
Next, verify the binding and mapping of the form. The test below checks if all the fields are correctly specified:
$this->assertEquals($object, $form->getData());
Finally, check the creation of the FormView
. You should check if all
widgets you want to display are available in the children property:
$view = $form->createView();
$children = $view->children;
foreach (array_keys($formData) as $key) {
$this->assertArrayHasKey($key, $children);
}
Adding a Type your Form depends on¶
Your form may depend on other types that are defined as services. It might look like this:
// src/Acme/TestBundle/Form/Type/TestedType.php
// ... the buildForm method
$builder->add('acme_test_child_type');
To create your form correctly, you need to make the type available to the form factory in your test. The easiest way is to register it manually before creating the parent form:
// src/Acme/TestBundle/Tests/Form/Type/TestedTypeTests.php
namespace Acme\TestBundle\Tests\Form\Type;
use Acme\TestBundle\Form\Type\TestedType;
use Acme\TestBundle\Model\TestObject;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Tests\Extension\Core\Type\TypeTestCase;
class TestedTypeTest extends TypeTestCase
{
public function testBindValidData()
{
$this->factory->addType(new TestChildType());
$type = new TestedType();
$form = $this->factory->create($type);
// ... your test
}
}
Caution
Make sure the child type you add is well tested. Otherwise you may be getting errors that are not related to the form you are currently testing but to its children.
Adding custom Extensions¶
It often happens that you use some options that are added by
form extensions. One of the
cases may be the ValidatorExtension
with its invalid_message
option.
The TypeTestCase
loads only the core form extension so an “Invalid option”
exception will be raised if you try to use it for testing a class that depends
on other extensions. You need add those extensions to the factory object:
// src/Acme/TestBundle/Tests/Form/Type/TestedTypeTests.php
namespace Acme\TestBundle\Tests\Form\Type;
use Acme\TestBundle\Form\Type\TestedType;
use Acme\TestBundle\Model\TestObject;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Tests\Extension\Core\Type\TypeTestCase;
class TestedTypeTest extends TypeTestCase
{
protected function setUp()
{
parent::setUp();
$this->factory = Forms::createFormFactoryBuilder()
->addTypeExtension(
new FormTypeValidatorExtension(
$this->getMock('Symfony\Component\Validator\ValidatorInterface')
)
)
->addTypeGuesser(
$this->getMockBuilder(
'Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Validator\ValidatorTypeGuesser'
)
->disableOriginalConstructor()
->getMock()
)
->getFormFactory();
$this->dispatcher = $this->getMock('Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcherInterface');
$this->builder = new FormBuilder(null, null, $this->dispatcher, $this->factory);
}
// ... your tests
}
Testing against different Sets of Data¶
If you are not familiar yet with PHPUnit’s data providers, this might be a good opportunity to use them:
// src/Acme/TestBundle/Tests/Form/Type/TestedTypeTests.php
namespace Acme\TestBundle\Tests\Form\Type;
use Acme\TestBundle\Form\Type\TestedType;
use Acme\TestBundle\Model\TestObject;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Tests\Extension\Core\Type\TypeTestCase;
class TestedTypeTest extends TypeTestCase
{
/**
* @dataProvider getValidTestData
*/
public function testForm($data)
{
// ... your test
}
public function getValidTestData()
{
return array(
array(
'data' => array(
'test' => 'test',
'test2' => 'test2',
),
),
array(
'data' => array(),
),
array(
'data' => array(
'test' => null,
'test2' => null,
),
),
);
}
}
The code above will run your test three times with 3 different sets of data. This allows for decoupling the test fixtures from the tests and easily testing against multiple sets of data.
You can also pass another argument, such as a boolean if the form has to be synchronized with the given set of data or not etc.
This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.