Our behat tests should use data generators to create data that is assumed by tests directly in the database.

All data generators:

• should be located in a sub-directory of testing/datagenerator/generators
• must extend the \testing\datagenerator\generator class
• the file name must be the lowercase classname
• the file must declasre itself part of the testing\datagenerator namespace

 <?php
// This file is part of Rogō
//
// Rogō is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
// (at your option) any later version.
//
// Rogō is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
// GNU General Public License for more details.
//
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
// along with Rogō.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

namespace testing\datagenerator;
 
/**
 * Generates Rogo users.
 *
 * @author Your Name <youremail@example.com>
 * @copyright Copyright message
 * @package testing
 * @subpackage datagenerator
 */
class example extends generator {
  /**
   * To be usable in the main behat datageneration step the methods
   * must accept a single array or stdClass parameter only.
   *
   * @param array|stdClass $parameters
   * @return array Contains the values that were inserted into the database.
   * @throws data_error 
   */
  public function create_example($parameters) {
    // Your code goes here
  }
}

Using data generators in behat

The main exists step

Given the following "([^"]*)" exist:

If the data generator can be used by passing a single set of data in an array or object then the it can be used in the main behat exists step.

To make a data generator usable in this step you must add a new entry to the \testing\behat\steps\database\datageneration::$datagenerator_map array. It has the following form:

'myexample' => array('example', 'core', 'create_example'),

The array key is the name that will be used to call the data generator in the step. The values of the sub array have the following meanings

• The first value must be the name of the class that should be used as the data generator
• The second value is the sub-directory that the data generator is located in
• The third value must be the name of the method that should be called

Using the data generator will now look like:

Given the following "myexample" exist:

Details about the required and optional fields for the data generator should be added to Writing automatic functional tests for Rogo

In a custom step

Data generators should be loaded using the \testing\datagenerator\loader::get()

To load the user data generator you would use:

\testing\datagenerator\loader::get('users', 'core')