Loading SQL fixtures before behat features

After figuring out the way to load the sql fixtures it was time to integrate fixtures loading in our behat suites.

While I’ll keep my thoughts on behat for another time, with just a bit of googling you can find a lot of material how to load fixtures before scenario/feature, for example Robert’s post, or you could use Alice behat extension, or if you like plain and simple, you could use Behat Fixtures extension.

This way or that, you have a lot of options, still, they require more or less work to get up and running, and in our particular case, there was a problem of sql inserts.

Latelly I have been trying to hold to “law of parsimony” to make the simplest solution possible, and complicate it only when needed.

With that in mind, it occured to me, that I could circumvent a nice chunk of code by executing the doctrine:fixtures:load with arguments before running behat feature.

All the pieces were there, just needed to connect them in a meaningfull way.

I would need to use Symfony Process component to execute the shell command we need.

src/AppBundle/Tests/Features/Context/BaseContext.php

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<?php

namespace AppBundle\Tests\Features\Context;

use Behat\WebApiExtension\Context\WebApiContext;
use PHPUnit\Framework\Assert;
use Symfony\Component\Process\Exception\ProcessFailedException;
use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;

class BaseContext extends WebApiContext
{
    /**
     * Load data fixtures by executing the console command
     *
     * @param $fixture The directory to load data fixtures from
     * @param $em The entity manager to use for this command
     * @param $env The environment name
     */
    public static function loadDataFixture($fixture, $em, $env): void
    {
        print(__DIR__) . PHP_EOL;
        $command = __DIR__ . "/../../../../../bin/console doctrine:fixtures:load --env={$env} --fixtures={$fixture} --em={$em} -n";

        $process = new Process($command);
        $process->run();

        // executes after the command finishes
        if (!$process->isSuccessful()) {
            throw new ProcessFailedException($process);
        }

        echo $process->getOutput();
    }
}

The code is pretty much standard and no surprises there, apart from the atrocity of line 22, but hey, it works.

It is a bit generalized so you can pass the path to fixtures, entity manager, and environment name.

Awesome, now how to use it? Well, after looking into behat hooks, I learned that I need to hook into the BeforeFeature, by annotating a static function with it

src/AppBundle/Tests/Features/Context/BaseContext.php

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<?php

namespace AppBundle\Tests\Features\Context;

use Behat\WebApiExtension\Context\WebApiContext;
use PHPUnit\Framework\Assert;
use Symfony\Component\Process\Exception\ProcessFailedException;
use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;

class BaseContext extends WebApiContext
{
    /** @BeforeFeature */
    public static function setupFeature()
    {
        print "Loading fixtures for app " . PHP_EOL;
        self::loadDataFixture("DataFixtures/ORM/App", "app", "test");
        print "Loading fixtures for legacy " . PHP_EOL;
        self::loadDataFixture("DataFixtures/ORM/Legacy", "legacy", "test");
    }

    /**
     * Load data fixtures by executing the console command
     *
     * @param $fixture The directory to load data fixtures from
     * @param $em The entity manager to use for this command
     * @param $env The environment name
     */
    public static function loadDataFixture($fixture, $em, $env): void
    {
        print(__DIR__) . PHP_EOL;
        $command = __DIR__ . "/../../../../../bin/console doctrine:fixtures:load --env={$env} --fixtures={$fixture} --em={$em} -n";

        $process = new Process($command);
        $process->run();

        // executes after the command finishes
        if (!$process->isSuccessful()) {
            throw new ProcessFailedException($process);
        }

        echo $process->getOutput();
    }
}

Now before each feature, the database will be purged, and the fixtures will be reloaded, just like that.

All you need to do, is to have your context classes inherit this BaseContext class.

So when vendor/bin/behat is run, the output will be something along the lines of:

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ubuntu@sample-project:/var/www/sample-project$ vendor/bin/behat
┌─ @BeforeFeature # AppBundle\Tests\Features\Context\LoginContext::setupFeature()
│
│  Loading fixtures for app
│  /var/www/sample-project/src/AppBundle/Tests/Features/Context
│    > purging database
│    > loading DataFixtures\ORM\App\LoadData
│  Importing: 001-sample-data.sql
│  Importing: 002-more-sample-data.sql
│  Importing: 003-even-more-sample-data.sql
│  Loading fixtures for legacy
│  /var/www/sample-project/src/AppBundle/Tests/Features/Context
│    > purging database
│    > loading DataFixtures\ORM\Legacy\LoadData
│  Importing: 001-sample-data.sql
│  Importing: 002-more-sample-data.sql
│  Importing: 003-even-more-sample-data.sql
│
Feature: Our shiny login feature

Now all only thing needed, is for them tests to keep green, and their numbers increasing.

The Joy of Hex

Drunken Monkey Coding Style with a hint of Carlin humor

Loading SQL fixtures before behat features