PHP Testing & Quality

PHPUnit Testing

• Unit Tests: Test individual methods/classes in isolation — public function test_user_can_be_created() { $user = new User('John'); $this->assertEquals('John', $user->getName()); }
• Feature Tests: Test HTTP endpoints — $response = $this->postJson('/api/users', ['name' => 'John']); $response->assertStatus(201). Laravel's test client simulates HTTP requests
• Mocking: Mockery or PHPUnit mocks — $mock = Mockery::mock(PaymentService::class); $mock->shouldReceive('charge')->once()->andReturn(true). Isolate dependencies in unit tests
• Database Testing: RefreshDatabase trait — migrate fresh database for each test. Factories for test data. assertDatabaseHas/assertDatabaseMissing for verification
• Code Coverage: PHPUnit --coverage-html report — visualize which lines are tested. Aim for 80%+ on business logic. Don't optimize for coverage percentage over test quality
• Static Analysis: PHPStan/Psalm — find bugs without running code. Type errors, null references, dead code. Level 0 (basic) to level 9 (strictest). Integrate into CI pipeline