Running Unit Tests
Before code gets pulled into the master repository, the unit testing suite is run to ensure that the change candidates do not leave trunk in an unstable state (i.e. all tests should pass at all times). In order to make the process of getting your code accepted it is helpful to run these tests locally to prevent any unexpected surprises.
The Joomla Platform unit tests are developed for use with PHPUnit 3.6, which is the latest stable version as of August 2011. Please see the PHPUnit Manual for information on installing PHPUnit on your system.
Standard unit tests run against a Sqlite in memory database for ease of setup and performance. Other than installing Sqlite no manual intervention or set up is required. The database is built at runtime and deleted when finished. To run the specific database tests: Create your database and use the appropriate database-specific DDL located in tests/suites/database/stubs to create the database tables required. In the root directory, copy the file named phpunit.xml.dist, leaving it in the same folder and naming it phpunit.xml. Uncomment the php block and include the const line(s) related to the database(s) you will be testing. Set up the database configuration values for your specific environment.
There is a special stub that is required for testing the JHttp transports so that actual web requests can be simulated and assertions can be made about the results. To set these up, you'll need to do the following: In the root directory, copy the file named phpunit.xml.dist, leaving it in the same folder and naming it phpunit.xml. Uncomment the php block and include the "JTEST_HTTP_STUB" const. The default file path for the const assumes that you have checked out the Joomla Platform to the web root of your test environment inside a folder named "joomla-platform". If this is not the case, you can change the path to suit your environment and, if need be, copy the file from its default location to be available within your web environment.
You can run the tests by going to the platform root directory and executing phpunit Alternatively, if you have Ant installed on your system, you may run the unit tests by going to the platform root directory and executing ant phpunit to execute the tests on classes located under the libraries/joomla directory or executing ant phpunit-legacy to execute the tests on classes located under the libraries/legacy directory.