Browser Test Session Module

Overview

This module starts a testing session in a browser, in order to test a SilverStripe application in a clean state. Usually the session is started on a fresh database with only default records loaded. Further data can be loaded from YAML fixtures or database dumps.

The session is persisted in a file which is generated upon starting the session. As long as this file exists, the test session is considered in progress, both in web browsers and command-line execution. By default, the file is stored in the webroot under TESTS_RUNNING.js.

The module also serves as an initializer for the SilverStripe Behat Extension. It is required for Behat because the Behat CLI test runner needs to persist test configuration just for the tested browser connection, available on arbitary URL endpoints. For example, we're setting up a test mailer which writes every email into a temporary database table for inspection by the CLI-based process.

Setup

Simply require the module in a SilverStripe webroot (3.0 or newer):

composer require silverstripe/behat-extension

Usage

You start a test session by manually requesting a certain URL, and interact with it through other URL endpoints.

Commands:

• dev/testsession: Shows options for starting a test session
• dev/testsession/start: Sets up test state, most commonly a test database will be constructed, and your browser session will be amended to use this database. See "Parameters" documentation below.
• dev/testsession/end: Removes the test state, and resets to the original database.
• dev/testsession/loadfixture?fixture=<path>: Loads a fixture into an existing test state.
• dev/testsession/clear: Empties the test state.

While you can use the interface to set the test session state, it can be useful to set them programmatically through query parameters on "dev/testsession/start":

• fixture: Loads a YAML fixture in the format generally accepted by SapphireTest (see fixture format docs). The path should be relative to the webroot.
• createDatabase: Create a temporary database.
• createDatabaseTemplate: Path to a database dump to load into a newly created temporary database.
• database: Set an alternative database name in the current browser session as a cookie. Does not actually create the database, that's usually handled by SapphireTest::create_temp_db(). Note: The database names are limited to a specific naming convention as a security measure: The "ss_tmpdb" prefix and a random sequence of seven digits. This avoids the user gaining access to other production databases available on the same connection.
• mailer: Subclass of Mailer, typically used to record emails instead of actually sending them.
• datetime: Sets a simulated date used for all framework operations. Format as "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss" (Example: "2012-12-31 18:40:59").

Example usage with parameters:

dev/testsession/start?database=ss_tmpdb_1234567&fixture=cms/tests/controller/CMSMainTest.yml