Drupal 7 Module Development

Writing a test case
There are a few areas of Drupal that make use of PHP's Object-oriented features.
One is the database API that we will see later in the book. Another is the testing
framework. It uses class inheritance to declare tests. This is primarily a vestige
of the SimpleTest API upon which Drupal's testing is based.
Chapter 2
Since this is a book on Drupal programming, not PHP, we will not spend
time introducing PHP's Object-Oriented features. If you are not familiar with
Object-oriented Programming (OOP) in PHP, you may want to learn the basics
before moving on to this section. Since most tests follow a formulaic pattern, there
is no need to master OOP before writing simple tests. However, some background
knowledge will ease the transition. A good starting point is PHP.net’s OOP manual
available at the URL http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.php.
The basic pattern
Most test cases follow a simple pattern:
• Create a new class that extends DrupalWebTestCase
• Add a getInfo() function
• Do any necessary configuration in the setUp() method
• Write one or more test methods, beginning each method with the word test
• In each test method, use one or more assertions to test actual values
As we go through our own tests, we will walk through each of these steps
First, we will begin by adding a test class inside our first.test file. It should look
something like this: