Laravel Testing

Testing patterns with Pest: Arrange-Act-Assert, proper mocking, null drivers.

Core Concepts

testing.md - Core testing guide:

• Triple-A pattern (Arrange, Act, Assert)
• Testing actions in isolation
• Only mock what you own
• Using factories for test data
• Null driver pattern
• Avoiding brittle tests
• Feature vs unit tests

testing-conventions.md - Testing conventions:

• Test structure and organization
• Naming conventions
• Dataset usage
• Common patterns

Pattern

it('creates order successfully', function () {
    // Arrange
    $user = User::factory()->create();
    $dto = CreateOrderDto::from([
        'user_id' => $user->id,
        'items' => [
            ['product_id' => 1, 'quantity' => 2],
        ],
    ]);

    // Act
    $order = app(CreateOrderAction::class)($dto);

    // Assert
    expect($order)
        ->user_id->toBe($user->id)
        ->items->toHaveCount(1);

    $this->assertDatabaseHas('orders', [
        'user_id' => $user->id,
    ]);
});

Key principles:

• Test actions in isolation (unit tests)
• Test controllers for HTTP integration (feature tests)
• Use null drivers to avoid external API calls
• Use factories for all test data
• Only mock external dependencies, not your own code