How do I successfully create a project with Zend Framework and PHPUnit?

Question

Let me just start by saying that I've posted this to multiple forums and even tried to get help on the ZF IRC channel. I've been Googling for a straight week and still no results. I've read a lot of Q's and A's on this site in the past, so I figured I'd make an account and try asking you.

(Yes, I've searched previously asked questions, but none of the answers helped me.)

I'm trying to learn how to use Zend Framework for a new project that I've joined. For compatibility reasons they are using Zend 1 (and not the newer Zend 2). I have found and followed a number of online and physical book tutorials but I've the same results over and over again.

So here goes (this are the instructions that all the tutorials give). I went to framework.zend.com and downloaded the full version of ZF 1.12.

1. I unzipped the contents
2. I moved the library folder to a safe directory where it won't be modified
3. I moved the contents of the bin folder to same directory as my PHP executable
4. I changed the include_path in my php.ini file to include the library directory
5. I updated my Windows PATH variable to make sure it included the path to the PHP executable

6. I ran

   zf --help

7. This command worked as intended. I also successfully ran zf show version (Zend Framework Version 1.12.7).

8. I ran the command

   zf create project myproject

Upon doing this, I receiving the following error message:

Fatal error: Class 'PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase' not found in D:\Zend\library\Zend\Test\PHPUnit\ControllerTestCase.php on line 48

That particular line in question is a class declaration that extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase. I don't know where PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase is defined. It is not in any of the files or directories that came in the single ZIP file that I downloaded from Zend. I even ran grep on all files and folders searching for the string "class PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase" but it printed no results.

Some have suggested that I don't have PHPUnit installed (which is obvious to me now). The part that bugs me is that absolutely none of the tutorials that I read mention anything about installing PHPUnit before hand or how to install it or what dependencies Zend has on it. Many of these were beginner tutorials that assumed you only had a basic knowledge of PHP, and it's pretty shocking to me that none even mentioned PHPUnit. If PHPUnit was that important I would think that the file I downloaded from Zend would have included it. I guess not.

So I went online again and got the PHAR file for PHPUnit, but now what? I tried putting it in multiple different directories but I still get the same error. Am I not supposed to use a PHAR file? Should I be using the actual files instead?

What do I have to do to get ZF to recognize PHPUnit, resolve this error and create my first ZF project?

Additional Info: Windows 7, XAMPP Server (running on localhost), PHP 5.5.6

Answer 1

Assuming you have PHPUnit installed and it is on your include path (Bearing in mind that ZF1 only officially supports PHPUnit 3.4.x and definitely doesn't support anything above PHPUnit 3.5.x, so if you're using XAMPP you may have to downgrade PHPUnit as described here). The problem is most probably due to this commit, where the require calls for PHPUnit were stripped out in favour of using an autoloader. The ZF tool over CLI doesn't set up an autoloader though, so PHPUnit is not found because it is simply not required! To fix you can return these lines to the start of Zend/Test/PHPUnit/ControllerTestCase.php

/** @see PHPUnit_Runner_Version */
require_once 'PHPUnit/Runner/Version.php';

/**
* Depending on version, include the proper PHPUnit support
* @see PHPUnit_Autoload
*/
require_once (version_compare(PHPUnit_Runner_Version::id(), '3.5.0', '>=')) ? 'PHPUnit/Autoload.php' : 'PHPUnit/Framework.php';

It's worth noting that even with the error you mention, ZF tool should still work correctly when setting up a project, it just won't produce unit test actions (you'll have to make them yourself). If you don't want to downgrade your XAMPP PHPUnit version you should be able to add the correct version locally to your project using composer as described here.

Update Jan 2015: Downgrading PHPUnit for XAMPP is no longer necessary as ZF1 has supported at least version 4.1 of PHPUnit since 1.12.7 (I've not tested above 4.1). This is helpful as PHPUnit has completely removed their deprecated Pear repository as of December 2014, which means you can't download versions older than 3.7 anymore anyway! (Currently XAMPP ships with PHPUnit 3.6). These days though it's probably worth chucking XAMPP for Vagrant and globally installing PHPUnit 4.1 via Composer during Vagrant provisioning.

Answer 2

I recommend using Composer to load both ZF and PHPUnit. Then make sure to include the Composer autoload.php file as your/in your phpunit boostrap file.

Answer 3

I had the same problem when I set up my laptop as a second development machine and downloaded the newest version of Zend Framework 1 (1.12.9). Whenever I tried to create a new action in a controller, I got the same error. Yet on my main computer, it worked fine.

I realized it was because the version of ZF1 I had in my php includes path was actually 1.11.11. So I went and got 1.11.14 from the ZF archives page, put it in the includes directory, and it worked fine.

Not entirely sure if this is the best way to make it work, since it is an older version, but at least it does work. And until someone actually comes on here and offers a better solution, that's what I intend to stick with.

Answer 4

You can create or edit a .zf.ini file in your home directory (~/.zf.ini or C:\Users\YOUR_ACCOUNT\.zf.ini on Windows)

php.include_path = "PATH_TO_THE_LIBRARY_FOLDERS_CONTAINING_ZEND_AND_PHPUnit"
basicloader.classes.0 = "PHPUnit_Framework_SelfDescribing"
basicloader.classes.1 = "PHPUnit_Framework_Test"
basicloader.classes.2 = "PHPUnit_Framework_Assert"
basicloader.classes.3 = "PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase"

If you are using Netbeans on Windows it could looks like this (you can put several library folder, just separate them with a semicolon ;) :

php.include_path = "C:\Users\romain\dev\ZendFramework-1.12.17\library;C:\Program Files\NetBeans 8.1\php\zend;C:\xampp\php\pear"
basicloader.classes.0 = "NetBeansCommandsProvider"
basicloader.classes.1 = "PHPUnit_Framework_SelfDescribing"
basicloader.classes.2 = "PHPUnit_Framework_Test"
basicloader.classes.3 = "PHPUnit_Framework_Assert"
basicloader.classes.4 = "PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase"