Using Codeception to run existing Laravel 5.1 PHPUnit tests

Question

I have a number of tests written for a Laravel 5.1 application, and I'm currently using PHPUnit to run the tests. I'm attempting to investigate codeception as we have other applications that aren't built on Laravel, so codeception looks like the easiest way to get a similar interface for testing.

We have a reasonably large team, so I would prefer to use a single consistent command for testing across all projects instead of some using codecept and some using phpunit.

Here's what I've tried as my codeception.yml:

actor: Tester
paths:
   tests: tests
   log: storage/codeception/_output
   data: storage/codeception/_data
   support: storage/codeception/_support
   envs: storage/codeception/_envs

modules:
   enabled:
       - Laravel5:
           environment_file: .env

But I get this response:

$ codecept run
Codeception PHP Testing Framework v2.1.4
Powered by PHPUnit 4.8.18 by Sebastian Bergmann and contributors.

  [RuntimeException]           
  Suite '' could not be found

So my question is this:

How do I convince codeception to run my existing PHPUnit tests with as little modification as possible?

Answer 1

After a lot of time, I found out that it's possible, but you have to make some modifications to how your tests are laid out. The bonus, though, is that it doesn't stop you from just running PHPUnit itself.

For posterity, here's how to do it:

1. Move your unit tests and TestCase.php into a folder named unit under the tests folder.

It should look like this:

tests/
tests/unit/
tests/unit/MyUnitTest.php
tests/unit/TestCase.php

2. Add the unit.suite.yml file in the tests/ folder.

The contents should look something like this:

modules:
    enabled:
        - Laravel5:
            environment_file: .env.testing

3. Update your composer.json to with the correct folder for the testing classmap

In your autoload-dev section:

"classmap": [
    "tests/unit/TestCase.php"
]

4. Update your TestCase.php to load bootstrap.php from the correct folder.

This should be in the createApplication() method at the top of TestCase.php

public function createApplication()
{
    // $app = require __DIR__ . '/../bootstrap/app.php';
    $app = require __DIR__ . '/../../bootstrap/app.php';

    $app->make(Illuminate\Contracts\Console\Kernel::class)->bootstrap();

    return $app;
}

Finally, run composer dump-autoload, and codeception should run. As a bonus, phpunit should also still run.