PHPUnit: How do I create a function to be called once for all the tests in a class?

Question

I have a PHPUnit test case class (consisting of some test functions). I would like to write a oneTimeSetUp() function to be called once for all my tests in the class (unlike the standard setUp() function which is called once for each test in the class). In other words, I'm looking for a PHPUnit equivalent to the JUnit @BeforeClass annotation.

Same question with a oneTimeTearDown() function.

Is it possible to do so in PHPUnit?

Answer 1

Take a look at setUpBeforeClass() from section 6 of the PHPUnit documentation.

For the one time tearDown you should use tearDownAfterClass();.

Both this methods should be defined in your class as static methods.

Answer 2

setUpBeforeClass() is the way to do this if all of your tests are literally contained within a single class.

However, your question sort of implies that you may be using your test class as a base class for multiple test classes. In that case setUpBeforeClass will be run before each one. If you only want to run it once you could guard it with a static variable:

abstract class TestBase extends TestCase {    protected static $initialized = FALSE;      public function setUp() {          parent::setUp();      if (!self::$initialized) {       // Do something once here for _all_ test subclasses.       self::$initialized = TRUE;     }   }  } 

A final option might be a test listener.