More PEST Features: Uses, Helpers, Expectations

Now that we know the Pest, let's recreate the ProductsTest with Pest.

First Test

Let's create a new Pest test file, and let's start with the first test_homepage_contains_empty_table test.

php artisan make:test ProductsPestTest --pest

tests/Feature/ProductsPestTest.php:

test('homepage contains empty table', function () {
    $this->actingAs($this->user)
        ->get('/products')
        ->assertStatus(200)
        ->assertSee(__('No products found'));
});

But here, we don't have $this->user, so how do we define that? Before, we had a setUp method where we defined user property. In Pest, we have hooks, in this case a beforeEach() hook which will be run before each test as the name states.

beforeEach(function () {
    $this->user = \App\Models\User::factory()->create();
});
 
test('homepage contains empty table', function () {
    $this->actingAs($this->user)
        ->get('/products')
        ->assertStatus(200)
        ->assertSee(__('No products found'));
});

Let's run this specific test.

And we have a failed test with an error no such table. The refresh database doesn't come automatically. Before, we added the trait RefreshDatabase in the test class. In the Pest, there is a general config file, tests/Pest.php.

We can define uses for some targets. We added RefreshDatabase to be used in every feature test.

tests/Pest.php:

uses(
    Tests\TestCase::class,
    Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\RefreshDatabase::class, 
)->in('Feature');
 
// ...

Now, this test is green.

Now, let's re-add the createUser function. In Pest you can define helpers.

tests/Pest.php:

use App\Models\User;
 
// ...
 
function createUser(bool $isAdmin = false): User
{
    return User::factory()->create([
        'is_admin' => $isAdmin
    ]);
}

We can use this createUser function in the beforeEach hook to create regular and admin users.

tests/Feature/ProductsPestTest.php:

<?php
 
beforeEach(function () {
    $this->user = \App\Models\User::factory()->create(); 
    $this->user = createUser(); 
    $this->admin = createUser(isAdmin: true); 
});
 
test('homepage contains empty table', function () {
    $this->actingAs($this->user)
        ->get('/products')
        ->assertStatus(200)
        ->assertSee(__('No products found'));
});

Second Test

Next, let's transform the test_homepage_contains_non_empty_table test.

tests/Feature/ProductsPestTest.php:

use App\Models\Product;
 
// ...
 
test('homepage contains non empty table', function () {
    $product = Product::create([
        'name' => 'Product 1',
        'price' => 123
    ]);
 
    $this->actingAs($this->user)
        ->get('/products')
        ->assertStatus(200)
        ->assertDontSee(__('No products found'))
        ->assertSee('Product 1')
        ->assertViewHas('products', function ($collection) use ($product) {
            return $collection->contains($product);
        });
});

In most cases, transforming the PHPUnit test into Pest is copied and pasted with changing only syntax.

Expectation

One of the most used Pest features is expectations. It's a different syntax to something like assertEquals or assert something.

For this example, let's transform test_create_product_successful into Pest.

tests/Feature/ProductsPestTest.php:

// ...
 
test('create product successful', function() {
    $product = [
        'name' => 'Product 123',
        'price' => 1234
    ];
 
    $this->actingAs($this->admin)
        ->post('/products', $product)
        ->assertRedirect('products');
 
    $this->assertDatabaseHas('products', $product);
 
    $lastProduct = Product::latest()->first();
    $this->assertEquals($product['name'], $lastProduct->name); 
    $this->assertEquals($product['price'], $lastProduct->price); 
});

And the last two assertions, assertEquals, can be made into expect().

tests/Feature/ProductsPestTest.php:

// ...
 
test('create product successful', function() {
    $product = [
        'name' => 'Product 123',
        'price' => 1234
    ];
 
    $this->actingAs($this->admin)
        ->post('/products', $product)
        ->assertRedirect('products');
 
    $this->assertDatabaseHas('products', $product);
 
    $lastProduct = Product::latest()->first();
    $this->assertEquals($product['name'], $lastProduct->name); 
    $this->assertEquals($product['price'], $lastProduct->price); 
    expect($lastProduct->name)->toBe($product['name']); 
    expect($lastProduct->price)->toBe($product['price']); 
});

Even in this case, to expect calls can be chained.

tests/Feature/ProductsPestTest.php:

// ...
 
test('create product successful', function() {
    $product = [
        'name' => 'Product 123',
        'price' => 1234
    ];
 
    $this->actingAs($this->admin)
        ->post('/products', $product)
        ->assertRedirect('products');
 
    $this->assertDatabaseHas('products', $product);
 
    $lastProduct = Product::latest()->first();
    expect($lastProduct->name)->toBe($product['name']); 
    expect($lastProduct->price)->toBe($product['price']); 
    expect($lastProduct->name)->toBe($product['name']) 
        ->and($lastProduct->price)->toBe($product['price']); 
});

This syntax is very clear and readable, which Pest is all about. If you use Pest for writing tests, the expectations will likely be the most used feature.

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