CakePHP 1.19 Test Suite testing with Session Component

Hello, you might be having a tough time doing some integration testing on your controllers which use the Session component. Here are is an example to help you get started:


class Foo_ControllerTest extends UnitTestCase
{
function test1()
{

$usersController = &new UsersController();
$usersController->_initComponents();
$usersController->constructClasses();
$this->assertNotNull($usersController->Session);
$usersController->Session->_checkValid();

}
}


This creates the model + components in your controller. The sessions should be working normally now.

Take at look at this to see how they did unit testing on the Session component itself for more ideas (https://trac.cakephp.org/browser/branches/1.2.x.x/cake/tests/cases/libs/session.test.php?rev=7246).

cakephp 1.19 AppModel bug?

I've been using the $hasMany, $uses, etc properties in the AppModel to simply some of the querying operations. But it seems like sometimes it randomly deletes rows from some of the tables I've specified in the tables. Also, I don't always need to use those associations.


I've found that loading the model and using it as needed seemed like a better approach and it wasn't deleting data from tables mysteriously anymore..

To use another model only when you need it do something like this:


function amodelmethod()
{
loadModel('FooModel');
$fooModel = &new FooModel();
$fooModel->fooMethod();
}



CakePHP 1.1 Unit Testing Test Suite v 1.0.0.5 tutorial

So your stuck with CakePHP 1.1, but you need to add Unit Testing, what do you do?


You can grab Cake Test Suite v1.0.0.5 (using SimpleTest) here


The thing with this Test Suite is that I couldn't find documentation anywhere so I decided to write this little tutorial on how to get started.


Step 1: Setup
First make sure your CakePHP Project's debug level is set to at least 1.


Next, after unzipping the app folder into your project and trying to run the test controller(http://yourproject/test/) you might see that you will get this error:


Notice: Use of undefined constant CORE_PATH - assumed 'CORE_PATH' in D:\Flex Workspaces\cakeamfphp\cake\config\paths.php on line 44



To fix this open up /app/webroot/test/index.php and insert this on line 82:

if (!defined('CORE_PATH')) {
if (function_exists('ini_set')) {
ini_set('include_path', CAKE_CORE_INCLUDE_PATH . PATH_SEPARATOR . ROOT . DS . APP_DIR . DS . PATH_SEPARATOR . ini_get('include_path'));
define('APP_PATH', null);
define('CORE_PATH', null);
} else {
define('APP_PATH', ROOT . DS . APP_DIR . DS);
define('CORE_PATH', CAKE_CORE_INCLUDE_PATH . DS);
}
}

require CORE_PATH.'cake'.DS.'bootstrap.php';


Step 2: Writing the Tests

Lets say for example, I have a model user.php that I want to test, I have to create this file as /app/tests/app/cases/models/User.test.php

It will look something like this:


class UserTest extends UnitTestCase {

function testSomething() {
loadModel('User');
$user = &new User();
$this->assertEqual($user->name, 'User');
}
}

?>



If testing a controller, you would want to use the loadController method.


If I wanted to make a group test of my models I would for example make a file
in app/tests/app/groups/Model.group.php:



require_once(TESTS.'/app/cases/models/User.test.php');
require_once(TESTS.'/app/cases/models/User_Builder.test.php');

class ModelTest extends GroupTest {

function ModelTest(){
$this->addTestCase(new UserTest());
$this->addTestCase(new User_BuilderTest());
}

}

?>





Hope this helps get you on the right track. Take a look at the simpletest docs for more information on how to unit test your project.

Getting CakeAMFPHP w/ CakePHP 1.1 centralized database sessions working

CakePHP makes it a snap to create centralized database sessions.

However, If you wanted to use Flash and CakeAMFPHP with CakePHP's sessions, you'll find that it might not be working. Here are some fixes+workarounds to get it running.

Step 1] open /app/vendors/vendors/cakeamfphp/amf-core/app/Gateway.php
comment out line 93

//$this->filters['auth'] = 'authenticationFilter';


The auth filter was breaking the sessions for some reason.

Step 2] Open /app/config/core.php
change the CAKE_SESSION_SAVE to:

define('CAKE_SESSION_SAVE', 'database');


change CAKE_SESSION_COOKIE to your php cookie sessions name(look in phpinfo()):
for example mine is:

define('CAKE_SESSION_COOKIE', 'PHPSESSID');


change CAKE_SECURITY to low:

define('CAKE_SECURITY', 'low');


Step 3] create the sessions table in your $default(in database.php) database by importing the file at: /app/config/sql/sessions.sql


Step 4] open /cake/libs/session.php and comment out:
on line 132:

/*if (Configure::read('Session.checkAgent') === true) {
if (env('HTTP_USER_AGENT') != null) {
$this->_userAgent = md5(env('HTTP_USER_AGENT') . CAKE_SESSION_STRING);
}
}*/


on line 311:

if (/*Configure::read('Session.checkAgent') === false || $this->_userAgent == $this->read("Config.userAgent") && */$this->time <= $this->read("Config.time")) {


on line 541:

if (/*Configure::read('Session.checkAgent') === false || $this->_userAgent == $this->read("Config.userAgent") && */$this->time <= $this->read("Config.time")) {


the useragent works with the browser but we are connecting using flash to amf to for some reason this was breaking.



You are done, try playing around with the Session methods to see if your
sessions are being stored and retrieved from the database. For a tutorial on CakePHP sessions take a look here.



---edit----
still having problems? Try turning off cookies in your cake gateway.

Open /app/webroot/cake_gateway.php:

insert this at the top:

ini_set('session.use_trans_sid', 1); //make it so we can use cookie-less sessions
ini_set('session.use_cookies', 0);


open /cake/libs/session.php:

find all occurences of ini_set('session.use_trans_sid', 0);
and change them to

ini_set('session.use_trans_sid', 1);



in your delegate when you call the gateway it must pass in a PHPSESSID example:


//cookieless sessions
if (session_id != null) {
appendurl = '?PHPSESSID='+session_id;
}

var gateway:String="http://cakeamfphp/cake_gateway.php"+appendurl;


Fat Models

no not those models :P CakePHP models :)

If you find your self doing something like this in the controller:

$this->A_Model->query("update somedatabase set idstatus = '".$idstatus."', statuslastmodified = '".time()."' where idproject = '".$idproject."' and UID= '".$UID."'");


consider putting this type of logic as a function in the model and then calling the function.

Better yet try not to use custom queries if you can and use the model's built in functions.

How to Install CakeAMFPHP

Introduction

CAKEPHP
Are you trying to create an enterprise Flex app? You'll be needing to do some heavy lifting serverside. Chances are, you'll be needing some help... thats where CakePHP comes in. If you've programmed in PHP before, you've probably heard of CakePHP, a rapid development PHP framework. Using CakePHP allows us to stay MVC oriented, resulting in code with better readability and objects with looser coupling. Scalability. Baby!

AMFPHP
If you've ever tried to send data back and forth between flash and php chances are you've used AMFPHP. With AMFPHP you can do stuff like for example sending in custom value objects(public var fooGuy:UserVO) to your PHP script and back. This means less work, no converting objects to arrays and arrays back to objects.

CAKEAMFPHP
Wanna combine the best of both worlds? This is where CakeAMFPHP comes in. I'll be telling you have to install CakeAMFPHP with CakePHP 1.1 in this post.


Installation

Step 1.

Grab the latest CakePHP here: http://cakeforge.org/frs/download.php/591/cake_1.1.19.6305.tar.bz2

Step 2.

Extract this anywhere you'd like.
The directory structure should look like:

cake_1.1.19.6305/app
cake_1.1.19.6305/cake
cake_1.1.19.6305/docs
cake_1.1.19.6305/vendors

Step 3.

Grab the latest CakeAMFPHP here: http://cakeforge.org/frs/download.php/267/cakeamfphp.0.6.0.tar.bz2

Step 4.

Unzip CakeAMFPHP into a temporary directory.
The directory structure should look like:

cakeamfphp/webroot
cakeamfphp/views
cakeamfphp/vendors

Step 5.

Next cut and paste the webroot, views, and vendors directories into cakePHP's app folder (cake_1.1.19.6305/app). You are doing it right if cakeamfphp/webroot matches with cake_1.1.19.6305/app/webroot.

Step 6.

Configure your cakePHP installation (/app/config/core.php).


----------------------
the amfbrowser is located in the amfbrowser directory. If localhost points to your cakeAMFPHP project then http://localhost/amfbrowser will point you to the amfbrowser.

Now that the files are in place, take a look at amfBB for examples of how to use the cake_gateway.php to invoke cakePHP's controller methods.


You might notice that cakeAMFPHP break's cakePHP's session component. Next time, I'll teach you how to get cakePHP's sessions working with cakeAMFPHP :P