Unit tests in Laravel - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Unit Tests in Laravel

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple Laravel application that manages a list of tasks. Each task has a title and a status indicating if it is completed or not.To keep your code reliable, you want to write unit tests that check if your Task model behaves correctly.

🎯 Goal: Create a unit test class for the Task model in Laravel. You will write tests to check if a task can be created with a title and if the default status is false (not completed).

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Task model with title and completed attributes

Create a unit test class called TaskTest

Write a test method test_task_can_be_created_with_title that asserts a task's title is set correctly

Write a test method test_task_default_completed_is_false that asserts the default completed status is false

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Unit tests help ensure your Laravel models work correctly and prevent bugs when you change code.

💼 Career

Writing unit tests is a key skill for Laravel developers to maintain code quality and reliability.

1

Create the Task model with attributes

Create a Laravel model class called Task in app/Models/Task.php with public properties title and completed. Set completed default to false.

Laravel

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

// Define the Task model with title and completed properties

Need a hint?

Define a class Task that extends Model. Add public properties title and completed with default false.

2

Create the TaskTest unit test class

Create a unit test class called TaskTest in tests/Unit/TaskTest.php that extends Tests\TestCase. Add the use statement for the App\Models\Task model.

Laravel

<?php

namespace Tests\Unit;

use Tests\TestCase;
use App\Models\Task;

// Define the TaskTest class

Need a hint?

Create a class TaskTest that extends TestCase. Import the Task model with a use statement.

3

Write test for task creation with title

Inside the TaskTest class, write a public method called test_task_can_be_created_with_title. In it, create a new Task instance, set its title to 'Buy milk', and assert that the title property equals 'Buy milk' using $this->assertEquals().

Laravel

<?php

namespace Tests\Unit;

use Tests\TestCase;
use App\Models\Task;

class TaskTest extends TestCase
{
    // Write test_task_can_be_created_with_title method here
}

Need a hint?

Define a public method test_task_can_be_created_with_title. Create a Task object, set title, and assert equality with assertEquals.

4

Write test for default completed status

Add a public method called test_task_default_completed_is_false inside TaskTest. Create a new Task instance and assert that its completed property is false using $this->assertFalse().

Laravel

title = 'Buy milk';
        $this->assertEquals('Buy milk', $task->title);
    }

    // Write test_task_default_completed_is_false method here
}

Need a hint?

Define a public method test_task_default_completed_is_false. Create a Task object and assert completed is false with assertFalse.