[FIXED] What is the best practice to use expectations on mocked objects in controllers

Issue

I often want to mock out a Component or Object in a controller. I use the controllerSpy method to do that like this:

public function controllerSpy($event, $controller = null)
{
    parent::controllerSpy($event, $controller);

    $OrderConfirmation = $this->getMockBuilder('OrderConfirmation')
        ->setMethods(['send'])
        ->getMock();
    $OrderConfirmation->expects($this->once())->method('send');
    $this->_controller->OrderConfirmation = $OrderConfirmation;
}

The Problem is that the expectation that the send-Method is called is set in every test. But it depends on the scenario, there are scenarios where the confirmation shall not be sent. I would like to configure the expectation in the test itself and not globally in the controllerSpy method. Something like this:

public function testAddOrder()
{
    $this->_controller->OrderConfirmation->expects($this->once())->method('send');
    $this->post('/add_order');
}

But the problem her is that the expectation will be lost, since the whole OrderConfirmation object is overwritten later. Has anybody solved this problem before?

Solution

You could just listen to the Controller.initialize event, that's what the test dispatcher does too:

public function testAddOrder()
{
    \Cake\Event\EventManager::instance()->on(
        'Controller.initialize',
        function (\Cake\Event\EventInterface $event) {
            /** @var \Cake\Controller\Controller $controller */
            $controller = $event->getSubject();
            
            // ...

            $controller->OrderConfirmation = $OrderConfirmation;
        }
    );

    $this->post('/add_order');
}

Or implement for example a callback for the controllerSpy() method, something like this:

protected $controllerSpyCallback;

public function controllerSpy($event, $controller = null)
{
    parent::controllerSpy($event, $controller);

    if (is_callable($this->controllerSpyCallback)) {
        $this->controllerSpyCallback($this->_controller);
    }
}

public function testAddOrder()
{
    $this->controllerSpyCallback = function (\Cake\Controller\Controller $controller) {
        // ...
        
        $controller->OrderConfirmation = $OrderConfirmation;
    };

    $this->post('/add_order');
}

Answered By - ndm