Laravel - Testing Repositories - unit-testing

Question

I need to test a repository, which has a Eloquent model injected via constructor.
class EloquentOrderRepository implements OrderRepositoryInterface
{
protected $model;
public function __construct(Order $model)
{
$this->model = $model;
}
public function calculateValues(array $deliveryOption = null)
{
if (! is_null($deliveryOption)) {
$this->model->value_delivery = (float) number_format($deliveryOption['price'], 2);
}
$this->model->value_products = (float) number_format($this->model->products->getTotal(), 2);
$this->model->value_total = (float) $this->model->value_products + $this->model->value_delivery;
}
}
My problem is when I call $this->model->value_products (or any of the attributes). The Eloquent model try to call the setAttribute method, which doesn't exist on the mocked model. If I mock this method, I can't set the attribute correctly, and my test assertions will fail.
Here is my test:
<?php
class EloquentOrderRepositoryTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
protected $model, $repository;
public function setUp()
{
$this->model = Mockery::mock('Order');
}
public function test_calculate_values()
{
$repository = new EloquentOrderRepository($this->model);
$this->model->products = m::mock('SomeCollection');
$this->model->products->shouldReceive('getTotal')->once()->withNoArgs()->andReturn(25);
$this->model->calculateValues(array('price' => 12));
$this->assertEquals(12, $this->model->value_delivery);
$this->assertEquals(25, $this->model->value_products);
$this->assertEquals(37, $this->model->value_total);
}
}
Any thoughts on this?

Answer 1

I think your main issue is that you're not using the repository pattern correctly. You should think about the passed model in your constructor as a prototype. It's not a real thing to be worked with, but an instance of something you use for other things. In the repository, you may have a method getUnpaidOrders which will do something like return $this->model->wherePaid('0')->get();. As you can see, we're not interacting with the instance as an actual concrete instance but more of something to achieve a broader scope.
In your calculate method you're actually setting values on this prototype model. I don't know what you then intend to do with these but as far as I'm aware this is not what the repository patter is supposed to do. The methods on a repository are generally static-like methods, where you call them (maybe with some input) and get something back. They shouldn't have an effect on any kind of internal state as a repository shouldn't have any kind of internal state.
Hopefully this makes sense.