As mentioned earlier, PHPUnit 3.4 adds support for Test Dependencies as introduced by Kuhn et. al. in JExample: Exploiting Dependencies Between Tests to Improve Defect Localization.

Today I implemented fixture reuse based on test dependency information:

<?php
class StackTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
    public function testPush()
    {
        $stack = array();
        $this->assertEquals(0, count($stack));
 
        array_push($stack, 'foo');
        $this->assertEquals('foo', $stack[count($stack)-1]);
        $this->assertEquals(1, count($stack));
 
        return $stack;
    }
 
    /**
     * @depends testPush
     */
    public function testPop(array $stack)
    {
        $this->assertEquals('foo', array_pop($stack));
        $this->assertEquals(0, count($stack));
    }
}
?>

Just like JExample, PHPUnit 3.4 introduces producer-consumer relationships to unit-testing.

• A producer is a test method that yields its unit under test as return value.
• A consumer is a test method that depends on one or more producers and their return values.

PHPUnit 3.4 skips any test method whose producer has failed and the return value of a producer is injected into its consumers.