Best Automated Workflow Testing Tools in PHP

The process of debugging a PHP application takes a lot of time and requires thorough technical knowledge. Developers spend hours to debug and write testing code to know the potential loopholes inside the projects. It is a necessary task that ensures all the features of the application are functional and are working without any errors.

It is one of the mandatory operations while developing an application, yet is also very time consuming and tedious. If the testing code is not written properly, the application might suffer from hidden errors, which will eventually affect its execution on any PHP server hosting.

Fortunately, there is a mid-way solution available for the developers, which helps them to test their codes on pre-written methods. Using automated workflow testing, developers can debug PHP applications without manually writing any code and putting any extra effort into the process. It allows developers to debug applications on predefined methods and examine each and every core of the application on standard web performance metrics.

What is Automated Workflow Testing?

Manual tests are time-consuming and require specialized feature knowledge. These tests can be replaced by automated driven workflows, that help developers to test applications on industry-standard processes.

There are many automated testing tools available in the market, developed with advanced frameworks and debugging processes. Using these tools, developers can reduce the tiresome work of creating logic and editing repetitive workflows, and can enhance their development operations without worrying about the core debugging tasks.

This article presents a brief review of 10 of the most commonly used automated testing tools for PHP applications. Using these tools, developers can automate debugging workflows effortlessly and can build better applications in a quick time.

Top 10 Automated Testing Frameworks

Here are the top 10 automated PHP testing frameworks every developer should know about:

1. PHPUnit

PHPUnit is the most common automated framework used for conducting unit tests of PHP applications. It uses small units of standard debugging codes known as Units, which perform automated testing of each application function one by one. The software helps developers to conduct test-driven development, and achieve workflow automation without any manual processes.

To get started with PHPUnit, you must first install Composer and Xdebug in your application, which may require a bit of time and technical knowledge. However, using Cloudways – a Managed Cloud Hosting platform, you can directly install PHPUnit into your applications, as Xdebug comes pre-installed on the Cloudways platform. It is a great functionality provided by Cloudways that helps users to easily integrate PHPUnit into their applications without any prior tools installation.

2. Codeception

Codeception is used for automating testing workflows in PHP applications. The software not only writes unit tests but also facilitates developers to write various functional and code acceptance tests.

Using these features, the developers can test whole applications with all the integrated features, ensuring error-free execution for all the platforms. Moreover, it also provides different modules that can be used separately according to the needs of the project.

3. Behat

Behat is a bit different testing framework as compared to PHPUnit. It is a behavior-driven PHP framework that uses ‘scenarios’ rather than typical coding. It is a user-friendly tool that allows developers to write workflows in a classic storytelling manner.

The framework is a bit like the Cucumber project, which is also a testing framework for ROR (Ruby on Rails) applications.

4. PHPSpec

PHPSpec is also a behavior-driven automation framework but uses another type of BDD approach known as SpecBDD. Using PHPSpec, developers need to first define the specifications of the project regarding how the code will work and behave upon execution. The framework is based on a Ruby framework called RSpec. 

5. Peridot

Peridot is an advanced testing framework that uses an event-driven architecture to easily customize testing workflows. It enables developers to modify the testing methods based on their project requirements. With Peridot, developers can easily edit default workflows using custom plugins, that allow them to write their tests for in-depth debugging results. 

6. Kahlan

Kahlan is a unique automation testing framework built on the BDD testing approach. Using Kahlan, developers can easily write Unit tests based on the describe-it syntax. The framework has a small code base, around 10 times smaller than PHPUnit, but is tremendously effective when it comes to automating testing workflows. The framework is compatible with PHP 5.5 and all the advanced PHP versions.

7. Storyplayer

Storyplayer is an advanced testing framework that allows developers to write end-to-end automation tests for applications. It facilitates developers to create and delete testing workflows based on the emerging project demands. It helps to write a testing workflow for an entire platform, as well as a core functional test that helps developers to debug each feature one by one.

8. Atoum

Atoum is an intuitive workflow testing framework that allows developers to conduct unit tests with simplified automation processes. The framework is quite new, yet very adaptive to modern behavior-driven testing approach. The advantage of using this automation framework is that it provides optimized security during the test execution process, precisely isolating each test method in its workflow operations.

9.  Selenium

Selenium allows developers to conduct Unit testing while automating web browsers. It helps developers to write User acceptance tests to debug the entire application in one go. It offers WebDriver API that allows developers to write workflow tests for browsers and examine the application’s performance as a whole. The framework automates all the web-based administrative tasks and has the support of some of the known browser APIs. 

10. SimpleTest

SimpleTest is a very handy workflow automation tool, as it not only allows Unit testing for apps but also works fittingly well as a web testing framework. It is a part of the Drupal core and supports proxies, SSL, forms, frames, and other functions.

Final Words

Summarizing the above, these automated testing tools not only allows developers to debug applications effortlessly but also allows them to customize the workflows as per the need of their projects. Using these automation tools, developers can optimize the debugging processes and can ensure the core stability of different functional features of the project, as these testing tools are quite lightweight and easy to integrate.

If you want to suggest some more PHP scripts to this article, please feel free to list them below in the comments section.