Simple Test
===========
You probably got this package from...
http://sourceforge.net/projects/simpletest/

If there is no licence agreement with this package please download
a version from the location above. You must read and accept that
licence to use this software. The file is titled simply LICENSE.

What is it? It's a framework for unit testing, web site testing and
mock objects for PHP 4.3+.

If you have used JUnit you will find this PHP unit testing version very
similar. Also included is a mock objects and server stubs generator.
The stubs can have return values set for different arguments, can have
sequences set also by arguments and can return items by reference.
The mocks inherit all of this functionality and can also have
expectations set, again in sequences and for different arguments.

A web tester similar in concept to JWebUnit is also included. There is no
JavaScript or tables support, but forms, authentication and cookies are
handled. Frames will be supported soon.

You are not tied to just using SimpleTest, though. The mocks and stubs
will work with other test frameworks and SimpleTest can use other
framework's (PHPUnit, PEAR::PhpUnit) test cases as it's own. The
web browser part of the web tester can also be used independently either
in other testers or as part of a scripting solution.

You can see a release schedule at
http://www.lastcraft.com/overview.php which is also copied to the
documentation folder with this release. The user interface is minimal
in the extreme, but a lot of information flows from the test suite.
After version 1.0 we will release a better web UI, but we are leaving XUL
and GTk versions to volunteers as everybody has their own opinion
on a good GUI, and we don't want to discourage development by shipping
one with the toolkit.

If you are extending the toolkit or wish to bundle parts of the toolkit
with your own software, you can see a full PHPDoc API on sourceforge
as http://simpletest.sourceforge.net/.

You are looking at a Beta release.

The unit tester and mock object generator are tested and have already
been used to test several systems. The web tester portion still lacks
frames support, but is mostly stable. Documentaion is currently lacking,
but should be improved for a version 1.0 release.

The unit tests for SimpleTest itself can be run here...

simpletest/test/unit_tests.php

And tests involving live network connections as well are here...

simpletest/test/all_tests.php

The full tests read some test data from the LastCraft site. If the site
is down or has been modified for a later version then you will get
spurious errors. A unit_tests.php failure on the other hand would be
very serious. As far as we know we haven't yet managed to check in any
test failures so please correct us if you find one.

Even if all of the tests run please verify that your existing test suites
also function as expected. If they don't see the file...

simpletest/HELP_MY_TESTS_DONT_WORK_ANYMORE

This contains information on interface changes. It also points out
deprecated interfaces so you should read this even if all of
your current tests appear to run.

You can find a tutorial on http://www.lastcraft.com/first_test_tutorial.php to
get you started and hopefully this material will eventually become included
with the project documentation. There is a documentation folder, but it is
just a subset of the material on Sourceforge.

If you download and use and possibly even extend this tool, please let us
know. Any feedback, even bad, is always welcome and we will work to get
your suggestions into the version one release. Ideally please send your
comments to...

simpletest-support@lists.sourceforge.net

...so that others can read them too. We usually try to respond within 48
hours.

There is no change log as yet except at sourceforge. You can visit the
release notes to see the completed TODO list after each cycle and also the
status of any bugs, but if the bug is recent then it will be fixed in CVS only.
The CVS check-ins always have all the tests passing and so CVS snapshots should
be pretty usable, although the code may not look so good internally.

Oh, yes. It is called "Simple" because it should be simple to
use. We intend to add a complete set of tools for a test first
and "test as you code" type of development. "Simple" does not
mean "Lite" in this context.

Thanks to everyone who has sent comments and offered suggestions, they
really are invaluable.

Thanks to the advanced PHP forum on SitePoint. It is the place to be right
now.

Authors are Marcus Baker, Jason Sweat and Harry Feucks.

yours, Marcus Baker
-- 
marcus@lastcraft.com