Since I’ve been building my knowledge base as a unit tester here, and showing that I am capable at it, I’ve been stuck with even more testing responsibilities.
The new tests are far more complex, and will require that I feed our system certain sets of data, in order to create the post conditions.
This most likely means generating fixtures and using YAML format files.
Although CIUnit has a “php generate fixtures” command which I can execute, this only dumps the format of the database, and “manual labor” is required to setup the data.
As I metioned before, I dont like having to sit, and click all day just to get something basic going. So I am looking for an automated solution, since I would like to use my entire dataset, and be able to quickly experiment and switch between them. Data entry is not an option.
Export the data into yaml files though, has proven to be a headache. Most posts on the interwebs seem to point to using Doctrine CLI or ORM-Designer as the correct tool of choice for solving this problem.
First I tried to use command line based solution in XAMP 3.1.0 by installing doctrine using pear.
But I had a rough weekend, and my brain is not able to process how to actually use the Doctrine CLI to export the data to YAML files.
So at the current moment I am trying out ORM-Designer. The application just explodes in my face with all kinds of options I don’t care about at all. I am not trying to design a project, or do anything but export the existing data into YAML!
I realized that when something is not on the interwebs, that means its because its right under my nose, and that I am being foolish for not finding it. (very rough weekend).
Loading phpMyAdmin, and going to export the table I found the grail I was looking for! phpMyAdmin is capable of exporting into YAML! Great, now lets see if I can get my tests working with these fixtures.