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Pest 4 Testing

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Pest 4 Testing: Browser Testing and Modern Laravel Testing

Master Pest 4's revolutionary features including Playwright-powered browser testing, parallel execution, mutation testing, and architectural testing for Laravel applications.

Pest 4 Testing: Browser Testing and Modern Laravel Testing

Pest 4 is the biggest update yet, introducing Playwright-powered browser testing that feels as good as writing unit tests. Combined with parallel execution and Laravel integration, it's the complete testing solution.

Installing Pest 4

bash
composer require pestphp/pest --dev
./vendor/bin/pest --init

Installing Browser Testing Plugin

bash
composer require pestphp/pest-plugin-browser --dev
./vendor/bin/pest browser:install

This installs Playwright and the necessary browser binaries.

Browser Testing Basics

Your First Browser Test

php
use function Pest\Browser\visit;

test('homepage loads correctly', function () {
    visit('/')
        ->assertSee('Welcome')
        ->assertTitle('My App');
});

test('user can login', function () {
    visit('/login')
        ->type('#email', 'user@example.com')
        ->type('#password', 'password')
        ->click('button[type="submit"]')
        ->waitForNavigation()
        ->assertPath('/dashboard')
        ->assertSee('Welcome back');
});

Form Interactions

php
test('user can submit contact form', function () {
    visit('/contact')
        ->type('input[name="name"]', 'John Doe')
        ->type('input[name="email"]', 'john@example.com')
        ->type('textarea[name="message"]', 'Hello, this is a test message')
        ->select('select[name="subject"]', 'support')
        ->check('input[name="newsletter"]')
        ->click('button[type="submit"]')
        ->waitForText('Thank you')
        ->assertSee('Message sent successfully');
});
php
test('dashboard loads data', function () {
    visit('/dashboard')
        ->waitForSelector('.data-table')
        ->waitForText('Loading complete')
        ->assertVisible('.chart-container')
        ->assertElementCount('.table-row', 10);
});

test('navigation works correctly', function () {
    visit('/')
        ->click('a[href="/about"]')
        ->waitForNavigation()
        ->assertPath('/about')
        ->back()
        ->assertPath('/')
        ->forward()
        ->assertPath('/about');
});

Visual Regression Testing

Pest 4 includes built-in screenshot comparison:

php
test('homepage matches baseline', function () {
    visit('/')
        ->assertScreenshotMatches('homepage');
});

test('dashboard layout is consistent', function () {
    login(User::factory()->create());

    visit('/dashboard')
        ->waitForSelector('.loaded')
        ->assertScreenshotMatches('dashboard', [
            'fullPage' => true,
            'threshold' => 0.1, // 10% tolerance
        ]);
});

Updating Baselines

bash
# Update all baseline screenshots
./vendor/bin/pest --update-snapshots

# Update specific test
./vendor/bin/pest --filter="homepage matches baseline" --update-snapshots

Mobile and Viewport Testing

php
test('mobile menu works', function () {
    visit('/')
        ->onMobile()
        ->assertNotVisible('.desktop-nav')
        ->assertVisible('.mobile-menu-button')
        ->click('.mobile-menu-button')
        ->assertVisible('.mobile-nav');
});

test('responsive layout adapts', function () {
    visit('/products')
        ->resize(1920, 1080) // Desktop
        ->assertElementCount('.product-grid > *', 4) // 4 columns

        ->resize(768, 1024) // Tablet
        ->assertElementCount('.product-grid > *', 2) // 2 columns

        ->resize(375, 667) // Mobile
        ->assertElementCount('.product-grid > *', 1); // 1 column
});

Authentication in Browser Tests

php
test('authenticated user sees dashboard', function () {
    $user = User::factory()->create();

    login($user);

    visit('/dashboard')
        ->assertSee("Welcome, {$user->name}")
        ->assertPath('/dashboard');
});

test('guest is redirected to login', function () {
    visit('/dashboard')
        ->assertPath('/login');
});

JavaScript and Console Testing

php
test('page has no JavaScript errors', function () {
    visit('/')
        ->assertNoConsoleErrors();
});

test('analytics script loads', function () {
    visit('/')
        ->assertConsoleLogContains('Analytics initialized');
});

test('JavaScript interaction works', function () {
    visit('/interactive-page')
        ->click('#toggle-button')
        ->waitForText('Panel is open')
        ->assertVisible('.panel-content')
        ->evaluate('window.appState.isOpen')
        ->toBe(true);
});

iFrame Testing

php
test('embedded content loads', function () {
    visit('/embed-page')
        ->withinFrame('#payment-iframe', function () {
            $this->type('#card-number', '4242424242424242')
                 ->type('#expiry', '12/25')
                 ->type('#cvc', '123')
                 ->click('#pay-button');
        })
        ->assertSee('Payment successful');
});

Parallel Browser Testing

Pest 4 supports parallel execution for browser tests:

bash
# Run browser tests in parallel
./vendor/bin/pest --parallel

# With specific number of processes
./vendor/bin/pest --parallel --processes=4

Test Sharding for CI

Split tests across multiple CI jobs:

yaml
# GitHub Actions example
jobs:
  browser-tests:
    strategy:
      matrix:
        shard: [1, 2, 3, 4]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Run tests
        run: ./vendor/bin/pest --shard=${{ matrix.shard }}/4

Unit and Feature Tests

Basic Test Structure

php
test('can create post', function () {
    $user = User::factory()->create();

    $response = $this->actingAs($user)
        ->post('/posts', [
            'title' => 'My Post',
            'content' => 'Content here',
        ]);

    $response->assertRedirect('/posts');
    $this->assertDatabaseHas('posts', ['title' => 'My Post']);
});

Expectations and Assertions

php
test('user model works correctly', function () {
    $user = User::factory()->create([
        'name' => 'John Doe',
        'email' => 'john@example.com',
    ]);

    expect($user)
        ->name->toBe('John Doe')
        ->email->toBe('john@example.com')
        ->email_verified_at->toBeNull()
        ->created_at->toBeInstanceOf(Carbon::class);
});

test('collection operations', function () {
    $items = collect([1, 2, 3, 4, 5]);

    expect($items)
        ->toHaveCount(5)
        ->first()->toBe(1)
        ->last()->toBe(5)
        ->sum()->toBe(15);
});

Higher Order Tests

php
test('user')
    ->expect(User::class)
    ->toHaveMethod('posts')
    ->toHaveMethod('teams');

it('has correct fillable fields')
    ->expect(fn () => (new Post)->getFillable())
    ->toBe(['title', 'content', 'user_id']);

Architectural Testing

php
arch('controllers use dependency injection')
    ->expect('App\Http\Controllers')
    ->toUseStrictTypes()
    ->not->toUse(['request', 'session']);

arch('models extend base model')
    ->expect('App\Models')
    ->toExtend('Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model');

arch('no debugging statements')
    ->expect(['dd', 'dump', 'ray', 'var_dump'])
    ->not->toBeUsed();

arch('services are final')
    ->expect('App\Services')
    ->toBeFinal();

Preset Rules

php
arch()->preset()->php();
arch()->preset()->laravel();
arch()->preset()->security();
arch()->preset()->strict();

Mutation Testing

Find untested code paths:

bash
./vendor/bin/pest --mutate
php
test('price calculation is correct', function () {
    $order = new Order(['quantity' => 3, 'unit_price' => 10]);

    expect($order->total())->toBe(30.0);
});

// Pest will mutate operators: 3 * 10 → 3 + 10, 3 - 10, etc.
// And verify your tests catch the mutations

Coverage Thresholds

php
// pest.php
pest()
    ->mutate()
    ->min(90); // Require 90% mutation score

Test Organization

Grouping with Describe

php
describe('PostController', function () {
    describe('index', function () {
        test('lists published posts', function () {
            $posts = Post::factory()->published()->count(3)->create();

            $this->get('/posts')
                ->assertOk()
                ->assertViewHas('posts');
        });

        test('paginates results', function () {
            Post::factory()->published()->count(30)->create();

            $this->get('/posts')
                ->assertOk()
                ->assertViewHas('posts', fn ($posts) => $posts->count() === 15);
        });
    });

    describe('store', function () {
        test('creates post', function () { });
        test('validates input', function () { });
    });
});

Shared Setup

php
beforeEach(function () {
    $this->user = User::factory()->create();
    $this->actingAs($this->user);
});

afterEach(function () {
    // Cleanup
});

test('first test', function () {
    // $this->user is available
});

Datasets

php
dataset('invalid emails', [
    'missing @' => ['invalidemail.com'],
    'missing domain' => ['test@'],
    'spaces' => ['test @example.com'],
]);

test('rejects invalid email', function (string $email) {
    $response = $this->post('/register', [
        'email' => $email,
        'password' => 'password123',
    ]);

    $response->assertSessionHasErrors('email');
})->with('invalid emails');

Mocking and Faking

php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Queue;

test('sends notification to external service', function () {
    Http::fake([
        'api.notification.com/*' => Http::response(['status' => 'sent']),
    ]);

    Queue::fake();

    $user = User::factory()->create();
    $user->notify(new WelcomeNotification());

    Queue::assertPushed(SendNotification::class);
    Http::assertSent(fn ($request) =>
        $request->url() === 'https://api.notification.com/send'
    );
});

Configuration

php
// pest.php
pest()
    ->extend(Tests\TestCase::class)
    ->in('Feature', 'Unit')
    ->mutate()
    ->parallel();

// Browser test configuration
pest()
    ->browser()
    ->timeout(10000) // 10 seconds
    ->headless()
    ->screenshot('failures');

CI Integration

yaml
# .github/workflows/tests.yml
name: Tests

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup PHP
        uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
        with:
          php-version: '8.3'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: composer install

      - name: Install browsers
        run: ./vendor/bin/pest browser:install

      - name: Run tests
        run: ./vendor/bin/pest --parallel --coverage

Conclusion

Pest 4 brings browser testing into the same elegant testing experience we love. With Playwright under the hood, parallel execution, and seamless Laravel integration, it's the complete testing solution for modern PHP applications.

Resources

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