Test Protected and Private functions in php

Testing private and protected functions in php is normally done through testing the public function it calls. But sometimes you need to test the private or protected functions separately. How can we do this? Lets consider the following simple example.

	<?php
	class MyClass {
	protected function myProtectedMethod($param){
	return "Protected Method with param" . " " . $param;
	}
	}
	?>

view raw testpvtfuncs1.php hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	<?php
	require_once 'myClass.php';
	class MyTestClass extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase {
	public function testMyProtectedMethod(){
	$myClass = new MyClass();
	$value = $myClass->myProtectedMethod('param1');
	$this->assertEquals("Protected Method with param param1", $value);
	}
	}
	?>

view raw testpvtfuncs2.php hosted with ❤ by GitHub

When you try to run the test class you will get the following error. PHP Fatal error:  Call to private/protected method MyClass::myProtectedMethod() from context 'MyTestClass' After version 5.3.2 PHP's "Reflection Class" makes it possible to temporarily work around access modifiers. This is done using the setAccessible function. Then you need to change your test class as follows.

	<?php
	require_once 'myClass.php';
	class MyTestClass extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase {
	private function _callProtectedFunction($name, $params) {
	$class = new ReflectionClass('MyClass');
	$method = $class->getMethod($name);
	$method->setAccessible(true);
	return $method->invokeArgs(new MyClass(), $params);
	}
	public function testMyProtectedMethod() {
	$value = $this->_callProtectedFunction('myProtectedMethod', array('param1'));
	$this->assertEquals("Protected Method with param param1", $value);
	}
	}
	?>

view raw testpvtfuncs3.php hosted with ❤ by GitHub

You will be able to run the test case for your private/protected function now.