The SitePoint PHP blog has posted the third part of their series guiding you through the creation of your first PHP package with a look at mocking API responses in unit tests created via the TDD (test-driven development) process.

In parts one and two, we built some very basic functionality and used TDD with PHPUnit to make sure our classes are well tested. We also learned how to test an abstract class in order to make sure its concrete methods worked. Now, let’s continue building our library.

He starts with a bit of catching up to ensure everyone is on the same page in the development process. From there he starts in on the mocking of the API, preventing the need for the (slow) external requests. He shows some updates that are needed to the main DiffBot class, the factories/entities for making objects for requests and examples of putting these to use in a few tests. Finally he shows the creation of the mocks themselves and the result from a sample test.