Manuel Pichler points out a small error in the documentation for the "merge-phpunit" command in the phpUnderControl package.

The @failonerror-attribute of the -tag in the merge target was set to false, which results in not failed CruiseControl builds. To fix this behaviour, you must modify the merge target in your build.xml.

He includes an example of the fix, showing where to change the failonerror attribute of the exec tag inside of the target. This is also corrected in the most current build, so update your software to prevent issue.

Manuel Pichler points out that the latest version of phpUnderControl (an add-on for CruiseControl, a continuous integration tool) has been released - 0.4.3.

I currently released a new version of phpUnderControl. Beside some minor fixes this release comes with a new feature to aggregate test results of multiple PHPUnit runs. Use the new cli command merge-phpunit of phpUnderControl to merge multiple log files produced with PHPUnit, as shown in [this] example build file for ant.

He defines the XML file to set up the merge for the different PHP binary versions and the merge script to use. A screenshot of the result as presented inside the tool is included.

Silvan Muhlemann has posted about the unit testing that tillate.com does for their releases - the whole process from start to finish.

For now over three years we are working with unit tests. I'd like to share some of those experiences. As we have two frameworks in place for our website, I can compare two different strategies for unit tests.

He talks about their choice of SimpleTest, their test monitoring, CruiseControl and their "if it doesn't pass, you can't release it" mentality to keep their site as bug free as possible.

Sebastian Bergmann has pointed out the release of phpUnderControl by Manuel Picher - a tool to help with the integration of CruiseControl into your PHP project.

It integrates three of the best PHP development tools into CruiseControl, combined with an easy setup routine and a small example project.

Sebastian also points out that it can be used with the generated output of PHPUnit, the PHP_CodeSniffer package and the phpDocumentor utility.

You can find out more about phpUnderControl on its wiki page on the PHPUnit website.

On his blog, Sebastian Nohn points out a tool that he's created to harness the functionality of CruiseControl to help you keep your PHP updates a bit more sane.

Assuring compatibility with new PHP versions is not always easy: Features are added and changed in minor versions, bugs you didn't even know they exist and having been open for years "suddenly" get fixed.

Assuring compatibility however is easy with a little help of CruiseControl as long as you have automated tests for your software: PHP on Cruise.

His tool grabs the latest stable PHP release, compiles it with defined configure options and runs a set of user-defined tests. This makes it simple to run an automated compile and test of your entire installation to ensure that noting has been broken.

In this blog entry on Sebastian Nohn's site, he explains how to use CruiseControl, Ant, and PHPUnit to provide continuous builds for your application.

An important part of any software development process is getting reliable builds of the software. Despite it's importance, we are often surprised when this isn't done. We stress a fully automated and reproducible build, including testing, that runs many times a day. This allows each developer to integrate daily thus reducing integration problems.

This blog posting will show you how to enable continuous builds with CruiseControl, Ant and PHPUnit. But be warned: Continuous builds are addicting.

They step you through the process - the installation of the needed packages, working with Ant, getting it to talk to Cruise, and the integration of PHPUnit. Finally, they work in a method to notify others (in this case, the management) when successful builds have been compiled.