The 4 Steps That Nearly Tripled My PHPUnit Test Efficiency

Hi, recently on my commercial project, I tried to optimize the runtime of my PHPUnit tests. These tests mainly consist of API feature tests and some unit tests. I made the decision to optimize them because I don’t like waiting for a long time when the tests pass successfully, and then deploying the code to production.

Before optimalization:

I used to run all of my tests on Github Actions. It’s one of the best ways to run tests in the cloud.

Step #1 App Debug

Check your phpunit.xml file. When running tests on the cloud, you need to include the debug option. I recommend disabling this option:

<php>
    <server name="APP_DEBUG" value="false"/>
    <env name="DB_CONNECTION" value="sqlite"/>
    <env name="DB_DATABASE" value=":memory:"/>
    <env name="MAIL_MAILER" value="array"/>
    <env name="QUEUE_CONNECTION" value="sync"/>
</php>

Step #2 Config Cache

When running tests, try to optimize your configuration. This action is recommended on the production environment.

- name: Config cache
  run: php artisan config:cache

Step #3 Route Cache

Similar like config cache:

- name: Route cache
  run: php artisan route:cache

Step #4 Xdebug off

When running tests in Github Actions, the Xdebug package is enabled by default. In my case, I don’t need this feature and can disable it by using XDEBUG_MODE=off, like this:

- name: Run tests
  run: XDEBUG_MODE=off ./vendor/bin/phpunit --stop-on-failure

Additionally, if one test fails, I don’t need to run the rest of the tests.

Result:

Awesome My tests was optimized with using 4 simple steps.

Try my tips in your project :)

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